October 13

The Jigsaw Man – Nadine Matheson

There’s a serial killer on the loose.

When bodies start washing up along the banks of the River Thames, DI Henley fears it is the work of Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer. But it can’t be him; Olivier is already behind bars, and Henley was the one who put him there.

The race is on before more bodies are found.

She’d hoped she’d never have to see his face again, but Henley knows Olivier might be the best chance they have at stopping the copycat killer. But when Olivier learns of the new murders, helping Henley is the last thing on his mind . . .

Will it take a killer to catch the killer?

Now all bets are off, and the race is on to catch the killer before the body count rises. But who will get there first – Henley, or the Jigsaw Killer?

 

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

 

The problem with reading multiple books at the same time is that I tend to finish a few titles in a short space of time. My review writing does not keep pace with my reading so (long story short) some reviews don’t get written when they should. Couple this with my goldfish memory and it is only when I revisit my Netgally library that I realise I have finished some books and not provided the feedback.

Putting a positive spin on all that means I have a great book to review today even though I have not actually finished reading any new books this week. Hurrah. And strap in – this one’s a bit graphic in places!

The Jigsaw Man, Peter Olivier, is in prison for multiple murders. He acquired his name as he dismembered his victims leaving limbs well apart from their body. A charismatic character who believes himself to have a superior intellect, he was caught by DI Anjelica Henley who was badly injured in by Olivier when he was arrested. Henley has been absent from work for a prolonged spell but her recouperation is complete and she feels ready to resume her duties in full – her mental recouperation may not quite be where it needs to be though.

Unfortunately for Henley she is returning to work just as a new killer is making his presence known, an Olivier copycat, which means more bodies are going to be found and readers be warned…Nadine Matheson is giving you details of his crimes so be sure you are ready for some detailed descriptions.

Henley isn’t working alone though and we get to enjoy a new investigating team. This includes her very new trainee: Ramouter who is to work alongside Henley. Ramouter is cutting his teeth on a dangerous and disturbing investigation and I loved this pairing who are finding their feet with each other as we watch. It’s a fun dynamic and Nadine Matheson makes it work really well.

Serial Killer stories are a particular favourite of mine and I prefer my crime thrillers to lean towards gritty so The Jigsaw Man was ticking all my boxes. It’s a brilliantly spun story and one I thoroughly enjoyed, flying through it in just a couple of days. More like this would be very welcome but if you haven’t picked up your copy yet – go get one today.

 

The Jigsaw Man is published by HQ and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B088PBPZZR/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 11

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Rachel Amphlett

Rachel Amphlett has a new book out today (11th October) and I am opening the blog tour for The Lost Boy – my review is here.  In addition to reviewing The Lost Boy, Rachel is also on my blog today making her Decades selections. You are probably thinking that this was great planning but, if you knew me, you’d know that was highly improbable.

As as much as I would like to claim it was all planned out, I had asked Rachel if she could become my Decades Curator a few weeks before I was given the opportunity to host a leg of the blog tour for The Lost Boy. I have been a fan of Rachel’s writing for a few years now and was keen to see which titles she would select when faced with my Decades challenge.

If you haven’t encountered Decades before today let me quickly explain what’s about to happen: I am trying to assemble a brand new library of unmissable books. Each week I invite a guest to join me and I ask them to nominate five books which should be added to my Library. However, publication dates are important as my guests can only choose one book per decade and they must select from five consecutive decades – so a fifty year publication span of their choosing.

If you want to see which books have previously been selected here is a handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

 

Let me now hand over to Rachel Amphlett to guide you through five exciting new Decades recommendations.

Before turning to writing, USA Today bestselling crime author Rachel Amphlett played guitar in bands, worked as a TV and film extra, dabbled in radio as a presenter and freelance producer for the BBC, and worked in publishing as an editorial assistant.

She now wields a pen instead of a plectrum and writes crime fiction and spy novels, because that’s what she grew up reading. When she was 11 years old, her grandad gave her his copy of The Eagle Has Landed, and she’s been an avid fan of the genre ever since.

Her debut thriller, White Gold was released in July 2011 and features British secret agent Dan Taylor. The series established Rachel as an author to watch and spurned three more novels before Rachel turned her attention to a new character, Detective Kay Hunter.

The Kay Hunter crime thrillers are based in Kent and feature a tight-knit team of detectives. Praised by experts for their attention to detail, the books are also much loved by readers for their page-turning plots and devious twists with comparisons to TV shows NCIS and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

More recently, Rachel created a new crime thriller series based around the central character Mark Turpin, an Oxfordshire-based detective. The first book, None the Wiser, received critical acclaim from Adrian McKinty (The Chain) and Jo Spain (With Our Blessing, The Confession), with the follow-up book, Her Final Hour being praised by the creator of the DCI Banks series, Peter Robinson.

In addition to her detective stories, Rachel also writes the English Assassins series featuring female assassin Eva Delacourt, and a number of standalone crime thrillers, psychological thrillers and conspiracy thrillers.

A keen traveller, Rachel has both Australian and British citizenship.

 

You can find out more about Rachel and her books at www.rachelamphlett.com

Contact details: Email: info@rachelamphlett.com

Website: www.rachelamphlett.com

Twitter: @RachelAmphlett

Instagram: @RachelAmphlett

DECADES

The Eagle Has Landed, Jack Higgins (1976)

 

This is how I discovered “proper” thrillers when I was 11 years old. My grandad had a secondhand copy of it from 1976 and one rainy weekend when I was bored, he took The Eagle Has Landed off the shelf and said “Go and read this – I think you’ll enjoy it”. I’ve re-read it every decade since.

 

 

 

The Talisman, Stephen King and Peter Straub (1984)

 

This is one of my favourite Stephen King books. I think I’m on my fourth or fifth copy now because when I first discovered it, I kept loaning it out to friends saying “read this!” and then never seeing it again. I love Stephen King, and he’s one of the few writers I’ll willingly read even though some of his work is from the horror genre – I just can’t resist speculative fiction.

 

 

 

The Pelican Brief, John Grisham (1992)

 

When this was published, I was playing lead guitar in bands around Oxfordshire so I think I picked it up one Saturday afternoon in Blackwell’s or somewhere like that. I’d already read A Time to Kill and The Firm, but it was The Pelican Brief that resonated with me the most because the characters were so well developed. There’s so much depth to the writing as well so you’re completely immersed within the first couple of pages. It’s a masterclass in getting a hold of a reader and not letting them come up for air. Again, The Pelican Brief is a book I’ll re-read every few years or so.

 

 

 

The Lincoln Lawyer, Michael Connelly (2005)

 

I first discovered Michael Connelly’s writing in my early thirties while living in Australia and quickly devoured everything from the backlist in the space of about three months. It got to the point where I’d read everything in the bookshop I used to go in on my way home from work so they were ordering in copies for me. I wanted to include Angel’s Flight here too but I already have a 90s book, so I’m picking The Lincoln Lawyer because I love how Connelly approached introducing a new character to readers while remaining in Harry Bosch’s world. As with all his books, the scene-setting is so good, I feel like I know LA even though I haven’t been there yet.

 

 

 

I Am Pilgrim, Terry Hayes (2014)

 

I was instantly drawn to this book when it was published based on Hayes’ screenwriting credits, all of them part of my teenage years including Mad Max 2 and 3, Dead Calm, and Hotel Bangkok. It just doesn’t let up from the first page, and is an absolute masterclass in thriller writing. I’ve lost count how many people I’ve recommended this to over the years!

The Talisman is one of the few Stephen King books I have yet to read so I really *must* get around to recitfying that soon. This feature really does make my TBR pile grow each week. But as a booklover I don’t see that as a problem! My thanks to Rachel for five brand new books to add to my Library.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

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October 11

The Lost Boy – Rachel Amphlett

Run. Don’t look back.

When a young teenager is stabbed to death at a busy fairground, Detective Mark Turpin is assigned the task of finding the boy’s killer.

But this was no random murder.

Mark knows the victim, and the man who ordered his death.

As he sifts through the young victim’s final days, he uncovers a powerful crime syndicate that will do anything to protect its interests.

Then tragedy strikes, and suddenly Mark isn’t just trying to solve a murder – he’s fighting for his own survival.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this leg of the tour for The Lost Boy.  I received a pre-publication review copy of The Lost Boy.

 

The Lost Boy is all about a police investigation, it is the work, detail, the interviews and chasing down leads. Turpin and his colleagues are driven to find the killer of a young teenager who arrived in town and never had the chance to leave.

The book opens with an instruction…”Run.”  Matthew Arkdale is scared, he is alone and he is desperately trying to keep hidden from someone that is chasing him. Matthew is at a fairground, trying to hide in the crowds and escape his pursuer but the man hunting him is relentless and isn’t giving up.

Sadly for young Matthew he is about to run out of options. A brief confrontation, a knife and the teenager becomes a victim of a deadly crime.

It isn’t long before Matthews body is discovered and for DS Mark Turpin, who had been attending the fair with his kids, it is the end of a fun evening and the start of an intense investigation which will see Mark and his loved ones put into terrible danger. You see, Mark recognises Matthew as their paths crossed in the past and he knows who wanted Matthew dead. Somewhere in the background is a ruthless criminal who puts his own interests ahead of everthing else and doesn’t think twice about ending a life to ensure his own ventures can continue.

From the moment Matthew Arkdale dies the story switches to Turpin and the police. It is their book now, the investigation is everything and the officers tasked with finding a murderer are our only focus. The murder of a child is a hugely challenging time for the police and Turpin and his colleagues are shown to struggle with their emotions while they conduct their investigations. It’s handled extremely effectively by Rachel Amphlett and raised my involvement in the story. Can we read too many crime novels (absolutely not) but we can be guilty of forgetting the consequence of each character’s death as we, as readers, become fixated on the lead characters and the solving of the crime. Keeping the emotion about the tragedy of a young life lost as a big issue for the investigative team was paramount to my enjoyment.

In terms of the investigation its-self, I was hooked. We learn every new discovery as the police do. We see interviews, we get new evidence and we even chase up the labs to get blood and chemical reviews back as quickly as possible. Readers get to feel they are part of the team. Total immersion in the invesigation and I loved that.

For Turpin, knowing the victim and the man who ordered Matthews death means he too is at risk. This is the third Mark Turpin book and in previous outings he gained minor celebrity status when journalists featured his involvement in a successful police operation. Now Turpin’s personal details are easily obtainable and when the wrong people know he is a father and can also work out where he lives it isn’t just Mark Turpin who is in danger, his children and his partner are too. The stakes are high and the price of failure even higher.

I flew through The Lost Boy in just a couple of sittings. Rachel Amphlett’s words flowed over me as I became engrossed in this murder story and I experienced that bite of disappointment when I reached the end of the story, knowing I could easily have read more.

 

The Lost Boy is available now in paperback and digital format and you can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B096SJBTPZ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

 

 

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October 9

One – Peter Schmeichel

‘Why me? How could a boy from a Copenhagen tower block say I want to be a champion with Manchester United and Denmark and make it happen?’

Peter Schmeichel is a giant of football, who won more Premier League titles (five) than any player in his position and captained Manchester United in the incomparable, last-gasp Treble-clinching win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. ‘I don’t believe a better goalkeeper played the game,’ Sir Alex Ferguson said. One: My Autobiography is Schmeichel’s story.

In it, he takes us inside the remarkable, winning environment of a club that transformed football during the 1990s, and on to the pitch on that crazy, breathless night in Barcelona in 1999. From Ferguson’s unique gifts to Eric Cantona’s unique personality, he delivers a close-up and insightful portrait of United’s golden era.

However, One: My Autobiography goes way beyond the pitch.

Schmeichel has an incredible family story to tell, starting with his father, Antoni, a brilliant Polish jazz musician who battled demons and for years kept a momentous secret from those around him. And he explores what he has been able to pass on to his own son, Kasper – himself a Premier League-winning goalkeeper and number one in the Danish national side.

Peter’s life after football, seldom straightforward, is described with astonishing candour. One: My Autobiography is about football, origins, journeys and legacy.

 

My thanks to Sofia Saghir at Midas PR for the opportunity to join this leg of the #CheltLitFest blog tour and for selecting a terrific book to showcase.

 

I loves that the opening line of the blurb to One sees Peter Schmeichel asking the question “Why me?”  Well natural talent and a fantastic work ethic would appear to be big contributors to the success he enjoyed during an outstanding playing career. Peter is appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival (on Sunday 10th October) and after reading One I would love to be in the audience to hear him speak. This book is crammed with entertaining, funny and inciteful anecdotes which you can only imagine are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to storys which could have been told.

I don’t read biographies on a regular basis but when I do pick up a new book to dig into someone’s life I tend to cateogorise them into one of two reading experiences. First there is the biography about someone I feel I know something about. This is where Peter Schmeichal and One would sit. I watched much of Peter’s playing career as I have been a football fan for virtually all my (nearly 50) years and I saw the growth of a young Manchester United team who rose to win the biggest competitions they entered. Schmeichel was at the heart of that success and a UK household name. I recognised many of the events he writes about so putting those stories into the context I remember was a wonderful trip back down memory lane.

The other type of biography is that where I know the person but they are something of an enigma. I recently read Dr Heather Martin’s utterly absorbing biography of Lee Child and would classify that into this category. I knew Child through his writing but knew nothing about the guy behind the name.  So where One told stories around events I knew, The Reacher Guy told a whole new story about someone I really didn’t know.

Back to One. Before the football became all consuming in Peter’s life he also gives the reader a background on his own family. Danish legend Schmeichel first travelled under a Polish passport, his father was Polish and left the East to a new life in Denmark with Peter’s Danish mother. The Polish Government put pressure on Peter’s father to spy for them while he was in a Western country!

When his playing career was just getting underway Schmeichel tells of the frustration he experienced while trying to get a move to Manchester United. His admiration and respect for his old boss shines through as does the strong squad ethic which was built up over those years. Seeing behind the scenes of those wonderful days is a treat for a football fan. Reading One I did feel Schmeichel was giving us insights into how footballers conducted themselves, their friendships beyond the pitch and the amazing support network they put in place for each other. We feel we know these players as they are in our newspapers and magazines, on the news and Match of the Day and always on our football pitches when we pass through the gates of the stadium but there is so much more we don’t get to see.

One is a hugely enjoyable read, accessible in manageable chapters, clearly told and warm and engaging for a reader. As Christmas looms this should be on the gift list for football fans and indeed for anyone who wants to read about a player who strives for success and the self disipline needed to achieve those personal goals.

Peter Schmeichel is appearing at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Sunday 10 October at 10am. Tickets and more information on the event can be found here: https://www.cheltenhamfestivals.com/literature/whats-on/2021/l061-peter-schmeichel/

 

 

 

One is published by Hodder & Stoughton and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0915T6GCN/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

 

 

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October 8

The Women of Blackmouth Street – Thea Sutton

A gifted psychologist is forced to hunt a serial killer or risk having a dark chapter of her past exposed—but her mission may mark her as the next victim…

1890’s London. Strong-willed Georgia Buchanan, a mind doctor and heiress, spends her time with the mad, the bad, and devils incarnate, armed only with her expert understanding of the human psyche.

But when her young, high-profile patient unexpectedly commits suicide, Georgia leaves Boston under a cloud of guilt. Lured to London’s notorious Bedlam asylum, she’s trapped by a vengeful detective and a dangerous anarchist—who know too much about her—into tracking a serial killer of women in the city’s East End.

As Georgia struggles to prevent more women from meeting a violent end, her own secrets and closest ties are stripped bare… With her Harvard mentor, William James, and his sister. With her wealthy, scandalous father. With a troubled patient. All the while the city’s streets reel with carnage and social unrest. Alone and questioning her abilities as the killer closes in, Georgia has one last chance to save the innocent before she confronts the most devastating truth yet.

A shocking, fast-paced period thriller, The Women of Blackmouth Street conjures a lush and gritty world of psychological profiling, political upheaval, and women on the edge of madness.

 

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join this leg of the tour for The Women of Blackmouth Street.  I recieved a review copy from the publishers so I may participate in this tour.

 

A Victorian novel of madness, murder and (for the sake of alliteration) mystery. I don’t read as many historical novels as I would like and when I do pick one up I am reminded of how much fun they can be, particularly when they are done well. I believe the most important element of any historical novel is capturing the feel of the time and nailing the location. This is true of gothic horrors, regency drama or, as in the case of The Women of Blackmouth Street, Victorian thrillers. Pleasingly Thea Sutton made 19th Century London grow around me as I read and it allowed me to fully embrace events in the story.

Georgia Buchanan almost seems to be years ahead of those around her when it comes to the study of the mind. She is a specialist in understanding and looking after disturbed individuals, however, after an incident in Boston she has left America and taken up residence in London. However, London is a dangerous city as a killer is lurking in the shadows. He targets women in the streets, murders them and then leaves their mutilated bodies in his wake. The mutilations are not random and with surgical precicion some of their organs are removed.

It’s not a Ripper story but has similar dark tones and deadly consequences for too many women. Georgia Buchanan is enlisted to try to help identify and stop a killer. Only a madman could possibly be responsible for such terrible crimes and Georgia faces a race against time to stop the murderer.

It’s a tighly paced story and Georgia has a chance to shine but also to frustrate. At times her approach didn’t quite go how I had expected and her unpredictability was a nice hook to keep me reading. I do find reading historical novels to be more of a challenge as the language symantics take more concentration which, for a speed reader, means slowing right down to ensure nothing gets missed.

Always nice to try something different and this satisfied and entertained.

 

 

The Women of Blackmouth Street is published by Encircle Publications and is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0974TVTYL/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 6

Better Off Dead – Lee Child and Andrew Child

Reacher never backs down from a problem.

And he’s about to find a big one, on a deserted Arizona road, where a Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. Under the merciless desert sun, nothing is as it seems.

Minutes later Reacher is heading into the nearby border town, a backwater that has seen better days. Next to him is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent, who is trying to find her twin brother. He might have got mixed up with some dangerous people.

And Reacher might just need to pay them a visit.

Their leader has burrowed his influence deep into the town. Just to get in and meet the mysterious Dendoncker, Reacher is going to have to achieve the impossible.

To get answers will be even harder. There are people in this hostile, empty place who would rather die than reveal their secrets.

But then, if Reacher is coming after you, you might be better off dead.

 

My thanks to the publishers for the review copy I recieved through Netgalley.

 

The name’s Reacher. Jack Reacher.

I can’t quite picture Reacher introducing himself with the smooth confidence and utter self assurance of James Bond. Yet I read Better Off Dead in the week the new Bond film (No Time to Die) was just hitting cinemas and I was struck by some similarities between the Bond and Reacher franchises. 26 Reacher Books, 25 “official” Bond movies. One lead character who can accomplish pretty much anything he sets out to do, against all odds, surrounded by the corpses of his enemies and more often than not both guys get the girl too.

What the Bond fans have had many decades to come to terms with is that their leading man changes now and then (but he is still James Bond). Also changing is the feel of the franchise when the lead actor changes. Craig is action packed, Moore felt lighter in tone, Brosnan was dark and Connery retains the classic feel of the novels.

Reacher fans are now experiencing a subtle change in their leading man.  Reacher is still Reacher but the voice has changed as Andrew Child takes over from brother Lee. For the casual reader the change will not be noticed, it has been a subtle transition and Reacher is Reacher, he gets the job done. But for the committed fans, the ones that read and re-read all the books, they will notice a new hand at the helm and this is their Live and Let Die – the second outing with a different “face” to the one they were so used to.  But Live and Let Die was rather good so should we be too worried about background semantics? I guess that depends on whether you think James Bond and Jack Reacher should go on for ever or if the curtain should, one day, be allowed to fall.

But what of Better Off Dead? I enjoyed it a lot more than Reacher 25 (The Sentinel) as Better Off Dead felt distinctly more punchy. Which is to say Reacher seemed to punch lots more people. There is also a very real “big bad” enemy in the form of Dendonker – a man so feared by his own staff that they will take their own life rather than face his wrath.

It’s a very traditional Reacher opening. He is walking alone and spots a car which has hit a tree. He goes to investigate and to establish if the driver is okay; only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun. This in itself is alarming but when the opening chapter had already hooked readers with a big fight sequence that ended with Reacher getting shot, this retrospective scene isn’t good news for our hero.

As you can see from the blurb, Reacher is on a rescue mission. A missing twin. This isn’t the first time Reacher finds himself in a small, seemingly quiet, town tasked with finding a missing man. The man he needs to find is probably dead but his sister implores Reacher to help track him down. The fact his disappearance may link to a possible terror threat is more than enough reason for Reacher to stick around and help.

Looking for leads in a quiet town where most people are unaware of the monster in their midst gives Reacher good cause to dig around. His attention isn’t welcomed and Dendonker sends his staff to handle the situation. This is always fun for a Child reader.

Reacher’s digging uncovers more questions than answers. Dendonker made money from selling airplane meals, his products go onto planes which fly around the world so when the idea and potential threat of terror attacks raises its head Reacher’s rescue mission takes on a whole new angle.

Reacher against the bad guys trying to stop their plans – it’s what we come back for time and time again.

If we consider Better Off Dead on a numbers basis (I hope Reacher would approve) I am sure tens of thousands of casual readers will be more than satisfied with this action thriller.

The smaller proportion of fanatic readers may miss the lack of Reacher analysing numbers, question the fact he makes frequent of use of mobile phones and there will be lots of small differences individual readers will feel changes “their” Reacher. But at the end of the day the big numbers will carry it. It happens with Bond, it happens with Spider-Man and it happens with our television soaps and drama shows. Writers change, the characters go on, some episodes land and pack a punch, some tick the box and move on. A new generation of fans will not flinch at two names on the cover of Better Off Dead and will soak up the excitement.

Reacher endures, Better Off Dead delivers the drama and excitement and we will be back for the next one because we are Jack Reacher fans.

 

Better off Dead will be published by Transworld on 26 October 2021 in Hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/better-off-dead/lee-child/andrew-child/2928377053321

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October 4

The Quiet People – Paul Cleave

Cameron and Lisa Murdoch are successful New Zealand crime writers, happily married and topping bestseller lists worldwide. They have been on the promotional circuit for years, joking that no one knows how to get away with crime like they do. After all, they write about it for a living.

So when their challenging seven-year-old son Zach disappears, the police and the public naturally wonder if they have finally decided to prove what they have been saying all this time…

Are they trying to show how they can commit the perfect crime?

Electrifying, taut and immaculately plotted, The Quiet People is a chilling, tantalisingly twisty thriller that will keep you gripped and guessing to the last explosive page.

 

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy

 

This book comes at you with unrelenting pace and by the end every emotion had been wrung from my body. Suffice to say I bloody loved The Quiet People but it’s going to be a nightmare to review without letting any spoilers slip.

Cameron Murdoch is having a day. He has taken his young son, Zach, to a local fair but in a moment when he is distracted his son manages to leave the bouncy castle without Cameron noticing. Cameron panics and jumps onto the castle to see if Zach is perhaps just out of his line of vison, kids get upset, Cameron gets frustrated nobody will help him and the matter escalates. There are threats against Cameron, his own fierce temper soars too as he gets angry at people’s reaction. A punch is thrown, pictures are taken, kids are upset and meanwhile. Zach is spotted queuing for another ride.

Zach is a “challenging” child and is prone to doing his own thing in his own way. He knows he has annoyed Cameron and tries to work out what he has done wrong but he becomes upset as he thinks he acted properly. Cameron tries to calm him but Zach becomes enraged, screaming and screaming in frustration. Cameron bundles him home but that night as Cameron puts Zach to bed, Zach threatens to run away.

In the morning Zach’s room is empty – it looks like he has made good on his threat to run away.

The police are called. Cameron and his wife Lisa are calling everyone they can think of, they are driving to locations where Zach may be. All to no avail – Zach cannot be found.

Lisa and Cameron are famous crime writers. The police are aware the couple have repeatedly joked during interviews about crime authors being able to get away with murder – some of the investigative team harbour a suspicion that Lisa and Cameron may have decided to remove a problematic child from their lives. This seed of doubt spreads and after a disasterous press conference which was intended to appeal for Zach’s safe return it appears the public also have their doubts about Lisa and Cameron’s innocence.

Things get even worse when one journalist discovers the events which had ocurred at the park the day before – images of an upset Zach, an angry Cameron and the boy being bundled into his dad’s car do not present a good look for a couple pleading for their son to be returned home.

I honestly cannot begin to tell you the problems Cameron and Lisa will face – far, far too many spoilers. At one stage I thought the story had reached a conclusion only for a whole new predicament to raise its head and the story to take an extremely unexpected new direction. Emotional journey doesn’t even come close to describing how Cameron fares in this story.

It’s two frightened and desperate parents, it’s a missing child, it’s a police force facing a difficult time sensitve investigation which the celebrity factor has thrust into a media spotlight. It’s #YeahNoir – New Zealand crime writing at its very best. Honestly I could not put this one down.

 

 

The Quiet People is published by Orenda Books on 25 November in paperback and is available now in digital format.  You can get your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B097PRKM64/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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October 1

Decades – Compiling the Ultimate Library with Simon Bewick

A new week and a new Decades guest with five new books to add to the Decades Library. If you are new to my weekly challenge then let me explain what’s about to happen. I have asked Simon Bewick to nominate five books which he would want to see included within my Ultimate Library.

The Ultimate Library is a concept I started back in January and I had zero books on the virtual shelves. I wanted to assemble the very best collection of books and knew I could not fill a Library on my own so I decided to invite a new guest to join me each week and have them add five books to the collection.

But choosing five books is a little too easy so I add a second rule which my guests need to follow:

1 – Choose ANY five books
2 – You may only select one book per decade over five consecutive decades.

This week we start in the 1960s and progress to the 00’s.

I have been a bit lax of late in updating and promoting the actual Library but now I am all caught up.  I try to add each recommendation to the Grab This Book Decades Library at Bookshop.Org – you can view all the previous selections, see who nominated the book for inclusion and even buy the books you fancy.  Sadly there are a couple of gaps where books are no longer in print.

Here is a handy link: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/GrabThisBookDecades

 

Now that I have covered why we are here, the rules of selection and how to find out more about previous Decades recommendations I can hand over to my guest curator, Simon Bewick.

Simon Bewick has had short stories published in the UK and US and is represented by A for Author agency, who have his first novel out on submission… He’s also half of Virtual Noir at the Bar and Bay Tales with Vic Watson. Through their shows and website (www.baytales.com) they have hosted more than 300 crime and mystery authors to date and will be hosting their first physical one-day crime festival in Whitley Bay on February 12th 2022. Visit the Bay Tales site for more details. You can follow him on Twitter @simonbewick

 

DECADES

60s – Something Wicked This Way Comes – Ray Bradbury

Growing up I loved Ray Bradbury’s work – his short stories in collections bought second hand from Blyth market on a Saturday. The stories were different from the Pan Book of Horror shorts I’d read. They weren’t ‘graphic’. They weren’t ‘scary’ and, they didn’t always necessarily seem to have ‘an end’. A teacher in my English class used the term ‘purple prose’ but I knew even as a fourteen year old he was wrong. Bradbury didn’t write in an overly ornate or elaborate way, he just wrote beautifully. I preferred his short stories to his novels for the most part – and Something Wicked This Way Comes was one of the few non ‘fix-up’ novels Bradbury wrote. Do I prefer Dandelion Wine? Maybe…but Something Wicked is a fine pairing with it and probably the one that I’ve gone back to most often. The film version of the book was disappointing, but the poster for it and which hangs in my writing room, sums up the story perfectly in its’ Halloween feel. As the book starts:

First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys.

Ah – I think I copied Bradbury’s openings more than any other author as a teenager. (and that dumb old English teacher never event knew…)

 

 

70s – Danny, Champion of the World – Roald Dahl

I’m not sure how soon after publication I read DCotW, but I’m guessing if it was published in 1975 maybe two years? That would make me around 8 and seems about right. I know I read it a lot of times in the following years. I’m guessing it seemed a somewhat bygone tale on publication: but I loved the descriptive writing (has anyone written such a description of a pie? I haven’t read it if they have). I loved all of Dahl’s books back then (other than The Great Glass Elevator, which started a long history of disappointment in sequels…), but Danny despite, or perhaps because of, being the least fantastical of his children’s fiction if the one that stayed with me and was re-read again and again.

 

 

 

 

80s – Christine – Stephen King

Christine may not be the first choice of many people as Stephen King’s best piece of work but for me it sums up everything I love about his writing. It’s about a haunted car: a ’58 Plymouth Fury to be precise– but that, in some ways, is the least interesting part of the book for me (good though it is). What it’s really about, and what it felt as if it was really about when I read it as a fifteen year old back in the day, is about friendship, growing up and growing apart. Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham’s relationship felt so real to me. Dennis’ voice, which much of the book is told from, struck me as so authentic. The trials of school and being ‘different’. Even though I wasn’t a high school jock or a complete social outcast, that I didn’t live in a US suburb, that my first car was a Mark II Escort rather than an American classic…it seemed real. I remember going (underage) to the cinema to see the movie version: my first certificate 18 movie. I loved John Carpenter who directed it and the effects were spot on, but it summed up why so many of the adaptations of King’s work don’t work for me. The movie was about the car. The book was about the characters.

 

 

90s – Body and Soul – Frank Conroy.

Conroy didn’t write too many books in his lifetime. A memoir Stop-Time in 1967); a collection of short stories – Midair in 1985 and only one novel as far as I know of: 1993’s Body and Soul. It’s a book that is criminally hard to get, which is a true shame. I was given my copy by the manager of a café I used to sit and read in who said she thought I might like it. Since then, I’ve loaned it to a few close friends I’m sure I’ll get it back from and I think it’s one of the greatest books written about music and, particularly, about being a musician. If Christine isn’t just about a car, this isn’t just about being a musical prodigy. What it is, is a beautifully written story of chance, coincidence, talent and a life and the characters encountered along the way.

 

 

 

 

00s – The Bottoms – Joe R Lansdale.

I was a big fan of Joe R Lansdale by the time The Bottoms came out in 2000. His Hap and Leonard novels had become firm favourites of mine since Savage Season had come out. I loved the dialogue – outrageous and hilarious. I devoured his short stories ranging from horror to mystery to sci fi to who-knows-how-to-describe? (Bob the Dinosaur Goes to Disneyland springs to mind). But The Bottoms is a very different sort of novel. It’s a book about family, racism, small town mind set and good and bad people and those in between. Set during the Great Depression in East Texas the story concerns Harry Crane, a young boy who finds the body of a black woman and the unfolding mystery amid mounting violence and This story takes place during the Great Depression in East Texas. Young Harry Crane discovers the mutilated body of a black woman – a murder he and his younger sister, Thomasina, believe is the work of local urban legend The Goat Man. As they investigate further and the killings continue, racial tensions rise around them, and their childhoods will be forever changed.  The book has drawn comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird, and while it’s easy to see why on a surface level, Lansdale is very much his own writer and has his own unique style. No matter what genre he writes in (and he writes in a lot), his voice is unmistakable. I’ve recommended The Bottoms to more people than any other book I’ve read. I haven’t had any people tell me they were disappointed. That’s got to be a good sign, right?

 

My thanks to Simon for these brilliant choices. Another Stephen King book warms my heart, particularly as it is one of the first I read and remains a firm favourite. I am also delighted to see Danny Champion of the World, a childhood favourite in my house too.

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

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