August 31

The Dark Room – Lisa Gray

Ex–crime reporter Leonard Blaylock spends his days on an unusual hobby, developing strangers’ forgotten and discarded rolls of film. He loves the small mysteries the photographs reveal to him. Then Leonard finds something no one would ever expect, or want, to see captured on film—the murder of a young woman.

But that’s impossible, because the woman is already dead. Leonard was there when it happened five years earlier.

He has never been able to shake his guilt from that terrible night. It cost Leonard everything: his career, his fiancée, his future. But if the woman didn’t really die, then what actually happened?

 

I received a review copy through Netgalley

 

Lisa Gray writes the excellent Jessica Shaw series but The Dark Room is a stand alone thriller – something I did not immediately appreciate as I don’t read the blurb when I read Lisa’s books – I just jump straight in! It took a couple of chapters for me to realise Leonard was the star of the show in The Dark Room – mark that one down to me being a dozy reader.

Fortunately Leonard is a great character and I wanted to read more about him, particularly when he sees a murder. Well let me rephrase that slightly…particulary when he discovers a photograph of a dead body which can only have been taken by a killer. How could I (the son of a photographer) resist a crime story where cameras and photgraphs play such a pivotal role?

Leonard, you see, has a fascinating hobby. He likes to buy undeveloped film from old cameras and then, in the privacy of his dark room, discover what pictures may have been snapped on these old film spools. Family snaps, holiday vistas or perhaps even a “ruined” film – the excitement of discovery for Leonard makes his hobby a constant sequence of discoveries. But his world is going to be rocked to the core when the latest film he develops uncovers the image of a dead woman. But is it a woman Leonard knows?

Lisa Gray takes the reader on a twisty and unpredicatble journey into Leonard’s life. The discovery of the “murder” photograph brings Leonard back to face a period in his life he would rather forget. His relationship ended, his job changed and he had to make significant adjustments which left him somewhat beleagured and low spirited. But could this discovery give him a chance at a fresh start? It seems unlikely but investigating how he came into posession of the picture of a dead woman will open up some new opportunities for Leonard and possbily even the chance to correct some past wrongs.

I had great fun reading The Dark Room. Lisa Gray nails the pacing and the drama and I zipped through this book in just a couple of days. I have tried not to talk too much about Leonard’s predicament and the discoveries he makes in this story as the delight in discovering these for yourself is not something I should take away from you. Get The Dark Room pre-ordered – this is a good’un.

 

 

The Dark Room is published on 25 October and will be available in audiobook, digital and paperback. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09PTLCB2H/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

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August 26

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Michael J Malone

It has been a busy old time here at Chez Grab and reviews have been scarce. Even more frustrating is that Decades has not been updating each week as I would like. Time to put that to right – a return of Decades and a return to Friday too. But before we get to my guest curator I feel it is time to recap what the Decades Library is all about.

In January 2021 I began a mission. I had a virtual library. Empty shelves and the goal I set myself was to find the very best books to put onto those empty shelves. Where to start?  My limited field of reading meant I was not the best person to decide which books were “the best” so I decided to ask booklovers to help me fill the shelves of my Ultimate Library. Over the last 20 months I have been joined by authors, bloggers, publishers and journalists who have all selected their favourite books which they want to add to my Decades Library.

Why did an Ultimate Library become a Decades Library? That is down to the two rules I ask each of my guests to follow when they make their selections:

1 – Select ANY five books
2 – Each Guest May Only Select One Book Per Decade From Five Consecutive Decades

Sounds easy! I am told choosing just five books is tricky – I am also told that narrowing down five books from a fifty year publication span is even more tricky.

Taking on the challenge this week is my friend Michael Malone (with a J). Michael is the reason Grab This Book came into being back in 2014, it was his influence which led me to my first ever author event (the guest speaker was Jenny Colgan) and he also gave me the first opportunity to read a book which wasn’t a shop bought copy – it was actually one of his novels on a CD-ROM if you remember them?

It is with great pleasure that I pass the Decades Curator hat to Michael J Malone…

 

Michael J Malone is the author of over 200 published poems, two poetry collections, four novels, countless articles and one work of non-fiction.

Formerly a Faber and Faber Regional Sales Manager (Scotland and North England), he has judged and critiqued many poetry, short story and novel competitions for a variety of organisations and was the Scottish correspondent for Writers’ Forum.

Michael is an experienced workshop leader/ creative writing lecturer to writers’ groups, schools and colleges as well as a personal coach and mentor. He has a Certificate in Life Coaching and studied as a facilitator with The Pacific Institute.

He is a regular speaker and chair at book festivals throughout the country – including Aye Write, Bloody Scotland, Crimefest and Wigtown.

Michael can found online at: https://mjmink.wordpress.com

and his books can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-J-Malone/e/B009WV9V4Y/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

 

DECADES

 

It’s a near impossible task to pick not only five favourite books, but five from different decades – indeed, on any other day I sat down to compile this I might have chosen another five. What has surprised me as I read over my compilation is the number of historical books I’ve chosen. What doesn’t surprise me is that each of these books affected me deeply as I read them – an impact that has lasted to this day.

 

1970’s – Roots – Alex Haley

I remember walking to school reading this book as I walked: I literally could not put it down. As anyone who was alive during this period can testify, Roots was a social and cultural phenomenon.

It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent, sold into slavery in Africa, and transported to North America; it follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the United States down to Haley, the author. The release of the novel, combined with its hugely popular television adaptation, Roots (1977), led to it being a sensation in the United States. The novel spent forty-six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller List, including twenty-two weeks at number one.

Haley acknowledged that the book was a work of “faction” with many of the detailed incidents in the book being works of the imagination, but the main facts of the story were based on his research. An approach I copied when I wrote my 2014 novel The Guillotine Choice.

 

 

1980’s – The Lost Get Back Boogie – James Lee Burke

It was while in the audience listening to John Connolly talk at Harrogate Crime Fiction Festival that I first heard of JLB. Mr Connolly said, talking about the man’s greatness – when James Lee Burke dies, the rest of us move up one.

This is JLB’s fourth published novel – and it was rejected 111 times over a nine year period before going on to be published – only to be subsequently nominated for The Pulitzer. (There’s a morale here for any aspiring authors reading this.)

But the book. Recently paroled from prison, Iry Paret, a young Louisiana blues musician, settles in with fellow ex-convict Buddy Riordan and Riordan’s family on a sprawling Montana ranch and becomes drawn into a tragic conflict involving the family and their neighbours.

No one writes about nature like JLB. And few people write about the darkness in the human heart like him either. There is a layer of melancholy running throughout the narrative – a contemplation on loss – the loss of roots (as Paret moves from Louisiana to Montana), loss of innocence, loss of opportunities and loss of time. The hills of Montana are given the same lush and lyrical treatment that Burke would later provide to the bayous of Louisiana in the Robicheaux series.

 

1990’s The Power of One – Bryce Courteney

Set in South Africa in the 1930s and 40s , The Power of One is a coming-of-age story of “Peekay”, an innocent English boy who very early in his life realizes that there are greater things at stake than the hatred between the Dutch Afrikaners and the English – the Second World War in Europe, the growing racial tensions and the beginning of apartheid will influence his world and challenge his spiritual strength.

Even though the odds are stacked against Peekay from the start, he never loses faith in the goodness of people and following the advice of several memorable mentors, he sets out to work towards his dream of becoming a boxing world champion.

This was one of those “lucky” finds I came across in my local library – a debut novel, by an unknown (to me anyway) and one that I went on to recommend to everyone I met. Chances are if I met you around this time I would have frog-marched you to the nearest bookshop to buy yourself a copy.  I found Peekay to be such an inspirational character that I even read the book in the week preceeding a job interview I was going for – if Peekay could survive everything he faced then I could deal with my nerves over the presentation I had to give for this job. (I didn’t get the job, btw – but I did manage to control my nervousness.)

 

2000’s The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

Set between the 1930s,and the present, Maggie O’Farrell’s novel is the story of Esme, a woman removed from her family’s history, and of the secrets that come to light when, sixty years later, she is released from an asylum, and a young woman, Iris, discovers the great aunt no one in the family knew even existed. The mystery that unfolds is the heart-rending tale of two sisters in India and 1930s Edinburgh – of the loneliness that connects them and the rivalries that drive them apart – and towards a terrible betrayal.

Beautiful writing, characters to fall in love with and insight into (recent) historical attitudes towards women this is a book that deeply affected me and made me a huge fan of the author – as soon as her latest book is published it goes to the top of my TBR pile. (Hamnet, for example is A-MAY-ZING.)

 

 

 

 

2010’s The Orenda – Joseph Boyden

I heard the author being interviewed about this book on Radio Scotland while I was travelling between bookshops (I was a sales manager for Faber at the time) and I just had to buy the book from the next bookshop I went into. (You could be forgiven for thinking that my connection with Orenda Books was what made me seek this novel out, but if memory serves it was a few months after this when I heard Karen Sullivan was setting up a new publishing house, and calling it Orenda. Btw – according to the book, this is the name that the Iroquois gave to a spiritual energy that they say connects all living things.)

This historical epic is set in the mid-1600s in Huronia (part of Canada) at a time when the Hurons and the Iroquois are involved in skirmishes – just as the Jesuits arrive and begin their attempts to convert the natives to Christianity. A member of each of these three groups serves as a narrator: Bird is the warrior leader of the Wendat (Huron) nation; Snow Falls is a young Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) girl whom Bird captures and adopts in retaliation for the Iroquois killing his wife and daughters; and Christophe is a priest, whom the Hurons call Crow, who has come to convert the “sauvages” to Catholicism.

What follows is a gripping and at times brutal tale with rich and fascinating detail about the lives of the natives of this ancient land. Boyden has written a balanced narrative between the indigene and the coloniser – no one is guilty, no is innocent – they simply act in accordance with their beliefs and the habits of their people – leaving you, the reader to be the judge (please take note current crop of TV and film writers – let the characters demonstrate the unfairness of a thing rather than wagging your finger at us.)

The times in which this book is set are carefully and convincingly detailed. This is a book of love of family and friends, full of captivating descriptions of the beauty of the natural world they inhabit, acts of kindness and sacrifice, and vivid descriptions of torture and death – all the extremes of human nature are here. It’s a book that portrays the beginning of the end of a way of life, while another form of civilisation works at taking over. It is sobering, and powerful.

 

 

Thanks Michael. Every review on this blog can be traced back to the days we worked in Bellshill and the event in Ayr where your invitation to attend the writing group event opened my eyes to a side of books I had never known. All the books I have been trusted to read by publishers and authors, all the events I attend (and blog or tweet about) and all the opportunities I have been offered to participate in (reading groups, podcast guest, a Nibbies Judge, interviewing authors at their book launch) all thanks to that early support and encouragement. Thank you.

 

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

 

 

 

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August 15

The Woman in the Library – Sulari Gentill

Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library: four strangers; Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer.

While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems…

The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

 

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

 

A book from the “what I read on my summer holiday” collection. I was fascinated by the blurb of this story, four strangers in a Library when a murder takes place – one of the four is a murderer but if the four were sitting at a table then how can one of their number be a killer?

Well it isn’t Sulari Gentill who will tell this story it is Hannah Tigone (Okay it IS Sulari but let’s give Hannah her place too). Hannah is writing about Winifred, Marigold, Cain and Whit – four strangers who are in a Boston Library. They are sitting at a table togegther when a scream is heard – the four are forged in a new friendship and Hannah will write her novel about these new friends and the steps they will take to discover more about each other and, more importantly, about who may have killed a woman in the library.

As Hannah writes she gives her readers a background into each of these four players in her story. They all have secrets, they all have a reason to keep them secret and Hannah is going to spin out the tale and deliver a whip-smart whodunnit. But between the chapters about the friendly four and their strengthening bonds Sulari Gentill is also telling her readers about Hannah’s life away from the story she is crafting. Hannah is getting feedback from Leo – he is reading her early chapter drafts as each chapter is completed and providing his own observations and feedback. Leo is a bit of an enigma and does seem to enjoy a bit of mansplaining but he also has thoughts and opinions of friendships, secrets and he seems remarkably well informed about murder too.

All very mysterious and very nicely put together. At approximately 270 pages in length I found The Woman in the Library a sharp and well exectuted murder tale (no puns intended here). Hannah’s story gives a satisfying murder tale with a seemingly impossible pool of suspects and Sulari’s story about Hannah is darker and more perplexing – reading to see how that plot unfolded was very much the reason I zipped through The Woman in the Library in just two enjoyable sittings.

I enjoyed the very different approach to the story telling here and this is a book I’d recommend readers look out for when it hits the shelves next month.

 

The Woman in the Library is published in hardback in the UK on 15 September 2022 and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-woman-in-the-library/sulari-gentill/9781761151545

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August 15

The IT Girl – Ruth Ware

Everyone wanted her life
Someone wanted her dead

It was Hannah who found April’s body ten years ago.
It was Hannah who didn’t question what she saw that day.
Did her testimony put an innocent man in prison?

She needs to know the truth.

Even if it means questioning her own friends.
Even if it means putting her own life at risk.

Because if the killer wasn’t a stranger, it’s someone she knows…

 

 

Ruth Ware always delivers! The IT Girl is another clever, twisty thriller which takes the reader deep into the lives of the characters and has you wondering which of the players in this drama can be considered trustworthy as the moving finger of accusation slides around seeking the rotten apple in the barrel.

This is Hannah’s story – the “then” and the “now” – events take place in present day where Hannah the bookseller in Edinburgh is expecting her first child and has just received some shocking news. But it is also Hannah’s story of “then” when, ten years ago, she was a new student at Oxford and finds herself sharing rooms with April.

April who died.

April who was murdered by the man that Hannah’s testimony helped put into prison.

The man who has died in prison.

The man that a journalist now suggests may have been innocent.

Hannah is tormented with the possibility she may have been instrumental in sending an innocent man to prison and she begins to reevaluate everything she saw on the fateful night April died. However we know from the “then” timeline that the man charged with April’s murder wasn’t quite so innocent and Hannah had some concerns over his behaviour. Watching the history of Hannah’s time at a Oxford play out while also reading of the consequences of everyone’s actions is fascinating and makes for an intense read.

The chapters flip between past and present and Ruth Ware’s control over the flow of facts and information is spectacular. You can’t know what will be important, misleading or character defining for Hannah and her friends so, as a reader, my opinion of characters and their level of guilt would wildly fluctuate on a regular basis.

If you want a book which will spirit you into the seemingly incomprehensible traditions and lifestyles of  students Oxford Uni then The IT Girl will show you how a gaggle of students cope (or don’t) with the death of one of their own. You may like or loathe some of the people but you will absolutely want to know what happens to them and that keeps the pages turning.

You can’t go wrong with a Ruth Ware thriller!

 

The IT Girl is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-it-girl/ruth-ware/9781398508354

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August 8

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Susan Grossey

In January 2021 I first introduced the Decades Library. It’s an ongoing challenge to curate the very best collection of books, chosen by booklovers, so that any reader who selects a book from the Library will know they are reading a book someone else loved and felt was worthy of a place in the Ultimate Library.

Each week (usually) a new guest curator joins me to add new titles to the Decades Library. My guests have been authors, bloggers, publishers, journalists and podcasters but they all are asked to follow just two rules when they select the books they want to add to my Library.

1 – You Can Select ANY Five Books
2 – You Can Only Select One Book Per Decade Over Five Consecutive Decades

Easy?  Well it does seem so – until you start trying to pin down five favourite books from a fifty-year publication span. There is often a great deal of rule “flexing” to be found when a curator makes their selections. This week, however, I am delighted to confirm my guest this week very much kept on the right side of the rules and when you read Susan Grossey’s bio you may understand why this is the case! Name dropping other books also crops up on a regular basis so see if you can spot the “honourable mentions”.

So without further delay I shall pass you over to Susan:

 

My name is Susan Grossey, and I have made my living from crime.  For nearly three decades I worked as an anti-money laundering consultant, advising banks, law firms, casinos and others on how to avoid criminal money – yes, I am almost certainly to blame when an estate agent impertinently asks you to bring in your passport and bank statement when you want to spend squillions on a new mansion.  My obsession with financial crime has spilled over into my personal life, and for ten years I have been writing a series of historical financial crime novels, set in London in the 1820s and narrated by a magistrates’ constable called Sam Plank.  (The 1820s was fascinating in terms of policing history – after the Bow Street Runners and before the Metropolitan Police.)  I have just published the seventh and final book in the Sam Plank series: taking place in 1829, “Notes of Change” has Sam looking in inheritance fraud, gambling and murder, while considering his future in the face of the “new police” – the Met.  I am now researching a new five-part series, again taking place in the irresistible 1820s, but this time in Cambridge (my home town) and narrated by university constable Gregory Hardiman.  (And if, like me, you can’t get enough of Regency history, you can sign up to my monthly e-newsletter which gives a bit more detail on the research I have been doing, which may or may not make it into the books.  Here’s the link: https://wordpress.us3.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=793a391cd9d51c99540eb5099&id=d302de6b99 )

Any my website and blog are here: https://susangrossey.wordpress.com/

DECADES

“Scoop” by Evelyn Waugh (1938)


My father handed me this book when I was a teenager, and as he read only two or three novels a year (contending that real life was much more exciting and interesting than made up stuff) I knew it was important.  The story of hapless nature columnist William Boot being accidentally sent to cover a war in East Africa is a hoot, while cleverly skewering the nastiness of the world of newspapers (the owner of the newspaper is keen for coverage of “a very promising little war”).  And some of the phrases in it – “Up to a point, Lord Copper” – have entered our family vocabulary.  When I read more about Waugh, I learned that you can often love the book and dislike the author – a handy life lesson.

 

 

 

“Ross Poldark” by Winston Graham (1945)


I make no apology for including this in my library – it may not be high art, but I can think of few other books that have given me as much pleasure or that have influenced me more.  I first met “Poldy” through the BBC television series broadcast in the mid-1970s and dashed to the library for the books.  Imagine the glee I felt, as a fast and insatiable reader, on discovering that there were twelve books in the series.  And ever since, I have loved the twin disciplines of historical accuracy and maintaining character development and story arcs across several books – my own incarnation as an author of historical series was almost certainly set by “Poldy”.

 

 

 

 

“A Bear Called Paddington” by Michael Bond (1958)


Despite having no children of my own, I am a great reader of children’s books and still re-read favourites from my own childhood.  (I wanted to include “The Little White Horse” by Elizabeth Goudge in this list, but that was published in 1946 and I’ve already had that decade…)  I have chosen “A Bear Called Paddington” as it is the first Paddington book, but you could choose any one of the twenty-six Paddington books written by Michael Bond and you would not go wrong.  They are beautifully written, with neat plots and vocabulary that does not talk down to children, and the central messages of acceptance, kindness and a desire to help others deserve as much publicity as they can get.

 

 

 

“The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” by Muriel Spark (1961)


This is a double win for me, as both the book and the film would make it into any “desert island” lists I might be invited to make.  What I admire about Spark is her sparseness and hidden cruelty – you are reading along merrily and suddenly catch yourself thinking, “No!  They can’t really just have said or done that!”  This slim volume – telling the story of the seemingly positive but ultimately fatal influence of an Edinburgh schoolmistress over her favoured girls (“you, girls, are the crème de la crème”) – fascinates and horrifies me every time I read it.  And as for Dame Maggie Smith on her bicycle in the 1969 film, well, it’s among the greatest film openings in history.

 

 

 

“The World According to Garp” by John Irving (1978)


This is one of those instances where I couldn’t believe my luck: an author whose book I just couldn’t put down, and who then went on to write so many more crackers.  He is one of the few whose new book I will buy in hardback on day of publication because I Just Can’t Wait.  Irving’s best, in my view, is “A Prayer for Owen Meany”, but that came out in 1989 (and would take me into a forbidden sixth decade.)  This one is about a boy who grows up with his single feminist mother and becomes a writer and teacher – much of it is semi-autobiographical, and all of it is gripping.  And as a teenager, reading the infamous car crash scene certainly put me off doing anything daring with my boyfriend in his car…

 

 

 

 

Where else but the Decades Library will you find Paddington Bear nestled beside Miss Jean Brodie? My thanks to Susan for five stellar choices. I am a big fan of Susan’s Sam Plank books and I was absolutely delighted when Susan agreed to make her Decades choices – honestly the beam on my face when I spotted Paddington in her choices!

 

DECADES WILL RETURN

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August 2

From The Ashes – Deborah Masson

It only takes one spark to reignite an old mystery . . .

DI Eve Hunter and her team are called to the scene of a fire that has destroyed a home for underprivileged children in Aberdeen. No-one knows how the blaze started; all they know is that one person didn’t make it out in time.

Her team have dealt with their fair share of tragedies but this case affects them each deeply – particularly when they start to suspect that everyone at the home, from the residents to the staff, has something to hide. And when a horrific discovery is unearthed in the ruins of the property, the team must ask themselves – did someone have a secret worth killing for?

I recieved a review copy from the publisher through Netgalley.

 

This is an excellent murder story but at times it can be harrowing too – children in care, victims of desperately sad circumstances or parental neglect or abuse. Very real, very well depicted by Deborah Masson and the plight of some of the youngsters in the story will not be quickly forgotten.

DI Eve Hunter and her colleagues are not immune to the tragedy they are called to investigate. A fire at a children’s residential home is a difficult situation – kids with no stability and very few possessions are forced from the place which should be their haven and all signs are this was arson…they have been targeted. But more upsetting is that one of the children didn’t get out the house in time. Trapped, alone and nobody heard him calling for help.

The death of a child has tensions running high amongst her team and when the press come sniffing Eve knows some of the details of the fire and the young life lost are going to light up newspaper headlines and make her task even more challenging.

Somewhat hindering her investigation is the fact one of her team is not focusing his full attention on the fire. An accident in the centre of Aberdeen has left several damaged cars, one shaken up police officer and an unidentified young man fighting for his life after being hit by the vehicles. Who is the mysterious injured man? Why is he not carrying any identification and what can be done to help him?

But the majority of the story is centred around the residential home for the children. It’s been a home for vulnerable children for many years and as we read deeper into the book we discover the previous owners were not the nicest of folk, the children fearful of their guardians and resorting to sneaking around behind their backs to keep secrets. The story of these former home residents are told in flashback form and it further amplified the desperately sad situation the children in care can sometimes find themselves in.

An arsonist needs to be caught, a killer identified and Deborah Masson juggles this right cast brilliantly. There are secrets to come out and it may destroy some lives if they do – but a child is dead and Eve Hunter is not going to rest until the killer is found.

Emotive, powerful and perfectly paced I really enjoyed this one.

 

From The Ashes is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format and you can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/from-the-ashes/deborah-masson/9780552178259

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August 1

Where Demons Hide – Douglas Skelton

 

My thanks to ISIS audio for the review copy and to Danielle Louis for the opportunity to host this leg of the audio blog tour.

 

 

Where Demons Hide is the fourth Rebecca Connolly thriller from Douglas Skelton. It builds on events from the three earlier books but is also easily read as a stand-alone title, Skelton deftly brings though the key events which new readers need to know without the reader feeling the past narrative is shoe-horned into the story.

The story largely concerns its-self with events on the island of Stoirm but for much of the story Rebecca is in Inverness which gives some of the supporting characters the chance to shine. Very much in the story spotlight is photographer Chazz Wymark – he is asked (grudgingly) by the police to take photographs of a body which was found in remote moorland on the island. The dead woman is Nuala Flaherty and despite an evidence of insubstantial clothing to be on the moors her body is also found lying inside an occult symbol.

There are no obvious signs of injury to Nuala’s body and the police are initially perplexed. But there are toxicology exams to be run and the potential of exposure (given the sheet-like clothing Nuala was wearing) so the police cannot assume accidental death is not a factor, nor can they rule out foul play. Chazz feels there is more to this death than may meet the eye – not least the symbol cut into the ground – and he alerts Rebecca to his suspicions.

Unfortunately for Chazz the person best placed to give him any more information is is old English teacher as she was acting as landlady for the deceased. The conversations between teacher and former pupil were absoulte highlights of this story for me. I don’t think any good teachers ever really lose the respect of their former pupils and this is wonderfully played out as Chazz tries to to some fact-finding with his mischevious but (almost) co-operative teacher.

Chazz is on Storim with his partner as their wedding looms. Rebecca will be joining them but she has stories to investigate before heading off to the island. Unbeknownst to Rebecca an old grudge against her is still festering and steps are being taken to end Rebecca’s young life before many more days have passed. Returning readers will know an attempt was already made on Rebecca’s life – obviously it was not successful. But this has only stoked the fires of anger and stakes have been raised with an outside contractor engaged to send professional killers after the reporter.

Where Demons Hide Pbk

Word of this danger does get to Rebeccca’s friends in the police and some steps are taken to try to ensure her safety but Rebecca is largely unaware of the danger which she may face. It’s a tense situation and as a reader I loved seeing the danger to Rebecca growing while she was oblivious to the moves being made against her.

Back on Stoirm and there’s more information emerging about Nuala and her connection to a commune on the island. Is it a haven for people who wish to leave the mania of society behind them? Or could there be a hidden danger and a nefarious motive for the community to be sequestered away in teh reomote Scottish Highlands?  There are a few people looking too closely at the sanctuary and this isn’t something which sits well with the commune’s owner.

I make no secret of being a fan of this series, and indeed of the author too. I always enjoy how Douglas Skelton plots his thrillers and the pacing and reveals never fail to keep me reading. Where Demons Hide also makes the transition to audiobook really well too. The team at Isis Audio have done another great job and the narrator, Sarah Barron, is once again nailing this performance. Sarah may be a familiar voice as she has narrated all the previous books in the series and her familiarity with the characters shines through.

The Rebecca Connoly series is one of my current favourites and whether this would be your first encounter with Rebecca or if you are a returning reader I know this book will captivate and entertain. Where Demons Hide is available from today and I urge you to seek it out.

 

Where Demons Hide is available in paperback, digital and (of course) audiobook format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Where-Demons-Hide-Rebecca-Connolly/dp/B09ZBJRY1G/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

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