February 16

Deity – Matt Wesolowski

A shamed pop star
A devastating fire
Six witnesses
Six stories
Which one is true?

When pop megastar Zach Crystal dies in a fire at his remote mansion, his mysterious demise rips open the bitter divide between those who adored his music and his endless charity work, and those who viewed him as a despicable predator, who manipulated and abused young and vulnerable girls.

Online journalist, Scott King, whose Six Stories podcasts have become an internet sensation, investigates the accusations of sexual abuse and murder that were levelled at Crystal before he died. But as Scott begins to ask questions and rake over old graves, some startling inconsistencies emerge: Was the fire at Crystal’s remote home really an accident? Are reports of a haunting really true? Why was he never officially charged?

Dark, chillingly topical and deeply thought-provoking, Deity is both an explosive thriller and a startling look at how heroes can fall from grace and why we turn a blind eye to even the most heinous of crimes…

 

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy of Deity.  Thanks also to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Deity Blog tour.

 

Six Stories. A phenomonal concept and Matt Wesolowski just seems to deliver chills and tension every single time.  With Deity we are concentrating on Zach Crystal, a musician who reached the very top at a young age and lived a mysterious and controversial lifestyle before tragedy struck and he died in a fire at on his remote country estate in the Scottish Highlands.

Scott King is a podcast host who in each of the four previous Wesolowski novels has conducted interviews with six guests in a bid to cast light on mysteries, murders or strange phenomonon. The story telling is always wonderfully layered and the salient points to each story will not be immediately obvious to the reader until Scott King himself draws your attention back to they key revelations which can turn your understanding of a narrative on its head.

Deity is no different. Six interviews with six people to understand better the complex and controversial superstar Zach Crystal.  The first story makes it quite clear where the headline controvosy will be found.  King interviews a man who alleges Crystal was active in an internet chatroom trying to arrange a meet with a 12 year old girl (Crystal at this time was in his mid 40s).  Throughout his career Crystal has spent time with young girls from disadvantaged backgrounds at his remote Highland home.  “Entirely innocent” he always maintained and there was never any real traction behind the few stories which cast doubt on his assurances of innocence.

The reason the stories never amounted to anything, King’s first guest asserts, is that King employed a team of hostile investigators who would shut down any rumour or story before it could manifest itself into anything more substantiated.  No proof, no story.  But Crystal cannot hide from all bad press and when two young girls are found dead (it is alleged in mysterious circumstances) on the grounds of his Highland Estate it has to be acknowledged that his extensive security staff could not have done anything to prevent the unfortunate death in the inhospitable environment of the Cairngorms. It is also worth mentioning that Crystal has bought land and settled in a notoriously dangerous part of the mountains and local legend tells of dangers in the Whispering Woods and Crystal tells of seeing a cadaverous wild animal which stands tall and has flesh hanging from the skull under a wild antlered head.

Crystal himself chooses to wear antlers and often masks his face when performing so the link to the mysterious creature is a fascination for the reader. It also makes Crystal seem even more of an odd character.

The accusations against Crystal which were laid out by King’s first guest are firmly shut down by his second guest.  A YouTube star who is a devoted fan of Zach Crystal, has spent time in his company and on his Estate, and who believes all the stories of inappropriate behaviour with minors is just women seeking to cash in on the deceased star now that he cannot defend himself.  This guest turns the story of the the first guest on its head.  Although the reader may not like what they are hearing about Crystal (he does come across as a total bampot) it cannot be taken for granted he is guilty of the allegations which follow him around.

Through four more guests we strip back some of the mystery surrounding Crystal.  Did he deserve to die?  Was he a troubled individual – thrust into fame too young and with no social skills to survive in the entertainment industry? Why did he always have to take groups of vulnerable underage girls to his home?  It does make for uncomfortable reading and I never shook the feeling that Crystal was a dangerous individual, so why are his defenders so determined to protest his innocence?

One unexpected development was the return of a character from an earlier novel.  No spoilers but I found this a nice touch for returning readers but the appearance of this character will not leave new readers baffled as their involvement is very different.  One other surprise was that the story is set, in part, in Inverness and surrounding areas (one interview takes place in Aviemore).  I grew up in the Inverness area. When you live in London you probably don’t bat an eye if you pick up a book and find the story is set in your home town – if you live in Inverness this is much more of a novelty and it certainly brought a smile or two as I was reading.

Deity is the fifth book in the Six Stories series.  I own all the earlier books in audiobook, paperback and in digital format – I am a bit of a fan.  It is a tough call but I think Deity may be my favourite of the five books.  I think the complexity of Crystal and the frustration King encounters in trying to find tangible proof around any of the rumours linked to the star make this the most complex of books in the series. Kings podcasts assert they are not to uncover the truth or reach a conclusion but to present more facts to allow listeners to make their own judgement – the reader is doing this here to a greater degree than other books.

If you are new to the series you can read the Six Stories books in any order – I envy you the hours of enjoyment they will bring you.  If you are a returning reader you can be assured Deity is a triumph.

 

Deity is published by Orenda Books and is currently available in paperback and digital version.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08D6J458T/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i1

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February 12

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Heather Martin

If you were to fill a library from scratch which books would you put onto the shelves?  That was the question which first crossed my mind one wintery day during the 2020 pandemic lockdown.  I wouldn’t know where to start.

Well that’s not quite true as Terry Pratchett, Lee Child and Agatha Christie could command well over 15o books between them and they are just my first three picks.  But after that I would simply go into a frenzy of dropping author names and a library of nothing but crime novels from Ed McBain to Val McDermid would emerge.  Satisfying, but not really a true reflection of the Ultimate Library.

I decided I needed help.  I would invite book lovers, authors, bloggers and publishers to help me pick the books which need to go into the Ultimate Library.  I have two rules:

Rule 1 – Nominate Five Books which should be included in my Ultimate Library

Rule 2 – You can only select one title per decade and the decades must be consecutive so we get a 50 year publication span.

 

Today I am delighted to welcome Heather Martin to Grab This Book.  As I haven’t given Heather the opportunity to talk about her own book, I asked if she could introduce herself and make sure she took the opportunity to plug The Reacher Guy.

 

I’m an Australian long since settled in England, a willed displacement that I have in common with my biographical subject, Lee Child. Just as he wrote Killing Floor after a long first-act career in television, I wrote his authorised biography The Reacher Guy (out now from Constable at Little, Brown in hardback, ebook and audiobook, with Juliet Stevenson narrating), after many dedicated years as a student and teacher of languages and literature. But there’s one big difference: it’s unlikely my book will be the first in a twenty-four-book continuous bestselling series. The Reacher Guy is the intertwined history of three men: James Dover Grant CBE, and his two great fictional creations, Jack Reacher and Lee Child.

Thank you to Gordon at Grab This Book for inviting me to contribute to the Ultimate Library. Which seductive concept reminds me of one of Lee’s crazier pipe dreams: to build a bespoke library somewhere in the English countryside big enough to house all his books and still leave room for a full-size Bentley parked in the middle.

So … It’s the kind of question that, once asked, you can’t put out of your mind. If you could only choose five books, one from each of five consecutive decades, what would they be? I knew immediately I was doomed to frustration. And much as I respect the literary discipline of working within constraints, somehow that imposition of historical continuity made it all the more difficult. In drawing up this list, I found I spent most of my time thinking of ways to cheat the system. How much could I get away with?

I ruled out the present day: I’ve read too many books in the last year that I loved. Better to go further back, where there was more chance of having forgotten. Back before the nineties, which was when Lee wrote Killing Floor, which could only cause complications. But the eighties … How would I choose between Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, between The Color Purple and Beloved, to (sneakily) name just two?

I love all five of the following books, but a small part of me now hates them as well, because they pushed all the other ones out.

 

DECADES

1930s

Federico García Lorca 1898-1936

Three Tragedies: Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba

I fell in love with Andalusia in my early teens, which was what led me to play the guitar, which was what brought me from Perth to London, and thence to Cambridge to study languages. In the early thirties, Lorca became director of La Barraca, a touring company whose mission was to bring theatre to rural audiences free of charge. Lorca defined theatre as ‘poetry that arises from the book and becomes human’. I love these plays for their lyricism and intensity, their boldness, their powerful portrayal of women. The cheat? A reading of the plays will surely lead on to his poetry.

 

1949

Simone de Beauvoir 1908-1986

The Second Sex

Philosopher Simone de Beauvoir was, in her day, the youngest woman ever to pass the fiercely competitive postgraduate ‘agrégation’ examination in France, coming second only to lifelong partner Jean-Paul Sartre. De Beauvoir was fearless, with all the courage of her convictions. And she wrote a big book exploring a very big idea: ‘One is not born a woman but becomes one.’ The Second Sex has extraordinary scope, reaching back to Aristotle and Aquinas and anticipating Germaine Greer and Margaret Atwood, and still holds its own today.

 

1952

E. B. White 1899-1985

Charlotte’s Web

A favourite when I read it as a child, a favourite to read aloud to my own children, and no doubt still a favourite were I to reread it today. Everything about this deeply compassionate book is life-affirming and life-enhancing: the lightness of touch, the playful language, the enchanting line drawings, the humour, the cycle of love and loss. And every single character unforgettable. Cheat: It brings to mind my treasured collection of Puffin paperbacks, many of which I brought with me when I left home years ago.

 

1962

Jorge Luis Borges 1899-1986

Labyrinths

If I’d been allowed only one book, this would have been it. Not because I once met Borges, a few years before he died, and supplied him with a Japanese word he’d forgotten. But because every Borges story, like his aleph, contains ‘the inconceivable universe’. This anthology includes three of the best. ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’, a highly condensed thriller and detective story in which all possible outcomes of an event occur simultaneously, with each then leading to further proliferations of possibilities. ‘Funes the Memorious’, my go-to story on memory, whose nineteen-year-old antihero (who for some reason reminds me a bit of Lee) is ‘as monumental as bronze, more ancient than Egypt, older than the prophecies and the pyramids’, and whose poignant moral is ‘to think is to forget’. And ‘The Library of Babel’, ruled by divine disorder, in which is to be found – somewhere, no one knows quite where – the book of books, containing all other possible books. The biggest cheat of all.

 

1979

William Styron 1925-2006

Sophie’s Choice

‘If you read only one book,’ Lee Child once said to me, ‘make it these three’, writing a dedication in a copy of Sophie’s Choice. So I did. And by the time I got to the end I knew exactly what those cryptic words meant. I read it in New York in 2019, while I was deep in writing The Reacher Guy (Lee had told me that the red house of Echo Burning was inspired by Styron’s pink house in Brooklyn). Not much got written that weekend. I didn’t go out. I didn’t eat much either. Not sure I got out of my pyjamas. No matter that the story of Stingo and Sophie and Nathan was more than six hundred pages long, I could barely put it down. And by the end I was heartbroken – in a good way.

 

 

Huge thanks to Heather for adding books six to ten to my Library.  It’s taking shape!  The first five books, selected by Sharon Bairden, can be found here: https://grabthisbook.net/?p=5056

I would like to add my personal recommendation to read or (as I am currently doing) listen to, The Reacher Guy: The Authorised Biography of Lee Child.  It’s a terrific book and the audiobook narration by Juliet Stevenson is aural nectar.   You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086L3VD1T/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

 

Decades will return

 

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February 2

Smoke Screen – Jørn Lier Horst & Thomas Enger

 

Oslo, New Year’s Eve. The annual firework celebration is rocked by an explosion, and the city is put on terrorist alert.

Police officer Alexander Blix and blogger Emma Ramm are on the scene, and when a severely injured survivor is pulled from the icy harbour, she is identified as the mother of two-year-old Patricia Smeplass, who was kidnapped on her way home from kindergarten ten years earlier … and never found.

Blix and Ramm join forces to investigate the unsolved case, as public interest heightens, the terror threat is raised, and it becomes clear that Patricia’s disappearance is not all that it seems…

 

 

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the Smoke Screen Tour.  I am reading a purchased copy.

 

Book two in the Blix and Ramm series. Last year the duo were introduced in the brilliant Death Deserved which I really enjoyed.  Smoke Screen had been on my watch list for a good while as there is nothing better than reuniting with characters you enjoy. No need to have read Death Deserved before starting on Smoke Screen (but it’s a great read and background is always good to know).

The two books felt different to read.  My memory of Death Deserved was of a fast paced and constant peril read where Smoke Screen (despite an explosive opening) was more measured and methodical.  This may sound like a negative comment but it really is not – I enjoyed both books immensely and a slower pace for Emma Ramm in Smoke Screen is very appropriate as she is shouldering a tragic burden in this story.

I mentioned the Explosive Start.  On New Years Eve in Oslo a crowd had assembled in a city park to cheer in the New Year and watch the fireworks.  A bomb has been placed in a waste bin within the park which detonated and killed several bystanders.  The police and emergency services are put on full alert but Blix and Ramm were already near the scene.

One survivor of the blast was a former person of interest to the police, the mother of a kidnapped toddler.  Around ten years earlier Patricia Smeplass had been abducted and was never found. Patricia’s mother was investigated as a potential suspect.  She did not have full custody of her daughter at the time as her mental health and substance dependencies had been problematic. No evidence was found to suspect Patricia’s mother has been involved in her daughters kidnapping. However Blix is not convinced her presence at the scene of the explosion is coincidence and wants to dig further.  The problem is the woman is critically ill in hospital and appears unlikely to recover consciousness.

A comprehensive investigation begins and readers are treated to a slick police procedural with a dogged journalist pursuing her own leads.

A second bomb explodes in another park but Blix is still determined to dig deeper into the kidnapping some ten years ago.  He remains convinced the explanation behind the current incidents lies within the kidnapping story.

Smoke Screen spins the reader a tale rooted within tragedies. Secrets and lies left to fester will resurface with devastating consequences.  There are threads of hope interwoven through the story too and the characters of both Blix and Ramm are given a chance to develop in this second outing.

The Horst/Enger partnership is looking mighty strong at this stage and the cherry on the cake is the post-novel “chat” between the pair which rounds off the reading.  Joyous.

 

Smoke Screen is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback and digital format.  You can order your copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08DTHMGJS/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 26

My Best Friend’s Murder – Polly Phillips

 

There are so many ways to kill a friendship . . .

You’re lying, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, legs bent, arms wide.
And while this could be a tragic accident, if anyone’s got a motive to hurt you, it’s me.

Bec and Izzy have been best friends their whole lives. They have been through a lot together – from the death of Bec’s mother to the birth of Izzy’s daughter. But there’s a darker side to their friendship, and once it has been exposed, there is no turning back.

So when Izzy’s body is found, Bec knows that if the police decide to look for a killer, she will be the prime suspect. Because those closest to you are the ones who can hurt you the most . . .

 

My thanks to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for arranging my review copy and for allowing me to host this leg of the blog tour.

 

Bec and Izzy – friends through thick and thin for most of their lives.  Their friendship is about to be shaken beyond anything the pair have experienced before and before a truce can be negotiated Izzy will be dead.  It isn’t a spoiler, the blurb makes all this clear and the book opens with tragedy.

So how did these friends get to this stage? And is Bec right to think the police should be looking at her as a possible killer?

Polly Phillips shows the reader that Izzy is dead then takes us back in time to earlier in the year when the cracks in the friendship first start to show. We start with what should be a happy event as Bec has come to tell Izzy that she got engaged. However, Izzy’s reaction is not quite what Bec had anticipated and her upset at Izzy is compounded when it becomes clear Izzy had been consulted on which engagement ring should have been bought.

As we are given more background on the two friends we learn how Izzy has married a man Bec was attracted to. Izzy has the best of everything while Bec seems to be making do.  Even at work Bec seems to be hesitant to put herself forward or contribute to big decision making. There is a slight shift in this when Bec discovers she may have a chance to interview a Hollywood A-List star and she makes a stand in an editorial meeting to ensure she gets to conduct and be credited for the interview piece.

Bec’s personal life and her career seem to be picking up for her. However her relationship with Izzy is on a downward spiral. The two are bickering then disagreeing and it appears each time the two are together their relationship deteriorates.

The growing animosity between Izzy and Bec is not going unnoticed so when Izzy is found lying in a bloody, crumpled heap Bec does have concern she will be a suspect.  But could knowing the truth be even more hazardous?

I came to this book under a slight misconception.  I half expected a police procedural (for no reason other than that’s what I normally opt to read).  My Best Friend’s Murder hardly features the police.  This is the story of Izzy and Bec and the toxic elements of their friendship which define the last days of Izzy’s life – seen through the eyes of Bec who can’t understand why her friend is behaving the way she does.

Uncomfortable reading at times and a few surprises along the way which I enjoy. Domestic drama with barbs – like your favourite soap opera having the Queen Bee get their comeuppance.

 

My Best Friend’s Murder is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, audiobook and digital format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B087QQW3V9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 23

Secret Santa – Andrew Schaffer

After half a decade editing some of the biggest names in horror, Lussi Meyer joins prestigious Blackwood-Patterson to kickstart their new horror imprint. Her new co-workers seem less than thrilled. Ever since the illustrious Xavier Blackwood died and his party-boy son took over, things have been changing around the office. When Lussi receives a creepy gnome doll as part of the company’s annual holiday gift exchange, it verifies what she’s long suspected: her co-workers think she’s a joke. No one there takes her seriously, even if she’s the one whose books are keeping the company afloat.

What happens after the doll’s arrival is no joke. With no explanation, Lussi’s co-workers begin to drop like flies. A heart attack here; a food poisoning there. One of her authors and closest friends, the fabulous but underrated Fabien Nightingale, sees the tell-tale signs of supernatural forces at play, stemming from the gnome sitting quietly on Lussi’s shelf.

The only question is does Lussi want to stop it from working its magic?

 

I received a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

 

At 215 pages this was a nice quick horror fix which provided a perfect read on our dark wintery evenings. It also caught me slightly off guard, the early chapters lulled me into thinking this was a quirky and lite horror tale.  A Gremlins or a Critters (yes my horror movies references are straight out of the 1980’s) but Secret Santa got dark and I do like that in a book.

What I really liked was the lead character – Lussi Meyer.  She works in pubishing and Secret Santa sees her sitting in front of publishing legend Xavier Blackwood interviewing for a role as head of the new horror imprint at Blackwood-Patterson.  Despite being an established and well respected name Blackwood-Patterson don’t publish horror. Lussi will have her work cut out convincing Xavier she is the ideal candidate for the job.

Before the interview can be concluded (unsuccessfully for Lussi) Xavier Blackwood dies at his desk with only Lussi in attendance.  This leaves Lussi in the clear to confirm her new role to the staff at Blackwood-Patterson and she finds herself installed into a new job.  With her new colleagues in mourning and a barely concealed distrust/dislike of Lussi on display it seems Lussi ia going to have her work cut out to become an accepted member of staff.

At the office christmas party the Secret Santa exchange of gifts is in full flow.  Lussi opens her gift to uncover a creepy doll which she had last seen in the office of Xavier Blackwood during that fateful (fatal?) interview.  Naturally Lussi is not too enamoured to be presented with the grotesque troll like doll but she feigns pleasure and puts the doll into her office.

Although life continues at Blackwood-Patterson under the new management of Xavier’s son, strange things are happening in the big old building which houses the publishing firm.  Unexplained accidents to staff members. Excrement on Lussi’s office floor, which her colleagues don’t feel is too unusual.  The feeling of not being alone when she visits the stacks of unread manuscrips in the basement of the building.  Not to overlook the hooded figures performing a very perilous ritual after hours.

Lussi confides in one of her authors, the brilliant and larger than life horror writer Fabien Nightingale. Together they try to understand what is going on at Blackwood-Patterson and to get to the bottom of an old myth which surrounds Lussi’s secret santa gift.

The danger is growing and Lussi has increasing fear for her life, her colleagues can’t be trusted and people around her are dying – can she escape a similar fate?

Slick writing, dark but with humour and tension when it counts – Secret Santa was a very welcome diversion during a busy week and it’s a recommended read for horror fans.

 

 

Secret Santa is published by Quirk Books and is available in paperback and digital format.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084V7WTPQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

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January 20

Decades: Compiling the Ultimate Library with Sharon Bairden

Imagine you were tasked with the impossible responsibility of stocking a library from scratch but you were only allowed to include the very best books.  Where would you start? Could you do it?  Would you include that book everyone loves but you don’t understand why?

I wanted to know which books would be in the Ultimate Library so I decided to find out.  But I don’t get to choose – I want others to do the hard work for me. Readers, writers, bloggers, publishers – I am going to ask people to help me in my epic task but I am going to set my guests two rules:

Rule 1 – Nominate Five Books which should be included in my Ultimate Library

Rule 2 – You can only select one title per decade and the decades must be consecutive so we get a 50 year publication span

Easy!

To kick things off I asked my blogger pal, and debut author, Sharon Bairden to make the first five selections.  I hand over to Sharon to introduce herself and I asked her to include some self-promotion before she speaks about other people’s books.

Hi, my name is Sharon and I live just outside of Glasgow. By day I am a manager in a small independent advocacy service and by night I have a passion for all things crime! Some of you may know me as Chapterinmylife Book Blogger https://chapterinmylife.wordpress.com where I blog about the books that I love and book festivals and launches I attend.

I have also just stepped over to the other side and my debut novel, Sins of the Father was published by Red Dog Press on 27th November 2020. It is a dark psychological thriller/suspense set in Glasgow and it explores the impact of trauma through the eyes of Rebecca Findlay – a woman who has married her husband, not out of love, but to destroy him. Book two, another standalone psychological thriller, will be out later this year.

Gordon set me an almost impossible task! He has asked me to pick five of my favourite books and tasked me to choose one from each decade over five consecutive decades, from the 60s through to the noughties! So here goes!

 

DECADES

 

1960s – it has got to be Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Not only is this a damn good read, it has an important message and one that resonates with me deeply. Social justice and inequality are the themes that drive this book forward and outside of reading, upholding social justice, challenging inequality, discrimination and stigma are my passions.

 

1970s – Stephen King’s The Shining. Before I delved into crime, horror was my go to read and there was nothing better than curling up with a good Stephen King novel. The Shining is probably the only book and film which has terrified me throughout my life, the isolation, the addictions, the supernatural, God, it still sends shivers down my spine!

 

1980s William McIllvaney’s The Papers of Tony Veitch, what can I say, McIlvanney was, and in many respects, still is the icon of Scottish crime fiction. I’m currently rereading this series and realise that when I read it many years ago, I did not appreciate the beauty of his writing.

 

1990s – Martina Cole’s The Ladykiller, this ignited a love of crime, gritty gang life and saw me down at my library on an almost daily basis to get my fix. I’d fallen away from reading as much in my later teen years and Martina Cole set me back on track!

 

2000 – Lin Anderson’s Driftnet. Lin’s books cemented my love of Scottish crime fiction and it was my love of her writing which led me to start to go along to book events and festivals, which in turn brought me into contact with bloggers, writers and gave me the confidence to make the first steps in realising my dream to write my own book.

 

 

My thanks to Sharon for starting the curation process.  Decades will return and more books will be added to The Library.

Until then I’d recommend picking up Sharon’s book Sins of the Father.  Click through this link and grab a copy today: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sharon-Bairden/e/B0899BQMJX?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1611164121&sr=1-1

 

 

 

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January 18

The Sanatorium – Sarah Pearse

EVERYONE’S IN DANGER. ANYONE COULD BE NEXT.

An imposing, isolated hotel, high up in the Swiss Alps, is the last place Elin Warner wants to be. But she’s taken time off from her job as a detective, so when she receives an invitation out of the blue to celebrate her estranged brother’s recent engagement, she has no choice but to accept.

Arriving in the midst of a threatening storm, Elin immediately feels on edge. Though it’s beautiful, something about the hotel, recently converted from an abandoned sanatorium, makes her nervous – as does her brother, Isaac.

And when they wake the following morning to discover his fiancée Laure has vanished without a trace, Elin’s unease grows. With the storm cutting off access to and from the hotel, the longer Laure stays missing, the more the remaining guests start to panic.

But no-one has realized yet that another woman has gone missing. And she’s the only one who could have warned them just how much danger they’re all in . . .

 

Huge thanks to Thomas Hill at Transworld for a very early look at this chilling thriller due for release in early 2021.

 

If you have read Stephen King’s The Shining then you can easily understand how terrifying a remote, snowy location can be for a hotel. Rather than a haunted hotel try to imagine a luxury hotel hidden away deep in Swiss Alps in a fully refurbished building which was once a sanatorium.  A sanatorium that could treat patients away from any watchful eyes – you can rest assured it has its own dark history.

The Sanatorium in Sarah Pearse’s chilling thriller has been renovated to an unrecognisable form. It is the darling of the archietectural world and the famed architect who has given it new life has ensured a stark simplicity compliments luxury and comfort.  Into the frozen mountains comes Elin Warner, a British detective who is currently off work on a period of recouperation and still suffering PTSD after teh death of her younger brother when they were children.

Elin has been invited to stay in Le Sommet by her elder brother Isaac (who appears both strange and estranged).  He is celebrating his engagement and asks Elin and her partner Will to join him.  As an architect himself, Will is delighted to have the chance to visit Le Sommet but Elin arrives apprehensive.

Her concerns appear to be valid.  As Elin and Will arrive at the hotel in the midst of a heavy storm, the reader gets a sneak to another part of the site where one of the staff is about to have an unexpected encounter with a masked figure.  One which will see her plucked from the mountainside and held capitve and at the mercy of a stranger.  Her terror is palpable but as she sees the mask of the kidnapper more clearly – a rubber facemask with a breathing tube attached – she knows there will be no escape from her past.   For the reader this was not the first appearance of the masked villain – we had already been alerted to the danger this sinister figure posed.

As Elin and Will settle in to their room and after Isaac and Elin have an awkward reunion, the storm outside continues and conditions get worse.  The Swiss authorities are about to make life more challenging for Elin; they close access to the resort and other than key hotel staff and a handful of guests there is nobody left in Le Sommet. Then a body is found.

The locked-in claustrophobia oozes from the pages and is heightened when it becomes apparent the masked figure is still lurking around the hotel. With a murderer in their midst Erin steps into the fray and tries to offer what help she can but the danger is getting close to home – Isaac’s fiancee is missing and Erin cannot shake her distrust of her older brother.  Is it possible Isaac could be a killer?

The Sanatorium is a psychological thriller which will undoubtably please fans of the genre.  The isolated setting, the unpenetrable storm and the lurking rubber-faced hidden menace encapsulated the “base under siege” feeling of the classic Patrick Troughton Doctor Who serials I adore so much.  A stone-cold page turner which keeps you guessing to the very last page.

 

The Sanatorium will publish on 4 February through Bantam in hardback, digital and audiobook format.  Pre-order your copy today by clicking this handy wee link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086M9BLF5/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 16

The Library of the Dead (Edinburgh Nights 1) -T. L. Huchu

When ghosts talk, she will listen . . .

Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker – and she now speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to the living. A girl’s gotta earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone’s bewitching children – leaving them husks, empty of joy and life. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honour bound to investigate. But what she learns will change her world.

She’ll dice with death (not part of her life plan . . .) as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. For Edinburgh hides a wealth of secrets. And in the process, she discovers an occult library and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?

Opening up a world of magic and adventure, The Library of the Dead by T. L. Huchu is the first book in the Edinburgh Nights series.

 

My thanks to Jamie-Lee at Black Crow for inviting me to read The Library of the Dead.  I received a copy of the book from the publishers through Netgalley.

 

Book One of the Edinburgh Nights series.  Perfect.  Not the first in the “Ropa” series but the Edinburgh Nights series.  Why is that a good start?  Quite simply if the series is named after a character then you know that no matter how bad things get – the lead character will pull through.  Reacher, Rebus, Baggins, Morse…okay maybe not Morse but you get my point. But The Library of the Dead is about the Library, it is the Edinburgh Nights series – will our lead character, Ropa, make it to the end of the book?  Well I am not sharing but lets just say she is in for a terrible experience in the first of T. L. Huchu’s series.

Ropa lives in Edinburgh, in a caravan with her gran.  She makes money by meeting the dead around the city and taking messages back to their relatives who will pay for the message.  I particularly liked the family of bakers who were receiving recipes from beyond the grave as secret of the perfect battenburg was a closely guarded secret until it was too late to pass it to the next generation.

Edinburgh is very recognisable to anyone that has visited the city, Ropa covers a lot of ground and even a ‘Weegie like me could identify many of the areas she visited.  However, Edinburgh is not recognisable as we know it.  “God Save The King” is a greeting with “Long May He Reign” the response. Money is shillings again, technology such as mobile phones does exist but the city feels poor and the vibe was of a historical setting. All my confusion made the story feel nicely jarred with reality and I had no issues accepting the fantasy themes of magic, ghost whispering and the catalogue of fantasy horrors which will creep into story.

A ghost approaches Ropa – she is worried for he young son.  Although she has died she cannot rest until she knows her son is safe.  Ropa approaches the family but they are not helpful, she has a mission to fulfil but chasing down what is seemingly a lost cause does not pay the bills. After meeing a friend from school Ropa may finally catch a break.  Her friend has a job in a secret place and he thinks Ropa may find what she is looking for there – a secret library where magic is commonplace and actively practiced.  The only problem for Ropa is that her magical skill – speaking with ghosts is rather primitive for the fussy and traditional users of the library.  There is also the small matter of her unexpected arrival in a place which was meant to be a closely guarded secret – a price to be paid.

Ropa wants information about young children disappearing around the city.  When one child makes it home after a period of absence he has changed – hidden away by his family Ropa manages to see the child…head and face aged and withered.  What dark process could have inflicted this child?  Is the ghost of the worried mother going to discover her missing son is also going to age in this unnatural fashion?

Chasing down a lead one night Ropa spots something unexpected inside a house, she decides to break in to investigate futher.  Inside she stumbles upon a clue which may just explain what has happened to the missing childre however entering the house was the worst mistake Ropa has made in her young life.  It may also be the last mistake she makes.

The Library of the Dead pitches nicely between fantasy and light horror.  The initial confusion I experienced while trying to pigeonhole an identifiable time and society structure for Edinburgh soon became irrelevant as I just accepted the story as a fantasy tale in a setting I knew. The characters are will defined and each needs an edge to survive in this slightly dark world.  I read less fantasy than I once did but this was a treat and I was extremely glad I picked it as one of my first reads of the year – a strong start and I very much look forward to more in this series. More Library, more horrors and a bit of magic to keep everything unpredicable.

 

The Library of the Dead is published by Tor and will release in hardback, digital and audiobook on 4 February 2021.  You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Library-Dead-Edinburgh-Nights-ebook/dp/B08JM2P3L1/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&qid=1610798054&refinements=p_27%3AT.+L.+Huchu&s=digital-text&sr=1-1&text=T.+L.+Huchu

 

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December 31

My Favourite Books from 2020

Happy Hogmanay from a snowy Scotland.  As the sun sets for the final time on 2020 I think we can all agree that this has not been one of the better years.  Yet I look back on the previous 12 months with my bookish eyes and there were some great moments (mainly books I loved which offered escapism from our real-world dystopia).

Before everything stopped in March and we were no longer allowed out to play I had the joy of attending two events in Glasgow.  A special mention and my thanks to the Orenda authors who made the trip to Glasgow for the Orenda Roadshow.  Also to Elly Griffiths who hosted an afternoon tea and book reading in Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street.  Little did I know at the time that this would be the only events I would attend all year – both days were great fun and I took the teenager along too where he initially got a bit starstruck but also started his own collection of signed crime thrillers…I am so proud!

But I digress.  This post is my end of year wrap up.  The ten books which brought me the most joy and esacapism during the year.  Some were the right book at the right time. Some were great stories I could not put down and the others were titles I immediately put into the hands of someone else with a nod of “You MUST read this”.

 

10 – Curse The Day – Judith O’Reilly (Head of Zeus)

At a global tech gala hosted at the British Museum, scientist Tobias Hawke is due to unveil an astonishing breakthrough. His AI system appears to have reached consciousness, making Hawke the leading light in his field.

But when terrorists storm the building, they don’t just leave chaos in their wake. They seize Hawke’s masterwork, sparking a chain reaction of explosive events which could end the world as we know it.

Michael North, ex-assassin and spy-for-hire, must find the killers and recover the AI. But he can’t do it alone. Hawke’s wife, Esme, and teenage hacker, Fangfang, have their own reasons to help complete North’s mission – and together they unravel a dark and deadly conspiracy which stretches right to the top of the British elite.

Can North survive long enough to uncover the whole truth? Or is it already too late for humanity?

 

9 – Dark Highway – Lisa Gray (Thomas & Mercer)

An isolated highway in the middle of the desert—the perfect place to hide a secret.

LA-based artist Laurie Simmonds disappeared two months ago, her campervan abandoned on the isolated Twentynine Palms Highway, miles from anything—or anyone. With the police investigation stalled, her parents put all their faith in private investigator Jessica Shaw to find out the truth of what happened.

Jessica and her partner Matt Connor discover that two other women are missing, their disappearances connected to the same highway. When a link emerges between these women and a group of former college friends, Jessica feels certain they’re closing in on their target.

But no sooner do they follow this up than Laurie’s parents get spooked and drop the case. Jessica is blindsided but determined not to give up: three women are missing, and many more may be at risk. She can’t turn her back on them. But the more she pulls at the threads of the truth, the closer she comes to danger. Can she find out who’s behind these crimes before they come for her?

 

8 – Thirty-One Bones – Morgan Cry (Polygon)

When Daniella Coulstoun’s estranged mother Effie dies in Spain under suspicious circumstances, she feels it’s her duty to fly out for the funeral.

On arrival, Daniella is confronted by a dangerous group of expat misfits who claim that Effie stole huge sums of cash from them in a multi-million property scam. They want the money back and Daniella is on the hook for it.

When a suspicious Spanish detective begins to probe Effie’s death and a London gangster hears about the missing money, Daniella faces threats on every front. With no idea where the cash is and facing a seemingly impossible deadline, she quickly finds herself out of her depth and fighting for survival in a strange and terrifying world.

7 – One White Lie – Leah Konen (Penguin)

Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye – and you’re terrified what will happen if he finds you.

Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed – fun, kind, empathetic, very much in love.

Imagine that they’re in trouble. That their livelihoods – even their lives – are at risk. They have a plan to keep all of you safe, but they just need you to tell one small lie.

One small lie, and all of these problems would disappear . . .

You’d do it. Wouldn’t you?

It’s only one small lie, until someone turns up dead.

 

6 – The Resident – David Jackson (Viper)

THERE’S A SERIAL KILLER ON THE RUN
AND HE’S HIDING IN YOUR HOUSE

Thomas Brogan is a serial killer. With a trail of bodies in his wake and the police hot on his heels, it seems like Thomas has nowhere left to hide. That is until he breaks into an abandoned house at the end of a terrace on a quiet street. And when he climbs up into the loft, he realises that he can drop down into all the other houses through the shared attic space.

That’s when the real fun begins. Because the one thing that Thomas enjoys even more than killing is playing games with his victims – the lonely old woman, the bickering couple, the tempting young newlyweds. And his new neighbours have more than enough dark secrets to make this game his best one yet…

Do you fear The Resident? Soon you’ll be dying to meet him.

 

5 – A Dark Matter – Doug Johnstone (Orenda Books)

Meet the Skelfs: well-known Edinburgh family, proprietors of a long-established funeral-home business, and private investigators

When patriarch Jim dies, it s left to his wife Dorothy, daughter Jenny and granddaughter Hannah to take charge of both businesses, kicking off an unexpected series of events.

Dorothy discovers mysterious payments to another woman, suggesting that Jim wasn’t the husband she thought he was. Hannah s best friend Mel has vanished from university, and the simple adultery case that Jenny takes on leads to something stranger and far darker than any of them could have imagined.

As the women struggle to come to terms with their grief, and the demands of the business threaten to overwhelm them, secrets from the past emerge, which change everything

A compelling, tense and shocking thriller and a darkly funny and warm portrait of a family in turmoil, A Dark Matter introduces a cast of unforgettable characters, marking the start of an addictive new series.

 

4 – Stone Cold Trouble – Amer Anwar (Dialogue Books)

Trying – and failing – to keep his head down and to stay out of trouble, ex-con Zaq Khan agrees to help his best friend, Jags, recover a family heirloom, currently in the possession of a wealthy businessman. But when Zaq’s brother is viciously assaulted, Zaq is left wondering whether someone from his own past is out to get revenge.

Wanting answers and retribution, Zaq and Jags set out to track down those responsible. Meanwhile, their dealings with the businessman take a turn for the worse and Zaq and Jags find themselves suspected of murder.

It’ll take both brains and brawn to get themselves out of trouble and, no matter what happens, the results will likely be deadly. The only question is, whether it will prove deadly for them, or for someone else . . . ?

 

3 – How The Wired Weep – Ian Patrick (Independently Published)

The Wire crosses the pond.

Ed is a detective who handles informants. He recruits Ben, a young man, who is treading a dangerous path into the criminal underworld.
Ben’s unsure of where his loyalties lie. They have to find a way to work together despite their differences.

Both men are drawn into the world of Troy, a ruthless and brutal leader of an Organised Criminal Network.

Ben is torn between two worlds as he tries to walk the impossible line between criminality and helping Ed combat crime.
He lives in fear of discovery.

When your life is thrown upside down who do you turn to in order to survive?

Set against the backdrop of the 2012 Olympic Games, How the Wired Weep is a fast paced urban thriller where time is against both men as they attempt to serve their own agendas.

 

2 – Bobby March Will Live Forever – Alan Parks (Canongate)

WHO IS TO BLAME WHEN NO ONE IS INNOCENT?

The papers want blood.
The force wants results.
The law must be served, whatever the cost.

July 1973. The Glasgow drugs trade is booming and Bobby March, the city’s own rock-star hero, has just overdosed in a central hotel.

Alice Kelly is thirteen years old, lonely. And missing.

Meanwhile the niece of McCoy’s boss has fallen in with a bad crowd and when she goes AWOL, McCoy is asked – off the books – to find her.

McCoy has a hunch. But does he have enough time?

 

1 – King of the Crows – Russell Day (Fahrenheit Press)

2028, eight years after a pandemic swept across Europe, the virus has been defeated and normal life has resumed.

Memories of The Lockdown have already become clouded by myth, rumour and conspiracy. Books have been written, movies have been released and the names Robertson, Miller & Maccallan have slipped into legend. Together they hauled The Crows, a ragged group of virus survivors, across the ruins of London. Kept them alive, kept them safe, kept them moving.

But not all myths are true and not all heroes are heroes.

Questions are starting to be asked about what really happened during those days when society crumbled and the capital city became a killing ground.

Finally the truth will be revealed.

 

 

And there you have it – ten cracking books.  Bring on 2021 I am ready for new stories.

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December 29

My Five Favourite Audiobooks of 2020

In years gone by the audiobook was my go-to option when I was commuting to work and back. Since March 2020 my work has never been more than 10 metres from my bed so for a while it seemed there may not be a “best audiobooks” post for 2020.  However, shortly before the March lockdown commenced we welcomed a puppy to the Grab household and the long walks I have been taking since the summer (when his wee legs were able to start doing long walks) meant the audiobooks made an appearance after all.  Hurrah for puppies and brilliant stories.

As tradition demands I shall start to wind down the year by sharing the five audiobooks I listened to in 2020 which brought the most enjoyment. They are not in any order and I don’t have a “best” but if you asked me to recommend a good audiobook I would tell you to listen to any one of these.

Beast – Matt Wesoloski

Elusive online journalist Scott King examines the chilling case of a young vlogger found frozen to death in the legendary local ‘vampire tower’, in another explosive episode of Six Stories….

In the wake of the ‘Beast from the East’ cold snap that ravaged the UK in 2018, a grisly discovery was made in a ruin on the Northumbrian coast. Twenty-four-year-old vlogger Elizabeth Barton had been barricaded inside what locals refer to as ‘The Vampire Tower’, where she was later found frozen to death.

Three young men, part of an alleged cult, were convicted of this terrible crime, which they described as a ‘prank gone wrong’.

However, in the small town of Ergarth, questions have been raised about the nature of Elizabeth Barton’s death and whether the three convicted youths were even responsible.

King speaks to six witnesses – people who knew both the victim and the three killers – to peer beneath the surface of the case. He uncovers whispers of a shocking online craze that held the young of Ergarth in its thrall and drove them to escalate a series of pranks in the name of internet fame. He hears of an abattoir on the edge of town, which held more than simple slaughter behind its walls, the tragic and chilling legend of the ‘Ergarth Vampire’.

Both a compulsive, taut and terrifying thriller and a bleak and distressing look at modern society’s desperation for attention, Beast will unveil a darkness from which you may never return….

The Unwanted Dead – Chris Lloyd

Paris, June 1940.

The Nazi occupation of Paris begins. Detective Eddie Giral – a survivor of the last World War – watches helplessly on as his world changes forever. But there is something he still has control over.

Finding whoever is responsible for four murdered refugees: the unwanted dead, forgotten amid the headlines.

To do so, he must tread carefully between the Occupation and the Resistance, all the while becoming whoever he must be to survive in this new and terrible order descending on his home.

 

 

The Point of No Return – Neil Broadfoot

 

How far would you go to find the truth?

After more than a decade of being in prison for the brutal murder of two Stirling University students, Colin Sanderson has been released after his conviction was found to be unsafe.

Returning home to a small village not far from Stirling, Sanderson refuses police protection, even in the face of a death threat. But the PR firm that has scooped him up to sell his story does know of a protection expert in Stirling. They want Connor Fraser.

Connor reluctantly takes the assignment, partly as a favour to DCI Malcolm Ford, who is none too keen to have Sanderson on the loose, particularly as he was involved in the original investigation that saw him imprisoned.

When a body is found, mutilated in the same way as Sanderson’s victims were, all eyes fall on the released man. But how can he be the killer when Connor’s own security detail gives him an alibi?

As Connor races to uncover the truth, he is forced to confront not only Sanderson’s past, but his own, and a secret that could change his life forever.

 

The Law of Innocence – Michael Connelly

The most important case of his life.

Only this time the defendant is himself.

The law of innocence is unwritten. It will not be found in a leather-bound code book. It will never be argued in a courtroom. In nature, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the law of innocence, for every man not guilty of a crime there is a man out there who is. And to prove true innocence the guilty man must be found and exposed to the world.

Heading home after winning his latest case, Defence Attorney Mickey Haller – the Lincoln Lawyer – is pulled over by the police. They open the trunk of his car to find the body of a former client.

Haller knows the law inside out. He will be charged with murder. He will have to build his case from behind bars. And the trial will be the trial of his life.

Because Mickey Haller will defend himself in court.

With watertight evidence stacked against him, Haller will need every trick in the book to prove he was framed.

But a not-guilty verdict isn’t enough. In order to truly walk free, Haller knows he must find the real killer – that is the law of innocence….

Crime doesn’t come better than Connelly.

Red Desert – Paddy Magrane

When a violent attack on his girlfriend tears Tom’s life apart, escape makes perfect sense. He takes a job with an oil company, providing therapy to staff cooped up in a camp in Southern Iraq. Nice pay packet, if you don’t mind being stuck in the desert surrounded by unexploded mines and cluster bombs.

On his arrival, an explosion outside the camp leaves four men dead. Something about it doesn’t make sense, and Tom starts to ask questions. His curiosity begins to get him into trouble – especially with the former soldiers who work there as security contractors. When the camp is attacked and Tom is shipped home, he continues his investigations. Working with a journalist pursuing a story about a cover-up, Tom looks into a notorious army barracks. But then the journalist falls beneath a tube train. Falls, or is pushed? With an unseen enemy closing in, will Tom’s search for the truth end in his death, too?

Set between London, Berlin and Iraq, this white-knuckle suspense thriller is perfect for fans of The Hurt Locker, American Sniper and Homeland.

 

 

 

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