Blackout – Grab This Book

May 17

Come Closer – Sara Gran

There was no reason to assume anything out of the ordinary was going on.

Strange noises in the apartment.

Impulsive behaviour.

Intense dreams.

It wasn’t like everything went wrong all at once.

Shoplifting.

Fighting.

Blackouts.

There must be a reasonable explanation for all this.

I received a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher

This came highly recommended by fellow blogger Liz, at Liz Loves Books, who tweeted that this was genuinely creepy and unsettling. If Liz was unsettled by a book then I wanted to read it. Having zipped through Come Closer in a day (it’s a horror novella) I fully understand why Liz flagged up the unsettling nature of this one, it’s a disturbing tale of demonic possession.

It is Amanda’s story. We first see her handing a piece of work to her boss except the submission contains some personal insults about her boss which most definitely were not in the draft which Amanda prepared. Amanda is horrified that someone would try to prank her in such a mean way and quickly defuses the situation by printing a fresh copy of her report which is insult free. Her boss accepts someone had been mucking about and order is restored but Amanda cannot help but concede to herself that the insults were a good reflection on how she felt about her boss.

First signs of trouble and disharmony are in place and mysterious incidents are going to quickly follow. In their appartment Amanda and her husband Ed hear a tapping noise. It’s irritating, untracable and goes on for weeks. Amanda hears it when she is home alone. Ed didn’t hear it when he was home alone. The noise comes and goes, no pattern and no routine just an irritating tapping.

Amanda begins to have strange dreams. The dreams are intense and vivid and the reader begins to see a lack of focus in Amanda’s daily life. The readers see how Amanda’s grip is starting to slip away from her. Through some fun wee plot devices the author introduces the possibility to Amanda that she may be possessed, but she rejects the notion – initially.

Come Closer is a close-up look at the main character of a story losing everything. As I mentioned, this is a novella, so I flew through the book in a single day – aided by the fact I had more time that usual that day to get some reading done. But once Amanda’s life starts to go off the rails I just wanted to keep reading. Everything happening to her (and the things she was happening to) were compulsive reading and I wanted to know how she was going to get herself out of the mess she was in. Then I began to wonder IF she would get out of the mess she was in. It is slick writing from Sara Gran which keeps you hooked and although it’s not a long book it packs a very effective punch.

Come Closer is published on 1 June 2021 by Faber and Faber. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/come-closer/sara-gran/9780571355556

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March 28

Deep Dark Night – Steph Broadribb

Fearless Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson travels to Chicago to trap the head of a notorious crime family, in a high-stakes, nail-biting mission that sees her trapped in one of the city’s tallest buildings during a blackout…

A city in darkness. A building in lockdown. A score that can only be settled in blood…

Working off the books for FBI Special Agent Alex Monroe, Florida bounty-hunter Lori Anderson and her partner, JT, head to Chicago. Their mission: to entrap the head of the Cabressa crime family. The bait: a priceless chess set that Cabressa is determined to add to his collection.

An exclusive high-stakes poker game is arranged in the penthouse suite of one of the city’s tallest buildings, with Lori holding the cards in an agreed arrangement to hand over the pieces. But, as night falls and the game plays out, stakes rise and tempers flare.

When a power failure plunges the city into darkness, the building goes into lockdown. But this isn’t an ordinary blackout, and the men around the poker table aren’t all who they say they are. Hostages are taken, old scores resurface and the players start to die.

And that’s just the beginning…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy and also to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the chance to host today’s leg of the blog tour.

Bounty-Hunter Lori Anderson returns for a fourth outing in Deep Dark Night. She has her partner, JT, alongside her and the kick-ass duo are going to need to be at their very best as they are working off the radar to assist an FBI agent to bring down the head of one of Chicago’s crime families.

If you haven’t had the chance to read any of Broadribb’s previous books in the Lori Anderson series you need not fret as Deep Dark Night works extremely well as both stand alone thriller and a great introduction to the series. I am sure there will be many first time readers who will love Deep Dark Night as much as I did and will take the opportunity to catch up on the first three books. A good decision!

But what to expect from Deep Dark Night? Does Agatha Christie meets Die Hard sound intriguing?

Lori and JT find themselves involved in a high stakes poker game. The game is hosted by Cabressa, gangster and general bad guy, the other players are equally dislikable types who can afford the big purse needed to have a seat at this game. The event is being held in the penthouse suite in a Chicago skyscraper. Lori has a seat at the table so she can stake a valuable set of chess pieces which Cabressa badly wants. The chess pieces and Lori’s buy-in purse is provided by the FBI. They will be watching through high tech surveillance equipment and Lori feels safer knowing they have her back.

Unfortunately things do not go to plan. Citywide blackout sees the penthouse going into lockdown. The Panic Room features in the penthouse are activated. Air conditioning, lighting and temperature controls are impacted. Nobody can get in and, more importantly, nobody can get out. So when a recorded voice addresses all the occupants of the penthouse and accuses each of harbouring a dark secret. Tensions are high. The voice announces one of their number is a police informant, another is a murderer and most alarmingly one is HERRON. A rival gangster who has been undermining many of Cabressa’s business opportunities. The voice commands the poker players work out which of their number is the mysterious Herron. If they fail the room they are locked in will lose light then air and they will all suffocate within 90 minutes.

A whodunnit (whoissit?) In the style of Christie. But the shades of Die Hard creep in too as we have 10 desperate individuals fighting for their lives in a skyscraper. The body count will be high.

At this point I should switch the alliteration button on. Deep Dark Night is a pulsating page turner, a rip roaring race against time, a breathtaking blockbuster of a book. You get the gist?

I am very much a fan of this kind of action adventure tale. The mysterious Herron figure remains undetected for a long time but several likely candidates emerge, not least Lori who is a stranger to all the other players and very much a possible candidate. One thing is certain – Herron isn’t surviving the encounter so nobody can risk being accused of being Herron.

Great fun to read. Brilliantly paced and decidedly nasty in places – Deep Dark Night is another great read from Steph Broadribb. Give it a go and join #TeamLori

Deep Dark Night is published by Orenda Books and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07XBWTW6X/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

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September 1

Blackout – Ragnar Jonasson

On the shores of a tranquil fjord in Northern Iceland, a man is brutally beaten to death on a bright summer’s night. As the 24-hour light of the arctic summer is transformed into darkness by an ash cloud from a recent volcanic eruption, a young reporter leaves Reykajvik to investigate on her own, unaware that an innocent person’s life hangs in the balance.

Ari Thor Arason and his colleagues on the tiny police force in Siglufjordur struggle with an increasingly perplexing case, while their own serious personal problems push them to the limit. What secrets does the dead man harbour, and what is the young reporter hiding? As silent, unspoken horrors from the past threaten them all, and the darkness deepens, it s a race against time to find the killer before someone else dies… Dark, terrifying and complex, Blackout is an exceptional, atmospheric thriller from one of Iceland s finest crime writers.

With thanks to Karen at Orenda Books for my review copy.

The third release in the Dark Iceland series: Blackout nestles between Snowblind and Nightblind.

Having read Nightblind (which follows Blackout) relatively recently I knew how a couple of the plot threads in in Blackout were going to be resolved. This slightly reduced the impact of one of the twists as I was watching for the hints of what was to come. But watching for clues actually gave me a greater appreciation of the delightful story crafting that is on show once again from Ragnar Jonasson!

The story opens with the discovery of a body, someone has been brutally murdered and the Siglufjordur police are required to investigate. The victim is a contractor staying in the area to work on construction of a tunnel – this means he is not a local and the lack of the Siglufjordur gossip will mean a more thorough investigation will be required. This is where I feel Ragnar Jonasson excels, he can compile a whodunnit (and a whydunnit) like an old master. With the victim discovered Jonasson can take the reader on a journey of slow discovery. You know that while you read you are being taken ever closer to the point you learn the name of the killer. But before enlightenment comes the careful and clever reveals: clues, red herrings and side plots wonderfully interwoven as the author lays out the secret lives of his characters for our entertainment.

Of the three books Blackout has replaced Snowblind as my favourite Ari Thor novel. This story takes a much darker tone, the characters are dealing with harsher events, they seem to have more troubled backgrounds. Even the main players do not appear to be coping so well with daily life. The character angst gives the whole book a more tense and nervous feel which dramatically differentiated it from Snowblind which I still believe had quite a gentle narrative feel.

I did think that Ari Thor features less in this book than in past adventures with a fair bit of focus diverted towards the journalist Isrun. She plays a key role in Blackout and I am hoping she may return in more books in the future (or the past) as I really enjoyed her scenes. The investigative reporter added a different dynamic to Blackout and helped to contribute to the different feel of this book to the previous two.

One final word – on the words. Blackout is translated by Quentin Bates who very much deserves the plaudits too, my enjoyment of the Dark Iceland stories is partly due to the fact that they are so very readable.

I make no secret of the fact I am a fan of the Dark Iceland books and Blackout only reaffirms my belief that Ragnar Jonasson is a wonderful teller of tales. The wait for the next book is always a frustrating period (but always worth the wait). If you are not reading these books – you really should be!

Blackout is published by Orenda Books and available now in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blackout-Dark-Iceland-Ragnar-Jonasson/dp/1910633461/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1472684931&sr=1-3&keywords=ragnar+jonasson

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