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Hide – Kiersten White

The challenge: spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught.

The prize: enough money to change everything.

Even though everyone is desperate to win – to seize their dream futures or escape their haunting pasts – Mack feels sure that she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that.

It’s the reason she’s alive, and her family isn’t.

But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes this competition is more sinister than even she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.

Fourteen competitors. Seven days. Everywhere to hide, but nowhere to run.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

I recieved a review copy through Netgalley

Hide was a great wee read which appealed to the horror fan within me. It centres on Mack, survivor of an extremely traumatic incident has a young child and now firmly of no fixed abode. She survives day to day in a shelter where she has a bed, gets fed and then will be turned out into the streets to fend for herself each day until the shelter opens again and she returns for another night’s sleep. By day Mack hides away in a secret spot where she will be off the streets and out of danger.

At the shelter on the day we join the story Mack is presented with an opportunity to turn her ability to vanish into a money making opportunity. A reality game show – spend a week hiding in a 7 day game of hide and seek against 13 other competitors with a $50k prize to the winner. She really can’t refuse and finds herself pulled along by events and on a long journey heading towards the park where the competition will take place.

The action takes place within an abandoned amusement park. It’s a wild and long-forgotten site where the paths inside twist and turn. The foliage within has taken over and the rides are sprinkled within the mazelike paths which no planner was able to carefully map out for the guests who once attended to enjoy the attractions. The quirk of the amusement park back in the day was that guests would stumble upon the rides, there was no direct lines of sight from one area to the next and only one day per year were the gates flung open for all the local to enjoy the thrills within. Now it will host a competitive game of hide and seek.

Kiersten White introduces the contestants and any viewer of reality TV shows will recognise the quirky characters, the wise heads, the glamour ones and we will pick our favourites. Amusingly the contestants know how these games work too and we see them judging and assessing the competition and even picking out possible romantic partners.

Into the tournament and things start to take a dark turn. Who are the seekers? Are they using animals to assist their hunt? Why is this park so difficult to navigate? Is that blood?

As their numbers start to dwindle (two players eliminated each day) it becomes clear to Mack and her fellow contestants that something is very wrong with the game they are playing but will it be too late for them to raise alarm? You cannot help but be drawn into the thrill and tension of this story and there is much more going on with this game of hide and seek than you will anticpate.

I had a lot of fun with Hide. Some small frustrations, not least the author’s decision to get a bit poetic with language when something unpleasant is happening on the page. I had to re-read one or two passages to try to work out exactly what had happened. But the niggles were far outweighed by the enjoyment at an unexpected series of twists and turns. After a run of so-so reads this shook things up nicely.

Hide is published on 24 May and will be available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09FDYPNK9/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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March 29

Vine Street – Dominic Nolan

Soho, 1935. Sergeant Leon Geats’ patch.

A snarling, skull-cracking misanthrope, Geats marshals the grimy rabble according to his own elastic moral code.

The narrow alleys are brimming with jazz bars, bookies, blackshirts, ponces and tarts so when a body is found above the Windmill Club, detectives are content to dismiss the case as just another young woman who topped herself early. But Geats – a good man prepared to be a bad one if it keeps the worst of them at bay – knows the dark seams of the city.

Working with his former partner, mercenary Flying Squad sergeant Mark Cassar, Geats obsessively dedicates himself to finding a warped killer – a decision that will reverberate for a lifetime and transform both men in ways they could never expect.

I recieved a review copy through Netgalley from the publisher but bought the audiobook and listened to Vine Street so my review reflects the audiobook I purchased rather than the written copy I initially recieved.

Had I listened to Vine Street before Christmas then it would have, without a shadow of doubt, been my favourite audiobook of 2021. As it stands it is currently my top audiobook listen of 2022 and the title which other audiobooks need to beat. So shall we proceed on the assumption you know I loved this book?

London in the 1930s is where most of the action in Vine Street takes place, except the story isn’t confided to that period. In fact, the opening scenes are actually set decades later when characters we will come to know well have their quiet retirement disturbed when ghosts from the past will be brought to their door.

But Soho is where much of the action will take place and we meet Leon Geats he is a police officer but he immediately struck me as the cop who doesn’t conform or play by the rules. This first impression was pretty much spot on as Geats is a loose cannon in his team and very much takes life in his own style. Geats is called to a house where a woman has died. She is found with a stocking around her neck but the investigating officer doesn’t want to rule it as murder. She appears to have been a working girl and a foreign national – almost not worth the bother of investigating! But Geats isn’t having it and he will dig and ask questions despite the apathy of his colleagues.

What Geats had not anticpated was the presence of a child at the murder scene. The daughter of the victim and all alone in the world, she takes a shine to Geats but he knows his lifestyle is too chaotic to be able to care for her so he finds one of her relatives to care for her. It’s a sensible and, Geats thinks, the correct thing to do but, as we will see, some decisions have reprecussions.

Vine Street is a huge book and it is impossible for me to do it justice in a brief review, I could wax lyrical for many, many pages. It’s the story of 1930’s Soho, the dancing, the girls, the hardship of the time, the police and some corruption within their ranks. But at heart it is a story about murders and an obsession to catch a killer. You will be drawn back in time and become fully immersed in these London streets. You will know the bar owners, who likes the music and where the dancing happens. But the lighter side of Soho has an opposing dark side. Prejudices are rife, racism, sexism, homophobia are commonplace and it will make for uncomfortable reading at times. Dominic Nolan takes it all and delivers the reader with an experience which will not quickly be forgotten.

I mentioned that I had listened to the audiobook of Vine Street. The narrator is Owen Findlay and he made this story shine. It’s without doubt one of the best narrator/story combinations I have heard for quite some time. The book is cracking and Findlay gave it such energy that I was hanging onto his every word. It’s over fourteen hours of listening and I am not going to lie when I say I wanted more.

There are real emotional highs and lows in Vine Street, some characters left too soon and I missed them badly. Some more than outstayed their welcome and I was glad when their contributions were at an end. The emotional impact all these players had on me is testament to the outstanding work of the author. There are some books I will always be glad I read, Vine Street is on that list.

Vine Street is currently available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. Paperback will be incoming this summer. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/vine-street/dominic-nolan/9781472288851

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February 23

The Death of Me – Michelle Davies

Is one of music’s greatest mysteries about to be solved?

‘He was a massive star until he did a headline grabbing retreat from the spotlight – but his disappearing act was FAKED. Fans won’t be happy when they find out – his reputation was dead in the water.’

When Isaac Naylor committed suicide after a teenage fan was found dead in his hotel room, the world thought it had lost one of the greatest rock stars of a generation. Naylor, lead singer of The Ospreys, had been arrested for causing the girl’s death and was on police bail when he drowned himself in the sea off the Devon coast.

Now, eight years on, music journalist Natalie Glass stumbles across a blind item on a US gossip website that suggests Naylor’s death wasn’t quite what it seemed – and he might in fact still be alive.

But as she delves deeper into what happened, Natalie finds she has a stark choice: give up trying to find out what happened to Naylor or risk her own obituary ending up in print.

I recieved a review copy of The Death of Me from the publishers through Netgalley.

Natalie Glass is a music journalist. She is a freelancer and hugely respected in the industry but in The Death of Me we find her at a low ebb. Her marriage is over, her young son is living with his father who can provide a more stable home life than Natalie who keeps irregular hours and has inconsistent income. She is desperate to get some stability in her life to allow her a better chance at being allowed more access to her son but until the family home is sold she is living in fear of bills arriving and relying upon the kindness of friends.

While browsing online gossip sites for potential stories she stumbles upon a story which suggests Issac Naylor, once the biggest name in music, may be writing songs anonymously for other artists to record. This in its-self would be big news but Naylor died eight years ago under the scandal of facilitating the death of a fan and there is absolutely no possibility he is helping new artists record successful songs.

Natalie is on the phone to her best friend and remembers the story about Naylor. As she relays the story her friend, who works at a recording studio, has an unusual reaction. Rather than laugh it off she seems started, edgy and implores Natalie not to repeat the story or to look into it further. She makes Natalie promise to ignore the gossip but Natalie is confused by the reaction, there couldn’t be any truth in this could there?

With no other projects demanding her time Natalie does start to look into Naylor’s story and his past and she begins to question whether there may have been any truth behind the gossip column’s claims. When she logs back onto the site to read the story again she discovers that post has been taken down; but why? More outrageous gossip has been allowed to run unchecked but the Isaac Naylor story has been removed.

Following her instincts there is a story to be found Natalie starts asking questions but her interest doesn’t go unnoticed and it isn’t long before her home and her friends are coming under attack. With her world collapsing around her Natalie is convinced she is getting closer to the most explosive story of the year but what would be the cost of uncovering the truth?

I blasted through The Death of Me in just a couple of days. I haven’t read any of the previous books by Michelle Davies but I found this to be a brilliantly told story which flowed and rewarded the reader with unexpected twists and shocks. This is exactly what I look for in a story, a tightly plotted drama with characters which I found engaging and wanted to keep reading about.

No better feeling for a reader than finding a gem on the bookshelves. Seek this one out!

The Death of Me is published by Orion and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B093XZYCZ4/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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January 15

The Key in the Lock – Beth Underdown

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unfurling out of an upper window and a hectic orange light cascading across the terrace.

By day, Ivy Boscawen mourns the loss of her son Tim in the Great War. But by night she mourns another boy – one whose death decades ago haunts her still.

For Ivy is sure that there is more to what happened all those years ago: the fire at the Great House, and the terrible events that came after. A truth she must uncover, if she is ever to be free.

My thanks to Ellie Hudson at Penguin for the opportunity to join the blog tour for The Key in the Lock. I recieved a review copy ahead of publication.

The Key in the Lock is Ivy’s story and it is a story of grief. Grief over the deaths of two boys, thirty years apart and in very different circumstances. But both deaths will have a profound impact upon Ivy and Beth Underdown writes about both in beautiful and haunting prose.

Durning The Great War Ivy’s son, Tim, has signed up and left to fight in France. Ivy was deeply unhappy with his decision, he had been studying at Oxford and she feels his decision was made while he was away from the family home and while she was unable to try to persuade him out of it. It is 1918, there is talk the war is very nearly over and Tim was just slightly too young to sign up – he could have waited and possibly there would not have been any need to head to the front line as the war may end soon. But it wasn’t to be.

While Tim was in the trenches he met his end, never to return home. But the telegram which his parents received informing them of his death stated simply that Tim was “Killed”. Killed. Two missing words are to cause Ivy much additional upset – there is no suggestion of Tim having been killed “in action”. Why, when her son was facing Germans on the front line, does his death notice not tell her he did fighting? As she struggles to understand what may lie behind the shortest and most devastating of messages an incident in her home will change Ivy’s life forever. Things will never be the same but will she get answers to the questions she has?

Understandably devastated at Tim’s death, Ivy is also dwelling on an earlier death. That of young William Tremain who died in a fire at Polneath house in 1888 (thirty years before). William had been trapped inside a room in Polneath which caught alight. His body was found under the bed but he had died before flame and smoke could be quelled enough to make a rescue possible.

Ivy had been nearby and was one of the first on the scene. She naturally became caught up in the subsequent inquest through slow and clever revelation Beth Underdown makes it clear to readers that there is more to William’s death than a tragic accident.

He was found under the bed of one of the staff, she would show kindness to the young boy – something which did not always appear to be the case from the patriach of the family. But the maid, Agnes, who would fuss and care for William wasn’t in her room in Polneath when the fire started nobody is sure where she was. The fire was in her room though and so was William. The child would come to visit her some evenings if he could not sleep. So when the fire took hold it appears William panicked, hid under the bed to escape smoke and flames and tragically lost his life.

Yet as the inquest and narrative continues there are unanswered questions. Why did William not run from the room? Where was Agnes? How did the fire start?

Both deaths occupy much of Ivy’s thoughts and the story switches between 1888 and 1918 as more information is established which helps readers understand what ocurred during both periods. Ivy is the central character to both tales but a deep and fascinating cast will spin in and out of her life and Beth Underdown weaves a rich narrative around them.

A beautifully told story of grief and a search for understanding.

The Key in the Lock is published by and is available in Hardback, Digital and Audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-key-in-the-lock/beth-underdown/9780241503300

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December 21

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill – C.S. Robertson

Death is not the end. For Grace McGill, it’s only the beginning. When people die alone and undiscovered, it’s her job to clean up what’s left behind – whether it’s clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets.

When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. But Grace knows that everyone has a story and that all deaths mean something more.

A stand-out novel with a unique narrative voice and an unguessable mystery, you are guaranteed to remember Grace McGill.

My thanks to the publishers who provided a review copy through Netgalley.

I don’t know where to start with this review. To be honest I just want to say:

Don’t read anything about this story.

Avoid all spoilers.

Just start reading and don’t stop.

Thank me later.

I’m not sure that will be quite enough. Even if I add *****Five Stars***** you would probably want a bit more. Okay I will do what I can but seriously, avoid spoilers.

Grace McGill lives in Glasgow. She works for herself and offers a specialist cleaning service – she cleans houses which have been neglected for prolonged periods of time and need to made habitable for a new resident. Often the reason the houses need a particularly deep clean is because the prevoius resident of the house has died in the house and nobody has noticed for a lengthy period of time. The Undiscovered Deaths part of the title suddenly clicks with the reader.

Needless to say the content of this story can be and may be upsetting for some readers. I don’t often include warnings when putting together a review but this time I feel it important to highlight that C.S. Robertson does not shy away from the work Grace McGill undertakes and the steps she may need to take to clean a home. It’s not detail which is included for shits and giggles, it forms an important part of understanding Grace and is dealt with factually and then the story proceeds.

Grace herself is a fascinating and unforgettable character. She lives alone (with a cat) and knows that people have trouble accepting what she does for a living. Even the cops who will contact her with new work can find her tricky to engage with. But Grace takes her work very seriously and wants to ensure she does right by the people she is cleaning up behind. She gets a quite unique insight into their lives and she is always respectful to their memory.

But Grace is now facing a strange dilemma. She has noticed something in one of the houses she is cleaning which does not seem to belong there. It is similar to an item she found at a previous house-clean. Curiosity leads Grace to a funeral and in turn she heads out of Glasgow to the Isle of Bute. Many years ago the island made the news and Grace has to consider the possibility a long-forgotten story may have a resolution in an untidy Glasgow flat.

I can’t say much more and I don’t want to say much more about the story. I DO want to say more about the writing which I found to be gobsmackingly good. C.S. Robertson tells a compassionate, haunting and unforgettable story and I loved reading about Grace. She dominates the story and shows a savvy inner strength when facing very challenging circumstances.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is out in January – I cannot wait for everyone to read this too.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill is published by Hodder & Stoughton on 20 January 2022. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-undiscovered-deaths-of-grace-mcgill/c-s-robertson/9781529367645

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September 4

A Slow Fire Burning – Paula Hawkins

‘What is wrong with you?’

Laura has spent most of her life being judged. She’s seen as hot-tempered, troubled, a loner. Some even call her dangerous.

Miriam knows that just because Laura is witnessed leaving the scene of a horrific murder with blood on her clothes, that doesn’t mean she’s a killer. Bitter experience has taught her how easy it is to get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Carla is reeling from the brutal murder of her nephew. She trusts no one: good people are capable of terrible deeds. But how far will she go to find peace?

Innocent or guilty, everyone is damaged. Some are damaged enough to kill.

Look what you started.

I received a review copy from the publishers. My thanks also go to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the tour for A Slow Fire Burning.

A Slow Fire Burning: a book which took a little while to draw me in – the classic slow burn thriller. And that’s exactly what this story was; even though the prologue tells of a young girl fleeing from a man who seems to have harmed her friend and the first chapter introduces us to Laura as she tries to wash blood from her t-shirt. Indeed the first five pages tell of danger, violence and two vulnerable women so you can’t say Paula Hawkins isn’t grabbing your attention from the get-go.

And once the reader gets past those first five pages there is soon a brutal murder to read about local busybody, Miriam, finds a dead man sprawled on the floor of his houseboat. Miriam tries to keep track of all the activity on the houseboats beside her own so she knows the man in question had entertained young Laura a few days earlier and even finds something belonging to Laura by his body but she isn’t going to leave that for the police to find…why not? I wondered.

Once the murder has been discovered, and Miriam has the chance to chat with the police about what she may have seen, Paula Hawkins takes us through the players in this clever drama. This is when the perception of a slow burn may kick in as we learn about the lives and background of those involved.

The murdered man’s aunt is Carla who recently lost her sister too. Carla experienced the ultimate tragedy many years earlier when her son, as a toddler, died while under the care of Carla’s sister. Her son’s death placed too much strain on Carla’s marriage to Theo and the marriage ended but the couple stay just a few streets apart and Carla still spends time with Theo. Theo is a successful novelist with a smash hit in his past, however, there is a suggestion he took inspiration from events in Miriam’s life and there is a history of bad feeling between the pair. Switch back to Laura, a troubled girl who was injured as a child by a hit and run driver leaving her with a damaged leg, a trigger temper and the inability to always think clearly and rationally. Laura earns a few extra quid by collecting shopping for Irene who is now in her 80s and not as mobile as she was. Irene was Angela’s next-door neighbour. Who is Angela? Well that would be Carla’s sister, Theo’s sister-in-law and the woman responsible for looking after Carla’s son the night he died. Angela died just a couple of weeks before events in the story commenced.

Phew, there are a fair few connections in that ensemble and Paula Hawkins establishes each character and covers their background with great care. She is seeding plot threads and throwing out red herrings and it is skillfully done. Okay it does mean the murder is slightly pushed to the background and this may give the impression we are not getting anywhere but we are, everything is leading somewhere and your reward as a reader is to getting to know these people and understanding their lives because nothing is quite what it seems.

You finish reading A Slow Fire Burning and you know you have finished reading a great story. That’s what we want, a book to set up a cast, push them and stretch their emotions to limits they didn’t know they had and stepping back to see how they react. Unpredictably!

A Slow Fire Burning is published by Doubleday and is available in Hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-slow-fire-burning/paula-hawkins/2928377051112

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August 20

Ouija – Zoé-Lee O’Farrell

The only thing for certain is the deaths were no accident.

Rayner High School once a prestigious school stands in ruins after such a terrible event.

A year later, a group of friends return to the abandoned school and their nightmare begins.

Something wants to get out and won’t take NO for an answer…

My thanks to Zoe-Lee O’Farrell for the opportunity to join the Question Mark Horror Blog tours.

I received a review copy of Ouija and Camp Death from the publishers so I could participate in this double-header blog tour.

I missed out on Point Horror as a reader, I was already onto King, Herbert, Laymon and Hutson when the Point Horror titles were at a peak. However, I was a young bookseller back in the day and I sold dozens of them, usually to the same faces every couple of weeks as a wave of young horror readers came to our bookshop to get their latest fix.

Question Mark Horror seem to be tapping into the same target readership as both Ouija and Camp Death are chillers but keep on the careful side of being too detailed with the depictions of carnage. YA readers will have a ball with these though and it is always great to see horror titles being enjoyed.

This leg of the Two Books One Tour is about Ouija by Zoé-Lee O’Farrell and the name is a big clue as to where the menace lies. Six childhood friends decide they will use an ouija board to communicate with the dead. Not only do they feel this is a sensible thing to do, they decide to do it in the old school in their town, a building no longer in use after it was the scene of an horrific massacre where staff and students died at the hands of an unknown assailant. Though perhaps this is a mystery which the ouija board could help cast some light upon?

The book opens with a flashback to the start of the massacre in the school but before we can get too much idea as to what may be about to unfold the narrative switches to the six friends who will be the stars of the show. Readers get to learn about each of the kids and understand the group dynamic. It’s clear there are some rivalries and hidden affection but they seem a tight group despite not all of them being keen to venture into Rayner High School and communicate with the spirits.

Soon the friends are slipping out their homes and making their way to the ruined building. Their final destination (as it were) is to be the Headmaster’s study but as they edge their way along the dark corridors we can see they are not the only ones moving around the old school that night. Without getting into too much more detail things do not go to plan and the friends don’t get to complete their ritual properly, have they left a path open for any of the spirits?

It isn’t long before unexplained incidents start happening around some of the group and each becomes increasingly unnerved. Their terror is complete when one of their number dies and the readers soon learn that one death is only just the beginning.

As I tend to read at night I will confess Ouija had me nervously glancing into the dark corners of my room on more than one occasion. It’s a relatively quick read and the story zips along at a very satisfying pace which meant we got to the darker events pretty quickly. Fans of horror films and chilling fiction will get their kicks from this one as there are plenty of recognisable horror devices brought into play. Good fun and always a treat to get a new horror read, I look forward to seeing what Question Mark Horror will have for us in future.

Ouija is available in digital format and can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0997CPK3J/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

The Question Mark Horror tour is a two book affair and I will be back with my thoughts on Camp Death at the end of the month

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July 23

The Beresford – Will Carver

Just outside the city – any city, every city – is a grand, spacious but affordable apartment building called The Beresford.

There’s a routine at The Beresford.

For Mrs May, every day’s the same: a cup of cold, black coffee in the morning, pruning roses, checking on her tenants, wine, prayer and an afternoon nap. She never leaves the building.

Abe Schwartz also lives at The Beresford. His housemate, Sythe, no longer does. Because Abe just killed him.

In exactly sixty seconds, Blair Conroy will ring the doorbell to her new home and Abe will answer the door. They will become friends. Perhaps lovers.

And, when the time comes for one of them to die, as is always the case at The Beresford, there will be sixty seconds to move the body before the next unknowing soul arrives at the door.

Because nothing changes at The Beresford, until the doorbell rings…

My thanks to Karen at Orenda for my review copy and to Anne Cater at Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to host this leg of the blog tour for The Beresford.

I never do this; pleae indulge me for a second. That Cover. Love it. I can happily ignore 99% of book covers without needing to comment but that one’s a cracker. I wonder if Orenda realise they are saving the very best covers for their supernatural stories? Quite right too – a good horror tale needs a suitably grabbable skin wrapped around it.

So a horror story about a house called The Beresford. But not a haunted house story, this book is all about the people who come to live in The Beresford. And those who come to die.

It seems the cycle is inevitable. A new resident will arrive to stay in The Beresford exactly sixty seconds after the last breath of life leaves one of the current occupants. In that sixty seconds a body has to be hidden and Mrs May (the owner of The Beresford) will come out from her room and introduce herself to the new resident and try to help them settle in.

Mrs May is the old lady at the heart of the story. The enigma. She jokes she is 100, 150, 1200 years old but her residents just see a kindly old woman who is rather set in her ways and appears to be a bit of a matchmaker if her residents are suitability single and lonely.

Nobody arrives at The Beresford with murder in their heart but once they get inside those cheap but surprisingly spacious rooms something changes. A trigger moment will arise and a moment of madness will lead to the next corpse on the floor. The clever ones will cover up their crimes and kindly old Mrs May will just make a few subtle suggestions about “cleaning up”. In some instances Mrs May will need to take direct intervention and tell the murderer how to dispose of a body.

Mrs May knows everything that happens at The Beresford and down the years she has become very adept at body disposal.

What a clever, twisted and entertaining story this was. The constant knowledge someone in the story was going to be killed. Rooting for a favourite or waiting for the irritating ones to be erased but always compelling. There are 1,000 stories which could be told about the people that visit The Beresford and 1,000 more about the people that come looking for them when they are gone. I could have read all 2,000 of them.

This isn’t a scary horror tale in the jump-scare, something’s behind me mould. This is a disturbing story of demonic forces, murder and dismemberment and one for the reader to try to understand what is happening then try to understand how the story could possibly find closure. It’s the best I have read from Will Carver and major kudos to him for delivering such an accessible, readable and utterly enjoyable horror tale.

The Beresford 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/B08WRMCLVQ/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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November 2

The Last Resort – Susi Holliday

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One perfect crime.

When Amelia is invited to an all-expenses-paid retreat on a private island, the mysterious offer is too good to refuse. Along with six other strangers, she’s told they’re here to test a brand-new product for Timeo Technologies. But the guests’ excitement soon turns to terror when the real reason for their summons becomes clear.

Each guest has a guilty secret. And when they’re all forced to wear a memory-tracking device that reveals their dark and shameful deeds to their fellow guests, there’s no hiding from the past. This is no luxury retreat—it’s a trap they can’t get out of.

As the clock counts down to the lavish end-of-day party they’ve been promised, injuries and in-fighting split the group. But with no escape from the island—or the other guests’ most shocking secrets—Amelia begins to suspect that her only hope for survival is to be the last one standing. Can she confront her own dark past to uncover the truth—before it’s too late to get out?

My thanks to Susi Holliday for arranging an early review copy of The Last Resort

Tech thriller or survival horror tale? Murder story or fantasy nightmare? Well thanks to the twisted genius that is Susi Holliday you can enjoy all those concepts within The Last Resort. I originally pegged this story as Agatha Christie meets Westworld with some Enid Blyton and Michael Slade. Now I just want to class it as a Susi Holliday thriller – dark, deadly and uttery gripping.

Our focus in The Last Resort is Amelia – she has been invited to attend an all-inclusive trip to a private island. We pick up her story as she boards the plane to set off on her adventure and through Amelia’s eyes we see the other six passengers who are joining her on the trip. An unusual mix of characters who are not too keen on sharing information about themselves but everyone appears to have been selected for a skill or opportunity which they can offer to their mysterious hosts.

Their actual destination is to be kept a secret and a mid-flight incident means that the seven guests will not be able to keep track of their flight path or see where they actually land. On deplaning the seven are met by one of the staff members on the island who presents them all with a piece of tech which they will be required to wear for the duration of their stay. This tech has been developed by Timeo Technologies, who appear to be the firm behind their host’s invitation, and promises to push the boundaries of technological advances to make their stay remarkable. However Amelia’s device doesn’t work correctly and she has to take an older model – it alienates her slightly from the rest of the group and when the tech starts to reveal the full extent of its capabilities it causes futher divides as suspicion and fear amongst the guests escalates.

The reason behind this suspicion and fear is that the luxury retreat the guests were expecting is not quite the island they find themselves on. Their hosts can speak directly into their ears, their every move appears to be under surveillance and worse still; the device can apparently read the mind of the wearer and project images of their darkest secrets into the open. This group of strangers are being subjected to a breakdown of their defences and information, which could ruin them, is being publically shared. This mental attack is hard for Amelia and her fellow guests to contend with yet there are also phyiscal perils to be overcome too. The Last Resort is not a story about a luxury retreat, it is a story about seven strangers in a battle of wits to try to survive the experience and confront their mysterious host to understand the reason behind the vindictive and potentially deadly assults.

I am very fond of tense thrillers such as this. The chapters are timestamped to let the reader know there is a deadline to be met and that for some of the guests the minutes which tick by may not be sufficient to secure their safety. The confines of the island, and the way the author depicts the narrow pathways and passages the guests have to navigate adds a feeling of claustrophobia which accentuates the trap which they feel they have entered. The location almost feels like one of the characters as it is so integral to their plight.

The Last Resort is another gem from Susi Holliday. I loved the unpredictable nature of the peril the characters face. The tech is clever, deadly and alarmingly plausible. If you are seeking a new page-turner then you should look no further than The Last Resort – five star thrills all the way.

The Last Resort is available now for Amazon Prime members through the Amazon First Reads scheme. Publication date for non Prime members is 1 December 2020. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B085HCCP4W/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2

Category: 5* Reviews, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

July 24

One White Lie – Leah Konen

Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye.

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

Imagine they’re in trouble. That someone is telling lies about them, threatening their livelihoods – and even their lives.

Imagine your ex is coming for you.

If your new best friends needed you to tell 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 . . .

My thanks to Sryia at Penguin RandomHouse for my review copy and the opportunity to join the tour.

Ooft.

Psychological thrillers sometimes aren’t quite what they are billed as. No real thrills, a bit predicable, never a sense of peril – essentially some books just don’t quite hit the mark for me. But One White Lie didn’t just hit the mark, it smashed it…maybe with the hammer that protagonist Lucy King carries around with her.

Ooft.

This story got me hooked – started reading in a hot bath, looked up 2 hours and 250 pages later in a decidedly cold bath. As a reader there is nothing better than finding a book which just keep you turning pages – One Little Lie did that for me. Always that nagging worry, doubt that what Lucy was experiencing was all it seemed, questions around why her new friends were shunned by the townsfolk where they lived. But I get ahead of myself.

We first meet Lucy as she is moving in to a new cottage in a small town on the outskirts of the city. She is clearly terrified and on the run from a controlling and aggressive partner and she needs a safe haven to sort out what to do.

Lucy meets her new neighbours, John and Vera. They are a few years older than Lucy but a strong friendship bond soon forms as the couple show her a kindness and compassion which she has been missing from her life for so long. For John and Vera Lucy represents a new friend in a town where they are deeply unpopular with the locals. For a long time Lucy tries to piece together snippets of gossip to determine why her friends are being held as outcasts. A nice layer of mystery for the reader as we only get snippets and rumour too.

Just as Lucy begins to relax in her new surroundings two shocking twists will threaten to destroy the sanctuary she has created. One way to ensure her continued safety is to tell One Little Lie to help John and Vera. That shouldn’t be too difficult a task should it? Unfortunately for Lucy one lie will lead to another and fate will play her a cruel hand further threatening her safety.

During all these issues Lucy is ever aware her ex is out there somewhere and he will be looking for her. So it is paranoia that Lucy believes someone has been in her home or has her ex finally caught up with her?

Stories build on the need to lie and sustain that lie places the protagonist under extreme stress and Leah Konen delivers that tension brilliantly. I really enjoyed One Little Lie – it ticked all the right boxes and I’d definitely recommend it.

One White Lie is published by Penguin and is available in physical, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YTHYLC6/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off