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The Kitchen – Simone Buchholz, Translated by Rachel Ward

When neatly packed male body parts wash up by the River Elbe, Hamburg State Prosecutor Chastity Riley and her colleagues begin a perplexing investigation.

As the murdered men are identified, it becomes clear that they all had a history of abuse towards women, leading Riley to wonder if it would actually be in society’s best interests to catch the killers.

But when her best friend Carla is attacked, and the police show little interest in tracking down the offenders, Chastity takes matters into her own hands. As a link between the two cases emerges, horrifying revelations threaten Chastity’s own moral compass, and put everything at risk…

I received a review copy from the publisher, Orenda Books. I am grateful to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the blog tour for The Kitchen.

The writing in The Kitchen is exquisite. Here’s a crime story, a friendship story, a story of vengeance, of retaliation and of body parts being dredged out of the river – and it’s laid out for us by Simone Buchholz in a little over two hundred pages. She packs so much action, energy and description into the tightest and devastatingly effective narrative that no word seems wasted.

I’m no stranger to Buchholz’s Chastity Reiley books and I’ve always enjoyed the stories about the Hamburg State Prosecutor and the dual investigative and prosecutor roles she seems to hold. Her personal life always seems chaotic and that comes to the fore in The Kitchen as one of Chasity’s closest friends is attacked.

Unable to help her friend and under pressure from her boyfriend over where their relationship may be heading – Chastity feels she may be losing focus on the investigation into the human remains that have been found in the river.

What I loved about The Kitchen is that the reader is given some very broad hints as to where certain elements of the story may be heading. You keep reading and the hints and suggestions keep coming until you know what Chastity is not seeing. And it’s glorious. Because, if you’re keeping up, then one scene will have your stomach churning in horrified realisation.

There’s a lot of snappy dialogue, many cigarettes are smoked and emotions and frustration run high. Without doing spoilers I was happy with how the retaliation element of the plot was handled, I didn’t like the fact the events triggering that retaliation seemed to be all too avoidable but all too common. Tremendous writing to capture those emotions.

When a review of a translated book is singing the praises of the power of the author’s writing it also needs to sing the praises of the phenomonal work the translator contributed towards my enjoyment of a story. I would not have had the opportunity to experience the thrills and shocks in The Kitchen were it not for Rachel Ward taking Simone Buchholz’s words and making that tight, powerful narrative style shine for us.

At a time where I have been struggling to read and have lacked focus on many books I have tried to enjoy I realise I needed a book like The Kitchen to shake some life into my reading lethargy. The tight plotting, the snappy dialogue and the economy of Buchholz’s writing let me zip through this book and hold my attention – a very refreshing and timely read.

The Kitchen is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-kitchen/simone-buchholz/rachel-ward/9781916788077

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

February 6

In The Blink of An Eye – Jo Callaghan (audiobook)

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds. Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye. DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss.

A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience. Logic versus instinct. With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

I’m reviewing a book from my Audible library

In The Blink of An Eye was the Waterstones Thriller of the Month in January 2024 and the sequel is due in the very near future. After hearing so many of my fellow bookbloggers showering praise on this book and knowing they are champing at the bit for the next Jo Callaghan release I felt it was time to catch up. I had Audible credits and was very much in the mood for a read which would throw a different dynamic into the mix. An AI police officer sounded like something too good to pass up.

A good choice – Kat Frank is a lead character I immediately found myself rooting for. She’s a recently widowed mother, her husband’s terminal illness was mentally and physically draining. After his death Kat and her son have tried to rebuild and adjust to their new lives, as we join the story Kat is returning to work and her boss wants her to head up a new team. It’s suggested Kat leads a pilot project reviewing old (cold) cases of missing people, the taskforce which is assembled to review these cases will be assisted by an Artificial Intelligent Detective Entity (AIDE) which has been given the name Lock.

The reader is told Kat has issues with AI. We learn why and we wonder if this partnership is doomed from the outset. Prospects for success seem even bleaker when it also comes to light that Lock has been developed as his creator doesn’t believe the police force is fit for purpose – Lock is to remove the possibility of corruption and prejudice, bias and human error. It can do menial tasks in the blink of an eye, it can learn, analyise and adapt.

Lock should be an asset but for Kat it will also bring huge problems, not least it does not understand nuance, compassion or how a police officer with twenty years of experience will have a gut instinct for what is right and what feels wrong. It will be a learning experience for all involved.

As I previously mentioned: Kat, Lock and her team are reviewing missing people cases. What the reader knows is that an unknown narrator has contributed to the story too – someone who’s been taken. Is locked alone in a room, drugged, possibly interfered with (in some way they cannot determine) and they are not alone in their unusual, medicated prison. The drugs this unknown person is given keeps them weak, mostly asleep and far too disoriented to do much beyond survive day to day. It is a chilling form of captivity and this was conveyed very effectively in the audiobook where narration duties moved from the excellent Rose Ackroyd (who takes the lead for 99% of the book) to the equally impactful voice of Paul Mendez. Giving the mysterious captive a different voice hit home.

I don’t like to make a habit of comparing authors when I put together a review however…if you enjoy the awkward, often stilted pairing of Poe and Tilly in the excellent books by M.W. Craven then the scenes with Kat and Lock will delight you. I’d go further to compare In The Blink of An Eye to a fusion of the great American thriller writers: Robin Cook and Michael Crichton. It’s a terrific read bringing elements of tech, police investigations, medical undertones and a cast of characters who find it difficult to relate to each other and accept “their” way of working is not the only alternative.

I touched briefly on the fact I listened to the audiobook. Huge plaudits to Rose Ackroyd for a wonderful listen. She brings Jo Callaghan’s words to life and had me listening longer than I’d planned as I was totally drawn into the story. There are many characters who all sounded, acted and felt unique and it is refreshing to hear an audiobook where the narrator can convincingly “do” the regional accents they attempt! My current audiobook has an American reader spectacularly failing to make her Irish character sound like a resident of the Emerald Isle.

The time I need to invest into an audiobook is two or three times more than it may take me to read the same book in paperback. I like my audiobooks to be a top quality listen and In The Blink of An Eye certainly hit that mark. One minor quibble would be about a plot thread being a bit too obviously signposted; but when that event did come to pass it actually played out better than I had feared and I enjoyed the subsequent fallout from said event. Bit cryptic but no spoilers will be found here and it certainly would not deter me from recommeding In The Blink of An Eye.

This book hits hard emotionally as it deals very well with loss, illness, isolation, grief and prejudice – but Jo Callaghan keeps the mystery flowing, the tension high and the humanity of Kat Frank to the fore. It’s a storming book and I enjoyed it immensely. I’m more than ready for more Kat Frank in my TBR please.

In The Blink of An Eye is published by Simon & Schuster and is available in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/in-the-blink-of-an-eye/jo-callaghan/9781398511194

Category: Audiobook, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

January 16

The Trials of Marjorie Crowe – C.S. Robertson

How do you solve a murder when everyone thinks you’re guilty?

Marjorie Crowe lives in Kilgoyne, Scotland. The locals put her age at somewhere between 55 and 70. They think she’s divorced or a lifelong spinster; that she used to be a librarian, a pharmacist, or a witch. They think she’s lonely, or ill, or maybe just plain rude. For the most part, they leave her be.

But one day, everything changes.

Local teenager Charlie McKee is found hanging in the woods, and Marjorie is the first one to see his body. When what she saw turns out to be impossible, the police have their doubts. And when another young person goes missing, the tide of suspicion turns on her.

Is Marjorie the monster, or the victim? And how far will she go to fight for her name?

I received a review copy from the publishers, Hodder & Soughton, through Netgalley

Here it is. The high-bar to which all other books will need to aspire to match through 2024. When I tell you I started my reading this year with a stone cold banger of a book it’s no exaggeration. The Trials of Marjorie Crowe will introduce you to one of the most memorable lead characters you’re likely to encounter for many months to come and her story will live with you just as long. I adored this book.

Marjorie Crowe is a witch. Not the halloween-esk, pointy hat, bubbling cauldron type of witch but a woman who’s learnt from her predecessors which plants and flowers can have medicinal benefits, the roots which will help make a lotion or the oils which could make a salve. She lives in an old cottage in a quiet village in central Scotland. Naturally the other villagers, particularly the teenagers, consider Marjorie a figure they can ridicule and easily dismiss but Marjorie doesn’t care too much about wagging tongues, those that came before her faced bigger dangers than being mocked by their neighbours (wirriet and burnt) and she goes on with her day and follows her routine – like clockwork.

Each day Marjorie takes the same walk around the village of Kilgoyne, she treads the same paths, turns the same corners and passes directly through the local pub (not stopping). Every. Single. Day. It drives the publican crazy and it further adds to the rididule Marjorie exposes herself to but Marjorie is a creature of habit. One day, however, something is going to happen during Marjorie’s walk which will shake her to her core. Deep in the woods Marjorie finds a local teenager, Charlie McKee, hanging in a clearing. Marjorie heads home – stunned and incommunicative – she doesn’t raise the alarm and it is only when Charlie’s body is discovered several hours later that people start to question why Marjorie didn’t tell anyone of what she saw until it was far, far too late.

The villagers of Kilgoyne will shun and turn on their peculiar neighbour. But for the reader there’s a small amount of clarification dripped into the story by C.S. Robertson. When Marjorie speaks with the police about what she saw when she found Charlie it seems there were two impossibilities – one is that someone else had seen Charlie, alive and well, an hour later than Majrorie saw his body. The second impossibility was who was beside Charlie in the woods when she saw his hanged body.

As I read I was sure Marjorie was always truthful about what she had seen. This is a woman of utter conviction and she knew she was right. Until the point came when Marjorie herself began to doubt what she’d seen. How could she be mistaken? What of the unexplained coincidence of markings appearing on a tree which mirrored an identical mark that appeared when another teenager vanished from the village around two decades earlier? More mysteries and more dangers, small villages are always a haven for secrets and C.S. Robertson makes sure Kilgoyne is packed with unanswered questions.

Events in Kilgoyne escalate as another teenager disappears and Marjorie finds herself under increasing pressure and scrutiny. She’s done nothing wrong (that she sees) but the court of public opinion is very much against her – the real trial of Marjorie Crowe appears to be a trial over social media, in the streets by her home and in the heads and hearts of her neighbours. Will Marjorie be strong enough to withstand the pressure of all the negative attention and what happens when emboldened mobs decide they can take matters into their own hands.

There is so much to this story that I simply cannot do it justice in such a short space. This is a book crying out to be your next pick at your local bookgroup, it needs discussed (only with people who know what happens) and the impact it had on me will last for quite some time. Stellar reading – grab this book!

The Trials of Marjorie Crowe releases on 18 January 2024 in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can get your copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-trials-of-marjorie-crowe/c-s-robertson/9781529367690

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

January 15

The Last Line – Stephen Ronson

May 1940.

With Nazi forces sweeping across France, invasion seems imminent. The English Channel has never felt so narrow.

In rural Sussex, war veteran John Cook has been tasked with preparing the resistance effort, should the worst happen.

But even as the foreign threat looms, it’s rumours of a missing child that are troubling Cook. A twelve-year-old girl was evacuated from London and never seen again, and she’s just the tip of the iceberg – countless evacuees haven’t made it to their host families.

As Cook investigates, he uncovers a dark conspiracy that reaches to the highest ranks of society. He will do whatever it takes to make the culprits pay. There are some lines you just don’t cross.

THE LAST LINE is a blistering action thriller combined with a smart noir mystery, played out expertly against the taut backdrop of the British home front.

I received a review copy of The Last Line from the publishers.

It has been far, far too long since I last opened the laptop to share my thoughts on a book. Time to dust off the cobwebs and get back to doing what I love the most – sharing the booklove and helping readers to find those books I think they really should be reading. Despite the lack of reviews I have still been reading my way through some wonderful stories and I have some catching up to do – where better to start than with Stephen Ronson’s excellect The Last Line?

This book made its way into my list of Ten Favourite Reads of 2023 – it’s an extremely readable and highly enjoyable historical adventure thriller. The wartime setting gives it a constant foreboding tension as the characters live with the constant threat of German invasion as the enemy troops sweep through France, just across the English Channel from where the events in The Last Line unfold.

The hero of the piece is John Cook. He’s a war vetran who’d seen more than his fair share of action on the front lines in Europe and now he’s home in Sussex and watching the incoming threat of a German army on the march. Unfortunately for Cook there’s more than just the potential threat of a German invasion for him to worry about. The Last Line opens with a dramatic confrontation between two pilots, a Spitfire pilot and a Messerschmitt pilot – the whole event witnessed by Cook. The reason he has such a good view of the confrontation is due to the fact both planes are grounded and the pilots are out of their cockpits.

From the opening exchanges we get a measure of Cook – the confrontation he witnesses, his reaction to the conversation he overhears and how he deals with the subsequent reprecussions help readers define what type of character John Cook will be. It puts us in a good place as it won’t be long before Cook is going to become caught up in a particularly deadly sequence of events and as I reader I enjoyed knowing this was a character I could root for.

What I did enjoy was the clever way Stephen Ronson sets up the mystery at the heart of his story, there’s a big incident very early on – Cook is implicated and the police will come calling. Under a cloud of suspicion and mistrust John Cook will continue with the tasks he set out to do and will face down anyone that may try to stop that. However it is not just the police that will come calling on Cook, as a former soldier he’s not fully off the radar of the army either. With an enemy on their doorstep and a real demand for skilled and trustworthy operatives, the army will seek out anyone they feel could be considered an asset and do whatever is required to acquire that asset. Cook is going to be facing a number of challenges.

There’s one puzzle which will just not go away – a missing evacuee who’s left London but seemingly not arrived in the safety of Sussex. Enquiries into what may have happened to the schoolgirl yield no results and Cook doesn’t even seem able to find many who actually care enough to help him. But as he keeps digging he finds that it isn’t just one girl that’s missing – there are multiple children leaving the city but vanishing before they can be placed with new families. Cook will make his way to Brighton to continue his investigations into the missing children – what he uncovers is a disturbing and vast network of lies and abuse of power.

It’s not all about John Cook doing this solo – he does have a few allies he can rely upon, most notably is Lady Margaret – local landowner and woman of considerable influence. She has her own agenda and is more than happy to enlist Cook’s assistance…when their paths cross there’s more than just a spark of attraction and their friendship and possible relationship is another fun development in the story.

I’ve skirted around a lot of the elements of the story which really made The Last Line shine for me. I really want you to read this book and I really don’t want to drop too many spoilers or flag up key elements of the plot. Suffice to say this book was an absolute gem for me last year. I liked Cook and Lady Margaret and would love to read more of their story, the wartime setting and threat of German attack gave the story a strange claustrophobia which really should not have been a factor in the Sussex fields. There was one scene which actually had me shouting “NO” at a decision Cook took at one of the most tense moments in the story.

If I finally cut to the chase…

I loved this story, it cut through the busy chaos that was the end of 2023, it held my attention when many other books just didn’t even get a second glance and, when I had finished reading, I immediately wanted more with these characters. Did I mention it was one of my favourite reads last year? Make it one of your favourite reads this year.

The Last Line is published by Hodder and Stoughton and is currently available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-line/stephen-ronson/9781399721233

Category: From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

December 12

My Ten Favourite Reads of 2023

It does not feel like twelve months since I last sat down to select my favourite reads of the year, yet here we are.

It hasn’t been the best of years in terms of getting reviews onto the blog. I’ve still been reading but I started the year on an extremely busy contract (the day job) and it was draining – at the end of a long day the last thing I could do was open up another laptop screen. Then in the summer my crazy busy contract finished – I flew home early from my summer holiday to begin the second crazy busy contract of the year (day job part the second) – again lots of reading but, again, not so many reviews added to the blog.

This has made me even more determined to share my ten favourite reads of the year. There have been many cracking books which I shouted about as I read them but I want to showcase my favourites (particularly as there are still a couple of weeks to go until Christmas and I hope you may consider gifting some of these suggestions).

So without further ado (and in no particular order) I present the ten books which gave me the most pleaure in 2023

Paris Requiem – Chris Lloyd

I start with Paris Requiem. I read this back in February, had the pleasure of hearing Chris Lloyd speak about this book at September’s Bloody Scotland Festival and I have been recommending this particular title for 11 of the 12 months in 2023. It’s a crime thriller set in 1940s Paris. The lead character is a French cop and he is trying do do his job while the German army is occupying the city and putting their own leaders in positions of power in the city.

For Eddie Giral there’s just one question…why has a man he recently put in prison just turned up (very, very dead) in the office of a Parisian night club?

https://www.waterstones.com/book/paris-requiem/chris-lloyd/9781409190325

The Last Line – Stephen Ronson

It’s another book set during the Second World War but this time the action takes place in the South East of England and the hero of the tale is a former soldier who finds himself accused of a particularly nasty murder and has to prove his innocence. Along the way he will become embroiled in a mystery surrounding a missing refugee and also find himself facing off against some particulary dangerous “businessmen”.

A terrific debut novel from Stephen Ronson who delivers a perfectly paced, gripping thriller which I knew was a certain inclusion in this list as I rushed through the last few chapters. I was dying to see how this story ended but at the same time I really didn’t want it to end.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-last-line/stephen-ronson/9781399721233

The Darkest Sin – D V Bishop

It’s another historical crime thriller but this story takes place in Florence, Italy in the year 1537. The second of three Cesare Aldo books by D.V. Bishop that I read this year. I could honestly have selected any one of the three (City of Vengeance, The Darkest Sin and Ritual of Fire) to make this list as I virtually devoured each story back to back..it got to the point I was beginning to develop an Italian accent!

The Darkest Sin got the nod due to the sinister nuns, the sublimely clever twist of getting a very different story for those that had read City of Venegance than those that had not read CoV and also Aldo being a terrific character I want to read about again and again.

If you haven’t read D.V. Bishop yet I implore you to get that put to right immediately.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-darkest-sin/d-v-bishop/9781529038842

The Sun Down Motel – Simone St James

Here is the best ghost story I read this year. A haunted motel? A small town with secrets? A dangerous predator? Yes please!

In 1982 Viv took a job as the night receptionist at the Sun Down Motel. But Viv vanishes one night and is never found again. In 2017 Viv’s neice, Carly, comes to the Sun Down Motel to try and discover what happened to her aunt – she discovers more than she could ever have expected.

This is a terrifically creepy tale and a damned good mystery too. If you don’t do supernatural then it’s not for you but miss out at your peril.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-sun-down-motel/simone-st-james/9781405962315

The Institution – Helen Fields

This book is not for the faint of heart. I do like my crime thrillers to be on the darker side but Helen Fields has delivered a particularly grim situation and (excuse the prison pun) but it’s shackles off on the dark and gritty narrative.

In the world’s most secure prison hospital a nurse is murdered, her child abducted and the clock is ticking to recover the infant and catch a killer. It’s a locked room mystery but with everything ramped up to the absolute maximum.

I’ve always enjoyed books by Helen Fields but this really raised the bar.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-institution/helen-fields/9780008533519

The Devil You Know – Neil Lancaster

Regular visitors will know that I generally favour reading about recurring characters than I enjoy stand-alone novels. The Devil You Know is the newest title in the terrific Max Craigie series (book 5). Having devoured each of the previous Craigie novels I feel this series is only going from strength to strength with The Devil You Know simply blowing me away with page after page of thrills and action.

At the risk of incurring your temporary wrath – I got to read an early copy of The Devil You Know and it’s not on general release until March 2024. But let me assure you…it is well worth the wait. Why not pre-order your copy so you don’t miss out. Really….don’t miss out.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-devil-you-know/neil-lancaster/9780008551322

The Hotel – Louise Mumford

If The Sun Down Motel was the best horror novel I read this year, The Hotel is the best chiller. Not a full horror novel but suitably chilling and with a plot that had me thinking “Blair Witch” when the protagonists take video footage of their nocternal visit to an old, abandoned hotel high on the Welsh coastal clifftops.

Great characters, a clever mystery story and a hugely enjoyable read which just flowed from first page to last. Hunt this down and check out The Hotel

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-hotel/louise-mumford/9780008589943

Murdle – G T Karber

I love puzzle books. I love logic puzzles and I love murder mysteries. That’s Murdle in a nutshell. A collection of fun mystery puzzles which challenge the reader/player to solve the clues and discover the murderers. Grab a pen, Grab This Book and enjoy something charmingly different.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/murdle/g-t-karber/9781800818026

The Silent Man – David Fennell

Another dark crime thriller and another absolutely cracking read. This thriller has a serial killer, a gangster with a vendetta against a cop and her family and it packs tension and twists into every chapter.

I hadn’t read David Fennell’s earlier books and I am correcting that oversight already – this story just hit the ground running and I just kept turning the pages. This is the kind of book I love to find – a story which immediately makes me feel I need to read all the other books by the same author.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-silent-man/david-fennell/9781804181737

The Stranger Times – C.K McDonnell

This was an audiobook listen and it made me laugh out loud so many times that I just could not leave it off this list. Falling firmly into the fantasy realms I loved the manic chaos of The Stranger Times (a weekly newspaper of odd, unexplained and the totally bonkers aspects of life). The boss is a sweary, drunk, the new reporter is making it up as she goes along, the tech support is a young teenager and the office manager tolerates them all (just).

Elsewhere a dark magician is breaking the rules and has a brutal monster under his control which he will unleash onto Manchester (and the World) if he can overcome those that would oppose him.

I’d bought book 2 of this series long before I heard the last chapters of book one. So Much Fun.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-stranger-times/c-k-mcdonnell/9780552177344

That’s my ten. I left out some really good books by authors I love to read and I wish I could have included more than ten books in my “Ten Favourite Reads” list but I work with numbers all day and to have a list of ten with more than ten books would make me positively antsy.

I shout about books every day of every week over on social media – I am @grabthisbook and if you follow me on Twitter/X I will endeavour to continue to flag up terrific reads through 2024 and beyond.

Enjoy what you read and share the booklove.

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

November 16

Murder at Holly House – Denzil Meyrick

A village of secrets. It’s December 1952, and a dead stranger has been found lodged up the chimney of Holly House in the remote town of Elderby. Is he a simple thief, or a would-be killer?

Either way, he wasn’t on anyone’s Christmas wish list. A mystery that can’t be solved, Inspector Frank Grasby is ordered to investigate. The victim of some unfortunate misunderstandings, he hopes this case will help clear his name.

But as is often the way for Grasby, things most certainly don’t go according to plan.

Soon blizzards hit the North York Moors, cutting off the village from help, and the local doctor’s husband is found murdered. Grasby begins to realise that everyone in Elderby is hiding something – and if he can’t uncover the truth soon, the whole country will pay a dreadful price.

I received a review copy from the publishers (and I bought myself a digital copy). I was invited to join the blog tour for Murder at Holly House by Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours

Murder at Holly House – a new Denzil Meyrick story releasing just in time for Christmas and if I could be so bold…a cracking gift idea for the crime fiction readers you may find yourself shopping for over the next few weeks. Its light and humorous tone make for hugely enjoyable reading (it did get a little darker as the tale progressed) and the array of quirky elements on display in a small Yorkshire village frequently made me chuckle.

The hero of the piece is Inspector Frank Grasby. He’s a somewhat hapless figure, a bit too self assured of his own skills but sometimes it seems he isn’t the quickest at picking up on the obvious facts right in front of him. Frank likes too many flutters on the horses but isn’t good at picking winners. He’s had his fair share of occupational mishaps too – the most recent being the loss of a number of thoroughbread horses which he allowed to escape, much to the chagrin of their owner. Frank is being exiled out of York to the small town of Elderby where he is being asked to investigate a series of small thefts which are vexing the local dignataries. He will find more than he bargained for – not least a dead body stuck in a chimney at the home of the local bigwig.

Frank will have help investigating this unusual death, the local force is staffed by an aging copper who suffers unfortunate bouts of narcolepsy and a young constable that seems incapable of making himself understood, despite the fact he’s speaking English. Frank’s most helpful aide will come from the young American intern Deedee (Miss Daisy Dean). Frank finds Deedee very pleasing to the eye and as they are both boarding at the same guest house Frank harbours fantasies of winning her affections. Unfortunately for Frank, Deedee seems to consider anyone over 35 to be ancient (Frank is 38) and she’s amusingly uninterested. As it is the early 1950s Frank isn’t particularly enlightened in how to deal with a young intelligent woman in the police force and will try to shelter her from the more gruesome elments of a murder investigation.

The character interactions in the book are a real triumph, players are unpredictable and often hopelessly clueless. The real fun begins when Frank realises he cannot know who to trust. In a small town there are alliances and friendships as well as common enemies, tough for a new bod to negotiate and when people are dying the natural inclination is not to be helpful.

It’s always nice to be able to write a review about a book I loved and which I believe would be equally loved by a large audience. Murder at Holly House is great storytelling, set in the 1950s for a nostalgic, historical mystery and written in a very readable flowing style which definitely hits the “one more chapter” vibe.

Get this book into your shopping baskets without delay – it’s a good’un.

Murder at Holly House is published by Transworld and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/murder-at-holly-house/denzil-meyrick/9781787637184

Category: Blog Tours, From The Bookshelf | Comments Off

November 9

Murder on the Christmas Express – Alexandra Benedict

CAN YOU SOLVE THE CASE?

Eighteen passengers. Seven stops. One killer.

In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train to the Highlands is derailed, along with the festive plans of its travellers. With the train stuck in snow in the middle of nowhere, a killer stalks its carriages, picking off passengers one by one. Those who sleep on the sleeper train may never wake again.

Can former Met detective Roz Parker find the killer before they kill again?

All aboard for . . . Murder on the Christmas Express.

I recived a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to board the Christmas Express blog tour train.

Oh my word…it has been over a month since I finished a book and shared a review. Reading slumps happen from time to time and often it can just be a case of finding the right book to kickstart the reading focus again. Step forward Murder on the Christmas Express – a fun murder mystery story which was apparently exactly what I needed to get my nose back into a book.

What I found so enjoyable about this story is that Alexandra Benedict gave me strong lead characters to love (and loathe) and a diverse gathering of entertaining supporting players – one of their number could quite possibly be a killer.

Our key focus is newly retired police detective Roz – she is leaving London and heading home to Scotland where her daughter is about to make Roz a grandmother. Roz’s colleagues bought her a ticket to the London to Fort William sleeper train as a retirement gift – she will travel in luxury into her new life and be at her daughter’s side as her first grandchild is born. However the country is in the grip of a terrible snow storm, there are very few trains running and everyone is desperate to get home for Christmas. Even boarding the train will be a fraught experience.

Also on the train are a celebrity couple, a quiz team, a harassed family, a handsome stranger, a stowaway and a young man travelling with his mother – who Roz takes a shine to. A fun mix and the quiz team introduced a great element to the story which complements another aspect I love about Alexandra Benedict’s books – the puzzles!

if you haven’t read one of Alexandra’s “Christmas” books you’ve missed a treat. She sets the reader a number of challenges and conundrums to look out for as you go through the story. Anagrams, Kate Bush song titles and the fact there’s a quiz as part of the story will keep puzzle fans on their toes – oh and you’ll also be trying to solve the murder mystery too. It was only at the end of the story I realised how cleverly the clues were laced through the whole book.

It’s the Christmas holidays and there’s a train slowly making its way from London to the highlands. We know there’s a murder and we know the killer may have another few targets in mind but who will live to see the end of the journey? I lost myself in the snowstorm and right corridors of the murder express. There was so much I loved about the story but at risk of spoiling too much of the plot I can’t cover too much detail.

As a small aside, there are some challenging themes addressed in the story too which are dealt with sympathetically and respectfully. This is a well spun story which will challenge your deductive powers and entertain as you go – more of this would be very welcome.

Murder on the Christmas Express is available now in paperback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.waterstones.com/book/murder-on-the-christmas-express/alexandra-benedict/9781398519855

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October 8

Dark Horse – Gregg Hurwitz

THE HERO
Evan Smoak: former off-the-books assassin – code name Orphan X. His world is divided into those who deserve his help and those who’ve brought his singular brand of justice upon themselves.

THE VICTIM
A desperate father reaches out. His teenage daughter Anjelina has been kidnapped by a brutal criminal cartel and spirited over the border into Mexico. And while money is no object, Evan soon realises that his prospective client’s past is as clouded and compromised as his own.

THE MISSION
If Evan is going to put his life on the line to rescue Anjelina, he must first decide whether he can act on behalf of a bad man. And even then, up against the men who are holding his daughter, there will be no guarantee of success . . .

I recieved a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley and this review is based upon that digital copy and also my personal audiobook copy which I bought through Audible.co.uk

It’s an Orphan X novel so even before I began reading I knew Dark Horse was going to be fun, full of thrills and lots of action. I was not wrong. Dark Horse takes the reader back into the world of Evan Smoak, an Orphan (note the capitalisation) who uses his very specialist skills to help those in need. Evan is contacted by telephone, he speaks with those in need and he decides if he can help them with their predicament. He never knows when a call may come in and he relies upon people he helps to pass on the word – if there is too long a gap between missions Evan will start getting restless. He is very much a man of action and it feels he needs a mission to keep him going.

So what is an “Orphan”? Evan was recruited as a child when he was in the care system. He was taken into a secret Government project where children were trained to be killers, focused lethal weapons who would do the dirty work of the US Government. Totally off the radar and if they should ever fail or be caught in the execution of a state sanctioned mission then the US Government would have total denial of their existance. Expendible resources and the early books in the series show how that project didn’t come to a pleasing conclusion for anyone involved. The Orphan’s were all extremely well paid for their trouble and Evan has significant wealth which allows him to hide (also a skill he was taught) from authorities as he suspects his own Government would kill him without a second’s pause if they knew where he was.

In Dark Horse we see Evan receive a call. A distraught father wants to recruit the help of “The Nowhere Man” (Evan) as his daughter was kidnapped from her birthday party by men who are “business competitors” of her father. The dilemma for Evan is that the man calling him has made his money trading drugs and other illegal goods – he’s a dangerous individual in his own right and keeps his own cartel in a remote town where all the locals know and respect him. If Evan is going to step in and help then he is going to have to get around a heirarchy of thugs, goons and trusted “soldiers” of a dangerous man. And the enemy he will have to rescue the kidnapped girl from are equally well resourced.

The power dynamic in Dark Horse is significantly different from the earlier novels. Evan is working for a client that feels he is more powerful than Evan (that’s new) but he understands Evan has skills which he does not have at his disposal so there should be no problem securing the support he needs – finding the right man for a tricky job has never been a problem to him before. But with his daughter’s life at stake there’s no room for error. He’s also a man used to keeping secrets and not showing weakness so how does Evan know what his is being told is accurate and trustworthy?

Away from the latest “mission” we find Evan has more problems. He has taken on a young computer whiz-kid (also associated to the Oprhan project) as Joey…and her dog…need supervised. She’s a teen on the cusp of adulthood and she doesn’t appreciate being treated like a child. Joey has plans of her own and wants to travel but Evan is reluctant to let her go off on her own, even if she is likely to be the most dangerous person in any room she is in. Plus Evan has some domestic issues which need to be resolved, decorating and rebuilding his home, and while he is away on a mission he needs someone at home to supervise the contractors to make sure the work is done to his own specification. Entrusting that responsibility to a grumpy teenager may not be the smartest move Evan could make. It is a real distraction from the mission and Evan is a man of supreme focus so you know there will be issues.

Watching Evan juggle personal issues while trying to single handedly outsmart a slick cartel of criminals is extremely entertaining. The action moments benefit from some more light-hearted scenes (though Evan doesn’t see the funny side) but it helps Gregg Hurwitz make his hero more relatable as a man with real-life issues and not just a slick machine of destruction.

Through terrible planning on my part I accidentally read Dark Horse before I read Prodical Son (the story which immediately preceeds Dark Horse). Unfortunately it seems Prodical Son has something of an explosive cliff-hanger ending and, more so than any of the other novels in the series, there are spoilers at the start of Dark Horse as the readers are brought up to speed on events immediately after Prodical Son. Normally I’d be explaining that the Orphan X novels can each be read as a stand-alone book in the case of Dark Horse that comes with a small caveat – it CAN be read as a stand alone but if you are planning on reading the other books (and you really should) then Dark Horse will tell you some of what occurs at the end of Prodical Son. But a new reader to the series could absolutely jump into Dark Horse and still be treated to a really enjoyable thrillfest.

There aren’t many authors that can deliver a gripping adventure of this quality but Gregg Hurwitz seems to be able to do it year in and year out. His Orphan X books are tremendous additions to my bookshelves each year and I savour the anticipation ahead of starting a new book and try not to rush through each new story so it lasts!

Dark Horse is an easy book to recommend – the whole series are easy books to recommend. However, this story really pushes Evan’s moral compass. He is engaged by a man who has accumulated wealth through criminal acts. He should be the enemy for Evan but as his client is now a victim will Evan step up to help him recover his daughter? This is reading time very well spent.

Dark Horse is available in paperback,digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B095XRLLXC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3

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September 29

You’d Look Better as a Ghost – Joanna Wallace

I have a gift. I see people as ghosts before they die.
Of course, it helps that I’m the one killing them.

The night after her father’s funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn’t know it, but it’s not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But even before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink, before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces, something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it’s not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Claire will do anything to keep her secret hidden – not to mention the bodies buried in her garden. Let the games begin…

I received a review copy from the publishers via Netgalley. My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for the opportunity to join the blog tour for You’d Look Better as a Ghost.

It doesn’t seem quite right to have a serial killer novel which also makes you laugh out loud. Yet here we are. You’d Look Better as a Ghost definitely had me laughing but there are also scenes which give you pause for thought, how we treat other people and how they treat us runs through the heart of this story and Joanna Wallace uses this to extremely efficient effect.

We meet Claire. She’s recently lost her father and is attending grief counselling but her group brings together a rather odd assortment of people. There’s an extremely angry Welshman, a furious note-taker, a “nice” lady who will be deeply offended by bad language (which is unfortunate given the presence of the Welshman) and there is Claire too – she’s a serial killer and the star of this book.

Claire sees the world as a slightly better place when some people who have done bad things are no longer in the world. So Claire may take mattes into her own hands an murder those bad people. Her garden is a busy old spot and inside her house there are some very unusual decorations.

Feeling slightly out of sorts while she grieves Claire decides she is going to murder someone who emailed her by mistake, apologised, but Claire didn’t think he looked sorry enough when she tracked him down.

Unfortunately for Claire she’s not as careful as normal and inadvertently kills a man who had his own criminal endeavours on the go and his partner in crime is going to find out what Claire knows about his disappearance.

In her grief therapy group Claire realises one of their number may not be quite what they appear but can she work out who’s keeping secrets before her own secrets are revealed?

I know we shouldn’t really be rooting for the killer in a crime novel but Joanna Wallace puts the reader on Claire’s side. We see young Claire, a young child, and how she thinks and behaves differently from the other kids around her. Then we get an insight into her home life and some insight into some of what may have shaped Claire’s formative years.

What I found most compelling was Joanna Wallace’s portrayal of vulnerability and how she plays on our perceptions of those vulnerabilities. I couldn’t possibly elaborate on that (spoilers) but when some plot threads were unraveled I was applauding the slick way I had been played.

I really enjoyed You’d Look Better as a Ghost, it’s clever, funny and unpredictable. I’d certainly welcome more stories like this and I’m crossing my fingers I’ll get my wish.

You’d Look Better as a Ghost is published by Viper Books and is available in hardback, digital and audiobook format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPN1KP22/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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September 23

Girls of Little Hope – Sam Beckbessinger & Dale Halvorsen

Three girls went into the woods. Only two came back, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened. Or did they?

Being fifteen is tough, tougher when you live in a boring-ass small town like Little Hope, California (population 8,302) in 1996. Donna, Rae and Kat keep each other sane with the fervour of teen girl friendships, zine-making and some amateur sleuthing into the town’s most enduring mysteries: a lost gold mine, and why little Ronnie Gaskins burned his parents alive a decade ago.

Their hunt will lead them to a hidden cave from which only two of them return alive. Donna the troublemaker can’t remember anything. Rae seems to be trying to escape her memories of what happened, while her close-minded religious family presses her for answers. And Kat? Sweet, wannabe writer Kat who rebelled against her mom’s beauty pageant dreams by getting fat? She’s missing. Dead. Or terribly traumatised, out there in the woods, alone.

As the police circle and Kat’s frantic mother Marybeth starts doing some investigating of her own, Rae and Donna will have to return to the cave where they discover a secret so shattering that no-one who encounters it will ever be the same.

A chilling and eerie tale of monsters, teen angst and small-town America for fans of Stranger Things, The Thing, and the 1990s

I recieved a review copy from the publishers through Netgalley

Three girls went walking in the woods near Little Hope. Three friends, young teenagers, who face all the usual problems of teenage life and aren’t part of the school “cool” crowd. There’s not much of note happens in Little Hope but when the three girls don’t all return safely from their walk suddenly a small town has a lot going on.

Two of the girls return, covered in blood and with no memory of what happened on their walk – or so they say. Their third friend, Kat, remains somewhere in the woods and search parties are organised. People come out in big numbers to search for the missing girl but the searches are not successful and Kat’s mother, Marybeth, becomes increasingly frustrated at the perceived lack of endeavour and commitment from the police to continue the searches.

The great writing in this story comes from the dilemma which the two other girls face. Donna and Rae are not talking about what happened in the woods. They both know they are going through a personal trauma and internal turmoil but until they can get together and discuss what happened to them they are not saying anything. And who would believe them anyway? The other great part about this book is the way the authors capture the angst and frustrations of teenage drama. The blurb describes it as a story for Stranger Things fans and I can think of no better comparison. Spooky instances, most people oblivious to an unseen danger and distinctly odd twists to the story.

What I initially didn’t take in was that the blurb does not just compare Girls of Little Hope to Stranger Things but also to The Thing. Yup – big clue there that this book was actually a horror tale. I’d been enjoying a well written mystery novel – the characters were entertaining, their problems had me hooked and the investigation into the “walk in the woods” story was starting to reveal some discrepancies in what Donna and Rae were telling the police. Why did the girls lie about where they were walking? Were they lurking near the home of a dangerous local criminal? Who else may know where Kat could be found?

Girls of Little Hope wasn’t the teen crime mystery I had been anticipating. It’s actually a mystery story which suddenly moves to creepy horror then raises the stakes further to move from creepy to outright carnage. Once things really kick off in Little Hope the town is never going to be the same again. As for Rae and Donna, they know what happened to Kat but it there anything which can be done to undo what’s gone before?

Despite being surprised by the slide from mystery to horror I was not disappointed – I love me a good horror story and Girls of Little Hope IS ad good horror story. The reader will care what happens to the three lead characters and will be more than a little shocked when they learn what really did happen in the woods.

Girls of Little Hope is published by Titan Books and is available in paperback and digital format. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BFZXJYB7/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0

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