I like Anthony Horowitz books and this one was pretty different to the others I've read.
Well described characters are this author's strong point and this book does not disappoint. This is a slow-burn mystery. It seems to be based on a true story, though it was difficult to understand whether the elements (letters, historical articles etc.) which were added in, were actually 'real' or part of the fictional book (I found this lack of clarity annoying, though perhaps it was my lack of understanding??). The story follows a writer as he tracks the work of Detective Hawthorne. Hawthorne is aloof and a bit odd. The murder mystery was interesting enough and clear enough, and there are plenty of potential suspects. The other interesting point is the fictional writer in the book seems to be styled on Horowitz himself, for instance - his name, where he lives, his experience of living in London and working as a famous writer etc. This definitely added interest for me and might even have been a bit more interesting than the actual mystery. If you liked reading this book review, please pop over and 'like' to my Facebook Page. Thank you :) Ann Girdharry Facebook Author Page
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A clever killer plots to hunt down successful women.
DI Luc Callanach, new to the Edinburgh team, takes the case. He has French and Scottish blood and has come back to Scotland after he was accused of a crime at Interpol. The case is violent and brutal and several scenes pull no punches, including one at the end of the book that had me reeling. We get to know the killer up close and see how he operates and how he thinks. We see how the police team are several steps behind him, despite all their efforts to understand the evidence and the forensics. I liked Luc and his colleague, Ava. Not everyone welcomes high-flying Luc and his team have to learn to work with him and him with them. Great characters and a great story. No cheap tricks. This one is definitely recommended. If you liked reading this review, please pop over and 'like' to my Facebook Page. Thank you :) Ann Girdharry Facebook Author Page The death of a doctor, then the death of his son. Then the death of an elderly woman and her daughter. How are these cases connected and what is motivating the killer? DI Kim Stone is struggling to hold it together, and it seems the killer has the upper hand... Why are the team struggling? It's not only the case, it's the loss of their colleague DS Dawson (killed in the previous book). Meanwhile, DC Stacey has taken on an investigation of her own. She's been dumped with their new team member, someone who can never replace Dawson and she's looking into the case of a missing school girl. The team dynamics in this one are great. There are plenty of poignant moments as the team struggle to carry on without Dawson. Some of them welcome the new team member and others turn against him. The crimes are as gruesome and twisted as usual in this series and it will keep you guessing until the end. Another great book from Angela Marsons. If you liked reading this book review, please pop over and 'like' to my Facebook Page. Thank you :) Ann Girdharry Facebook Author Page Jessica is struggling to make sense of her four-year-old daughter’s (Olivia) strange behaviour at school. Jessica’s sister, Isabel, was killed a few years previously. From small beginnings, Jessica’s life starts to be overtaken by the idea that Olivia might be communing with her dead aunt Isabel, and that Isabel’s death was not an accident.
This is complicated by the fact that the family was visited by a poltergeist during the teenage years of Jessica and Isabel. Jessica’s mother is still a firm believer in communication with the dead. A few spooky incidents with Olivia are enough to send Jessica’s mother back into her beliefs. Jessica becomes more and more convinced her sister was murdered. She suspects everyone in turn in her small, inner circle as Olivia says more and more outrageous ‘secrets’ supposedly passed on to her by her aunt. There is plenty of depth to the story. The characters are well written and believable. The reader goes back in time to the final months of Isabel’s life and we see what actually happened to her. This works very well because, at the same time, we are reading about Jessica’s current turmoil and her discoveries about the people around her. Jessica also makes discoveries about herself. Jessica was always the less popular sister and Isabel was the one everyone liked. Jessica overcomes plenty of hurdles that have threatened her self-confidence. She is relentless in pursuing the truth, however unlikely it all seems to be. In fact, she turns out to be a first-class detective. The writing style is conversational and easy-going and this makes the pages fly past. The ghostly element feeds into a mounting murder-mystery. The ending is clever and unexpected and only a few ghostly questions remain… In short, it was a great read. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to NetGalley and the author for a free copy of this book. This is my honest review. If you liked reading this book review, please pop over and give a quick 'like' to my Facebook Page. Thank you :) Facebook Author Page A young woman is found dead at the roadside with a gruesome cut-out of a doll shape taken from her skin. Soon, the doll itself appears at the sight where a second victim has been taken.
And so starts a chain of killings and torture. Can Luc and Ava find the perpetrator against all the odds? How many young women will be lost before they catch up with the killers? This is the fourth book in the series starring DC Luc Cavanagh and DCI Ava Turner and their police colleagues. For me, there were two strengths to the story-telling. The first is we get to know the victims. Yes, this is pretty gruesome but it’s also very human. The girls that are taken will tell us their own story. Warning - some of this is dark because we are with them when they are captured and killed. But for me, it was one of the strengths of the book because the victims are real. You’ll see this in the very first chapter which is brilliant yet horrible. The second thing I liked were the strong main characters and supporting cast. Of the supporting characters, Chief Superintendent Daisy Overbeck was my favourite. She’s nasty and authoritarian and she and Ava will almost come to blows. I liked the way this shows DCI Ava’s spirit. As Overbeck says, it also shows Ava’s naivety when it comes to dealing with the higher echelons of the police hierarchy. DI Luc was less of a strong character but he was still likeable. I’ve not read others in this series so I don’t know his backstory. Maybe this made me less sympathetic to him. Still, Luc and Ava have a real feel to them and they each have their own failings and strengths. (The only part of this that started to annoy me a tad was Ava’s plight as a single woman which is heavy emphasised in contrast to Luc’s new relationship with the glamorous Sabrina.) There's a thread left dangling at the end, which I suppose will lead to a follow-up book. It was a shame it wasn't all tied up. that said, it’s still a great story and it merits 5 stars. One of the best (and possibly THE best) police procedural I’ve read this year. My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. This is my honest review. To keep up to date with my book reviews follow my Facebook Author Page Facebook Author Page or follow me on Goodreads Goodreads I'm a Karin Slaughter fan, my favourite being the Will Trent series. So I should start by saying this stand-alone is something very different.
We follow Andrea and her mother, Laura. Their separate stories are told in the present (Andrea) and in the past (Laura). The beginning of the book is brilliant. There's a terrible incident in a diner and Laura shows a side of herself that seems impossible to believe when she stands up to a violent young man. We then delve into the mystery of Laura when, straight after the diner incident, she turns against her own daughter and tells her to leave home. Laura may face criminal charges for the incident in the diner, but Andrea has no explanation for her mother's bewildering behaviour. Andrea is a young woman who is lost in life. She drives across America in search of answers about Laura. The reader is told the backstory of Laura's life. I can't say much without spoilers. What I will say is that Laura's story was believable but it did not stir sympathy in me. In her long and intricate past, she was at times lost and weak, at times manipulated and a victim, and she came from an extremely wealthy background. Andrea is thirty-one. She lived at home because her job in New York hadn't worked out as she wanted. Her drive in search of answers makes her grow up. It makes her face problems. However, she also puts people in danger and nice people are killed because of her blundering. I found this difficult to forgive. In summary, I have to say that I didn't really like Andrea or Laura. Laura has done things that I found believable, and yet they didn't sit comfortably in the story. Maybe because I wasn't expecting terrorism and such like to be included in the book? Or maybe because the plot seems an impossible mix between crime thriller and psychological thriller? Or because the parts about Laura became a bit tedious and drawn out and the tension wasn't really there? I'm not sure. I think Karin Slaughter is especially good at characters. Anyway, by the end of it all, I have to say my favourite characters were minor ones - Clara and Edwin, and Laura's current estranged husband who is always kept out of the picture but is deeply moral and tries to do the right thing. Gore and blood is what thrillers are about and this one has it's fair share of brains being splattered. However, there are also huge doses of cruelty and that I found more difficult. Especially when the main characters showed such a lack of morality. But I can't rate the story low because there was something about it that was very good. After all, I'm a Karin Slaughter fan and her writing in this book was as great as it usually is. The idea was ambitious. Did she pull it off? Almost. So it's a four stars from me. And with a bit more tension in Laura's backstory and a bit less whining from Andrea and a bit more insight from her, and it might have been a five. Don't miss out on my book reviews follow my Facebook Author Page Facebook Author Page or follow me on Goodreads Goodreads Schoolteacher Terry is caught in a dilemma when his daughter, Grace, breaks into a house with her delinquent boyfriend. A gun is fired and the boyfriend disappears. So starts the beginning of Terry’s nightmare.
In this story, he tries to juggle what to do for the best to save his daughter from being implicated or from carrying guilt for the rest of her life because of one reckless, adolescent act. Terry dives in and tries to help Grace. This is how he unwittingly gets involved in the criminal activities of local crime gangster, Vince Fleming. Grace’s mother, Cynthia, is a control freak – having being caught up in close-to-death encounters in a previous book which resulted in the loss of her own parents. This backstory is briefly introduced but it doesn’t get in the way. The backstory explains the dynamics between Terry, Cynthia and Grace. Cynthia is taking a break away from her family in a nearby rented flat and her new neighbours are going to become part of Terry’s problems. Cynthia has an interesting relationship with criminal Vince Fleming. He is an ex-boyfriend and he helped Cynthia in the past. One of Vince’s criminal operations is responsible for the situation Grace finds herself in with her missing (perhaps dead?) boyfriend. All of the characters are well written. One of my preferred was Vince. He’s got cancer and he’s failing in health. Circumstances conspire against him, his gang friends are deserting him, but he joins with Terry in trying to sort out the mess. This was a great story. The characters were believable and the crime elements very well handled. Whilst I am not against gore, I want to mention there was no gore or thriller element. A very enjoyable suspense mystery. 5 stars from me. Don't miss out on my book reviews follow my Facebook Author Page Facebook Author Page or follow me on Goodreads Goodreads Conway is on a one-woman crusade to root out the truth.
In this story, we're inside the head of Detective Antoinette Conway. Conway is a tough cookie and the only female on the Dublin murder squad. It starts out when Conway and her partner are assigned a young woman's murder. The obvious suspect is the boyfriend and that's the man the senior detectives on the Squad want to pursue. However, Conway and her partner have other suspicions. But they've got their work cut out because they're the newest on the squad. Gangland connections? Corruption within the murder squad? A vendetta to get Conway out? These are all thrown into the mix. What I enjoyed most was the attitude of Conway. At times she's paranoid. At other times, she spot on with her doubts and 'take no shit' temperament. I'm not sure I actually liked her, but I liked spending time with her because she was interesting. Her partner, Stephen Moran, was more soft and likeable. He's a diplomat. Moran could be one of the lads but he's loyal to Conway. Moran's easy going character definitely helps the story along. The plot delves deep into the murky waters of rivalry, deception, corruption and high stakes murder. It was intense being inside her head all the time. But the story stayed with me long after I finished the book. Conway made an impression! Alex and Carrie meet at a support group and they help each other by responding to what they each want in life – Alex wants a child to love and Carrie wants someone by her side whilst she is dying. But what do they really want from each other? That question forms the basis of the plot. There are plenty of lies in this story. There are also difficult issues of terminal cancer, eating disorders and domestic violence. Both of the women have a murky past they want to keep hidden. But what exactly are they lying to each other about, and why? The extent of the lies made both women a tad unlikeable. Our heart strings are pulled at the end for both of them but it didn’t do much to dilute my dislike, in particular of Alex. There are plenty of twists in this story and plenty of menace too. A solid psychological thriller that will keep you guessing until the end. I’ve wanted to read a book by this author for a while, so when the opportunity came up on NetGalley, I took the chance. Thank you to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book. This is my honest review. To celebrate 40 great reviews of my book, GOOD GIRL BAD GIRL on Amazon UK, I have a Free Giveaway running until 1st July over on my Facebook Author Page.
Prize is 25pound Amazon Gift Card OR your name as a character in my next crime thriller! It's easy to enter. All you have to do is whizz over to my Facebook Author page, like the Giveaway post and tag a friend. Here's a quick link to my Facebook Author Page and the Giveaway Good luck! The most compelling part was Eden’s desperation...
This book alternates two points of view. One of the two main characters is Jessica Sloane. Jessie’s mum has died and she’s plunged into terrible grief and insomnia. She then finds out her social security number is invalid and this starts a hunt for the truth about her ‘real’ identity. Jessie starts to question everything in the past. She also questions everything happening in the present since the insomnia is messing with her mind. The other woman in the story is Eden. Eden is driven almost crazy by her desire for a baby. She and her partner are trying all kinds of fertility treatments and nothing seems to be working. The most compelling part of the book for me was the exploration of Eden’s desperation. This felt very lifelike. She slips from being a stable woman into a person obsessed. There were creepy aspects to this and unsettling ones, as Eden explores how far she’s prepared to go to get what she wants. I found Jessica’s difficulties a tad less compelling. At first she got my sympathy, yet her crisis kept drinking in everyone and everything around her, and this started to feel a bit strained. At the end of the story, we will find out the why all of this happened but the understanding only comes at the very end. We have to wait until the second half of the book to find out how these stories are linked. We slowly unpick the reality from the nightmares and mind games. If I’m being honest, I have to say it lost my interest a bit somewhere in the second half. Nothing much new was happening and a plot that started out as a great idea didn’t deliver the full punch I’d expected it to. That said, it was still a good story. My thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for a copy of this book. This is my honest review. To celebrate 40 great reviews on Amazon UK, I have a Free Giveaway running until 1st July. Prize is 25pound Amazon Gift Card OR your name as a character in my next crime thriller. It's easy to enter. All you have to do is like a post and tag a friend. Entry page is here on my Facebook Author Page |
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