Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French

EXCERPT: Thirty years ago in a village in East Anglia where the land is swallowed up by mudflats and marshes and a hard wind blows in from the sea, a woman went missing.
It was midwinter, sleety and dark, but Christmas was coming. There were festive lights in the high street, decorated trees in the windows, smoke curling from the chimneys of the houses. And in a barn on the edge of the village, people were gathering for a party.
But one person never arrived, and life was changed forever in that ordinary little village. Her disappearance was the start of a chain of terrible events that for more than three decades blighted the lives of two families.
This is a story of dark secrets that were buried a life-time ago, but which never lost their power, and of the grip that past has upon the present.
It is the story of the people whose lives unravelled from that winter day: sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, partners and friends.
It is the story of a woman. She is a wife, a mother, a confidante. She is impulsive and warm-hearted and full of life. when people describe her, they use words like ‘radiant’, ‘vital’, ‘generous’, ‘optimistic’. She is a woman of appetites: she loves food, red wine, long hot baths. She loves dancing. Walking in all weathers. Jigsaw puzzles. Gossip. Weepy films. Nice clothes. Crumpets. Marmalade. Chance encounters. Peonies and sweet peas. Candles, Mangy dogs. Lost causes.
She loves life. She loves people. Above all, she loves her four children.
He name is Charlotte Salter.

He looked up.
‘Does that seem all right?’
‘It was fine. More than fine. It was good.’
‘Then it’s a wrap.’

ABOUT ‘HAS ANYONE SEEN CHARLOTTE SALTER?’: 1990
When beautiful and vivacious Charlotte Salter fails to turn up to her husband Alec’s fiftieth birthday party, her children are worried, but Alec is not.

As the days pass, Etty, Niall, Paul and Ollie all struggle to come to terms with their mother’s disappearance. How can anyone vanish without a trace?

NOW
Etty returns home after years away to help move her father into a care home. Now in his eighties, Alec has dementia and often mistakes his daughter for her mother.

Etty is a changed woman from the trouble-free girl she was when Charlie was still around – all the Salter children have spent decades running and hiding from their mother’s disappearance.

But when their childhood friends, Greg and Morgan Ackerley, decide to do a podcast about Charlie’s disappearance, it seems like the town’s buried secrets – and the Salters’ – might finally come to light.

After all this time, will they finally find out what really happened to Charlotte Salter?

MY THOUGHTS: If you are looking for a great character-based mystery, pick this up!

It’s hard to beat the French duo – Nicci Gerard and Sean French – when it comes to creating an enticing atmosphere and relatable mesmerizing characters.

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter is a slow-burn; it is quietly absorbing and addictive. I put everything else aside to immerse myself in this. I felt Etty’s pain as her fears for her mother were brushed aside, disregarded. Everyone else just seems to get on with their lives; but Etty’s true north has disappeared. She is devastated and struggles to cope.

But while it may appear that everyone else just gets on with their lives; it is not true. Paul, already a victim of depression, flounders even further, falls into an even deeper chasm. Niall, the eldest, falls back into the arms of the girl he broke up with on the day of the party and remains in the family business which he had been planning to leave. Ollie continues on his booze and drug filled way. And Alec? He really is a reprehensible character. He blusters and bombasts and continues on his adulterous way.

And so the family drifts, untethered and apart, for thirty odd years until two catalysts occur: Alec needs to be put into full-time care, and Morgan and Greg Ackerley announce their intention to make a podcast about the disappearance of Charlotte Salter, the woman their father is said to have murdered; the woman he supposedly killed himself over.

Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter is written in three distinct parts – 1990 the party and its aftermath; 2022 Etty and Ollie return home to help clear out their father’s house, and Morgan announces his intention to make a podcast on Charlie’s disappearance with the aid of his brother Greg; 2022 with a further death involving the Salters, DI Maud O’Connor from London is brought in to investigate.

Let the fun begin . . . and it does. Maud is a fresh pair of eyes and resented by the local force – in fact some of them are downright hostile toward her. They are obstructive and even rude. Lazy and slapdash, something Maud won’t tolerate. Maud is appalled by the way they failed to fully investigate Charlotte Salter’s disappearance, taking the easy way out, tying it to Duncan Ackerley’s apparent suicide to wrap it all up – quick and easy. But something doesn’t sit right with Maud – she is sure that all three deaths are linked and brings in her own reinforcements.

I loved this book. I loved the atmosphere Nicci French created – the pain, the grief, the bewilderment, the lost souls, the devastation of not one, but two families. The plot is cleverly constructed, linear, and contains some red herrings, plausible and well-constructed.

And did I solve the mystery? – No, but I loved every moment.

The Nicci French duo never fails to please me and Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter is right up there with the best of their work.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#HasAnyoneSeenCharlotteSalter? #WaitomoDistrictLibrary

Die Last (Max Wolfe #4) by Tony Parsons

Another back title from my 2018 NetGalley shelf . . .

EXCERPT: Prologue
The Girl from Belgrade

The first thing they took was her passport.
The man jumped down from the cab of the lorry and snapped his fingers at her.
Click-click.
She already had her passport in her hands, ready for her first encounter with authority, and as she held it out to the man she saw, in the weak glow of the Belgrade streetlights, that he had a small stack of passports. They were not all burgundy red like her Serbian passport. These passports were green and blue and bright red – passports from everywhere. The man slipped her passport under the rubber band that held the passports together and he slipped them into the pocket of his thick winter coat. She had expected to keep her passport.
She looked at him and caught a breath. Old scars ran down one side of his face making the torn flesh look as though it had once melted. Then the man clicked his fingers a second time.
Click-click.
She stared at her kid brother with confusion. The boy indicated her suitcase. The man wanted the suitcase. Then the man with the melted face spoke in English, although it was not the first language of either of them.
‘No room,’ he said, gesturing towards the lorry.
But she gripped her suitcase stubbornly and she saw the sudden flare of pure anger in the man’s eyes.
Click-click, went his fingers. She let go.
The suitcase was the second thing he took. It was bewildering. In less than a minute she had surrendered her passport and abandoned her possessions. She could smell sweat and cigarettes on the man and she wondered, for the first time, if she was making a terrible mistake.
She looked at her brother.
The boy was shivering. Belgrade is bitterly cold in January with an average temperature of just above freezing.
She hugged him. The boy, a gangly sixteen-year-old in glasses that were held together with tape on one side, bit his lower lip, struggling to control his emotions. He hugged her back and he would not let her go and when she gently pulled away he still held her, a shy smile on his face as he held his phone up at head height. They smiled at the tiny red light shining in the dark as he took their picture.
Then the man with the melted face took her arm just above the elbow and pulled her towards the lorry. He was not gentle.
‘No time,’ he said.
In the back of the lorry there were two lines of women facing each other. They all turned their heads to look at her. Black faces. Asian faces. Three young women, who might have been sisters, in hijab headscarves. They all looked at her but she was staring at her brother standing on the empty Belgrade street, her suitcase in his hand. She raised her hand in farewell and the boy opened his mouth to say something but the back doors suddenly slammed shut and her brother was gone. She struggled to stay on her feet as the lorry lurched away, heading north for the border.
By the solitary light in the roof of the lorry, she saw there were boxes in the back of the vehicle. Many boxes, all the same.
Birnen – Arnen – Nashi – Peren, it said on the boxes. Grushi – Pere – Peras – Poires.
‘Kruske,’ she thought, and then in English, as if in preparation for her new life. ‘Pears.’
The women were still staring at her. One of them, nearest to the doors, shuffled along to find her space. She was some kind of African girl, not yet out of her teens, her skin so dark it seemed to shine.
The African gave her a wide, white smile of encouragement, and graciously held her hand by her side, inviting the girl from Belgrade to sit down.
She nodded her thanks, taking her seat, and thinking of the African as the kind girl.
The kind girl would be the first to die.

ABOUT ‘DIE LAST’: 12 DEAD GIRLS

As dawn breaks on a snowy February morning, a refrigerated lorry is found parked in the heart of London’s Chinatown. Inside, twelve women, apparently illegal immigrants, are dead from hypothermia.

13 PASSPORTS

But in the cab of the abandoned death truck, DC Max Wolfe of West End Central finds thirteen passports.

WHERE IS SHE?

The hunt for the missing woman will take Max Wolfe into the dark heart of the world of human smuggling, mass migration and 21st-century slave markets, as he is forced to ask the question that haunts our time.

What would you do for a home?

MY THOUGHTS: I have enjoyed this series but somehow missed reading Die Last (Max Wolfe #4) when it was published. I was excited when I found it on my shelf. Unfortunately, Die Last never really gripped me like Tony Parsons’ books usually do. It may have been the content – human trafficking. I had this ‘been there, done that’ feeling.

Initially the whole human trafficking subject was treated with a great deal of empathy and compassion. I can only imagine how desperate you would have to be to agree to being smuggled into a foreign country; how frightened. But somewhere along the way the tone changed. It may have had something to do with Max’s boss who didn’t seem to have a very high regard for human life at all; not for that of her staff and certainly not for the refugees.

There’s a bit of everything in Die Last – human traffickers, old style gangster families, Chinese tongs and corrupt businessmen.

The resolution to this left me stunned – in more ways than one. I didn’t see it coming re who was behind the human trafficking. I liked that he did, in the end, get his just desserts, BUT I was with my favorite character, Edie Wrenn when she cried, ‘Max, no! No, Max, no!’ I couldn’t see the justification of what he was doing – the wrong people were being punished and I just couldn’t see the point to it.

While this isn’t my favorite book of the series, it certainly is a thought-provoking one.

Die Last by Tony Parsons was published 22 February 2018. I listened to the audiobook of Die Last, superbly narrated by Colin Mace.

⭐⭐⭐.3

#DieLast #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Tony Parsons is a British award-winning journalist, broadcaster and bestselling author of contemporary books.

Born in Romford, Essex, Parsons dropped out of school aged sixteen in order to work on the night shift of Gordon’s Gin Distillery in Islington, London, before being offered a journalism job on New Musical Express.

He for the next couple of years travelled with and wrote about legendary musicians such as The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and others, before eventually leaving his job to pursue writing.

Tony, whose books have been translated into over 40 languages, currently lives in London with his wife, daughter and their dog.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Random House, UK, Cornerstone, Arrow via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Die Last by Tony Parsons for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Watching what I’m reading . . .

Happy Sunday afternoon! It has been a beautiful day here in y corner of New Zealand, but now the wind is getting up and the temperature is dropping.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been running a bit behind with my posts the past couple of days. My brother-in-law who had a severe stroke in November and who has been in care at the local rest home since, has passed away. We have family staying on and off until after the funeral on Wednesday. So my erratic posts will continue for a few days yet.

I am currently listening to Red River Road, written by Anna Downes and narrated by Maddy Withington, who is a new-to-me and excellent narrator.

Katy Sweeney is determined to find her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, free-spirited Phoebe vanished without a trace on Western Australia’s remote and achingly beautiful Coral Coast. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up.

Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy starts to retrace her steps, searching for the clues that the police have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and what danger did they pose? Was she as happy as her sun-bleached, lens-flared photos seem to suggest?

Then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, a young woman on the run from her own dark past—and very recent present. And as Katy realizes that Beth might be her best and only chance of finding the truth, the two women form an uneasy alliance to venture forth into increasingly wild territory to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this breathtaking but maybe deadly place, and how her fate connects them all.

I am reading The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson and this is certainly keeping my attention.

At birth, Violet and Rose Flowers were identical, save for a tiny bluish-purple mark gracing Violet’s slender neck. By nineteen, their temperaments distinguish them, as different as the flowers their mother named them for—Violet, wild and outgoing, and Rose, solitary and reserved. Still, they are each other’s world. Then, on a sweltering, terrible August night in 1928, an explosion rocks Lamb’s Dance Hall in Possum Flats, Missouri, engulfing it in flames, leaving one twin among the dozens dead, and her sister’s life forever changed.

Fifty years later, Daisy Flowers is dumped on her grandmother Rose’s doorstep for the summer. A bright, inquisitive fifteen-year-old, Daisy bargains her way into an internship at the local newspaper—where she learns of the mysterious long-ago tragedy and its connection to her family. Rose, now the local funeral home director, grows increasingly alarmed as her impulsive granddaughter delves into Possum Flats’ history, determined to uncover the horrors and heroes of the fiery blast.

For a small town, Possum Flats holds a multitude of big secrets, some guarded by the living, some kept by the dead. And through Rose, Daisy, Dash—a preacher who found his calling that fateful night—and others, those ghosts gradually come into the light, forcing a reckoning at last.

I am also reading What Happened to Charlotte Salter by Nicci French

On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, just before Christmas 1990, his wife Charlotte vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes Charlotte is missing. While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. When Charlotte’s coat is found by the river, they fear the worst. Then the body of the Salters’ neighbor, Duncan Ackerley, is found floating in the river by his son Morgan and Etty. The police investigate and conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide. Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley, a successful documentarian, has returned to Glensted with his older brother Greg to make podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But as the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases. Allegations are made, secrets are revealed, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder. With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. Resented by her mostly male colleagues, she has no tolerance for either their sexism or their incompetence. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.

This week I hope to read, but probably won’t – Never be the Same by Luke Williams, an author ARC.

As Tom Rosemore heads to work, a jolting update shatters his world with the news that his boss has been found dead at the office. This grim revelation arrives amid Tom’s own struggles, compounding a tragedy that has fractured his family, leaving his teenage daughter to spiral into a depression, and his wife to waste away through a crippling exercise addiction. Amid the turmoil, Tom’s world darkens further as he becomes the prime suspect in his boss’s murder. Confronted by mounting evidence he cannot explain, including incriminating CCTV footage, he faces a tough battle convincing detectives of his innocence. Yet, beneath the surface lies the unsettling realisation that someone has tried to frame him. As accusations loom large, a greater horror unfolds with the sudden disappearance of his daughter on the very day he is questioned by police. Determined to find her in a race against time and the law, Tom is forced to take matters into his own hands. With police closing in, secrets begin to unravel, woven into the mystery of his boss’s murder.

With Winter Comes Darkness by Robbi Neal

A terrible accident burns down a family’s life on the same day a murder is committed. From the ashes of these acts comes revelation, darkness, and the truth. Psychological suspense and profound family drama meet in this heartrending and original Australian novel.

1975, Ballarat Alice is happy in her world and in return for her happiness the world is good to her. She has everything she needs – a lovely house and children, and a devoted husband. Even though her journalism job doesn’t pay much, she doesn’t have to worry about the bills. All is well with her world until a terrible accident rips a child from her, a profound betrayal is uncovered, and things fall apart.

On the same day Alice’s world collapses, a man is found brutally murdered on respected teacher Ellery’s farm. Ellery can’t remember what happened but there is blood on his clothes, and he is arrested.

Neither Alice nor Ellery realise that their paths in life are about to intertwine and a desperate bargain is about to be made. A bargain that could save or destroy them in their quest to draw some light and fathom the darkness that surrounds them.

Secrets of Riverside by Mandy Magro

Can love conquer all? A moving story of overcoming the past and second chances from bestselling Australian romance author Mandy Magro. Can their love heal the shadows of the past?

After losing her family in a tragic fire when she was a child, Amelia Price has battled to put the shattered pieces of her life back together. Even so, she’s never felt like she belongs anywhere, and she longs for stability and love. When a mysterious letter turns up at her apartment with hints that she’ll uncover the truth behind what happened all those years ago if she goes to the sleepy, picturesque town of Riverside, she sets off on a journey to tropical Far North Queensland.

Jarrah King owns and runs the Riverside Roadhouse. He loves the simpleness of country living, and the fact it gives him complete anonymity. Over the years he’s made a life for himself under a new name, however his past has never stopped haunting him.

When a sassy blonde takes up the new cook position, he can’t help but be drawn to her vivacious personality. But he can tell there’s also pain hiding underneath her bubbly facade and he longs to erase those shadows. However, lowering his defences to let her in may risk his new identity, as well as everything he holds dear.

Can Amelia show him that love is worth the risk? Or will the secrets of their entwined past tear them apart forever?

And, One Long Weekend by Shari Low

When all seems lost, hope remains… Val Murray has mislaid her most precious mementoes of the people she’s loved and lost. Can her family, the wonders of technology and a little divine intervention somehow mend her shattered heart?

Sophie Smith had to take a rain check on a marriage proposal. Will her bid to turn back the clock lead her to her greatest love or yet another heartbreak?

Alice McLenn stood by her husband, Larry when a scandal cost them everything. When he hits the headlines again, Alice has an opportunity to leave – but can she find the strength to finally walk away?

Rory Brookes was forced to turn his back on his parents to save his career and marriage. Now, he’s lost his job and wife on the same day. Is it too late to make amends with the one person who never let him down?

Three days. Four broken hearts. Just one weekend to make them whole again.

Sorry, this post isn’t going to be a chatty one, and I am going to apologise in advance for probably not being able to visit everyone’s posts over the next few days, but I need to spend time with family. I am meeting a lot of extended family for the first time ever! Isn’t it sad that we only seem to catch up when someone dies. I am going to try and do better.

Happy reading all, and stay safe. 💕📚

The Baby by A.J. McDine

EXCERPT: I flick the kettle on and gaze out of the window while I wait for it to boil. Even though I can see Percy stretched out in the sun by the greenhouse, I could swear I’m not alone. I get that feeling every so often. It’s almost as if Grandad’s spirit is sandwiched between the plasterboard and the brickwork, like insulation. Sometimes I feel his presence so keenly it’s as if her is standing beside me, just out of sight.
But today it’s more than that. I can hear something. A rustling noise, coming from the living room. Not rustling. More like snuffling. I stiffen, my hand gripping the worktop, my head cocked to one side. Hoping to God Percy hasn’t brought in a rabbit – I can’t deal with that, not today – I make my way along the hallway to the front of the house.
At the door to the living room I stop in my tracks. The bottom drawer of Grandad’s old oak bureau, the one with the barley twit legs, has been tipped onto the floor. Diaries and birthday cards, envelopes and notebooks, old seed packets and pens, sticky tape and gardening twine have all been upended on the carpet in a jumble.
But this is incidental. Because it’s what’s lying in the upturned drawer that’s holding my attention.
Tiny fists waving in the air. Chubby legs encased in a white sleepsuit. A fuzz of dark hair.
A baby.
And this makes no sense at all. Because I, Lucy Quinn, might have a husband called Miles and a cat called Percy and a cottage that once belonged to my grandad.
But the one thing I don’t have, the one thing I have never had, is a baby.

ABOUT ‘THE BABY’: There’s a baby in your house. It isn’t yours…

The day I was told I’d never be able to have a child, my world came crashing down. My husband says he still loves me but I lie awake at night, wishing we could have a family.

One morning, my husband’s side of the bed is cold and empty. I hear a noise and head downstairs.

In the middle of the rug in my living room is a wooden drawer. Swaddled inside, with perfect rosy cheeks and beautiful round blue eyes, a baby gazes up at me.

I shiver. It’s all I’ve ever wanted, but this baby is not mine…

MY THOUGHTS: I liked The Baby, but didn’t love it. Lucy is a character who is hard to like or to empathise with. She is emotionally immature and mercurial. She is an alcoholic, although she would vehemently deny this. Her husband Miles is a manipulative abuser, also thoroughly unlikeable. He more than enables, he actually encourages her drinking then punishes her for it.

There’s a lot of repetition as Lucy endlessly agonises over things and questions herself. Some of it is just downright dumb. Like “maybe this baby is mine and I’ve just forgotten I have it”. The baby is sleeping in a drawer. Other than a bag of baby clothes and some formula in the same bag, there are none of the usual accoutrements that seem to come with babies. There are no nappies, no formula, no bottles, no clothes, no crib, no buggy, no toys . . . . Authors – please credit your readers with some brains.

On the plus side – the story of where the baby actually comes from is quite inventive and plausible. I have to admit to enjoying the second half of the story much more than the first, especially the ending, although I do have problems with some of the forensic details.

Narrator Tamsin Kennard was a pleasure to listen to.

⭐⭐.5

#TheBaby #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: A. J. McDine lives in Kent in the UK with her husband and fellow thriller writer A. J. Wills, their two sons and two VERY demanding cats.

She worked as a journalist and police press officer before becoming a full-time author in 2019.

Endlessly fascinated by people and their fears and foibles, she loves to discover what makes them tick.

She writes dark, domestic thrillers about ordinary people in extraordinary situations.

When she’s not writing, playing tennis or attempting to run a 5k, she can usually be found people-watching in her favourite café.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Bookouture Audio via NetGalley for providing an audio ARC of The Baby written by A.J. McDine and narrated by Tamsin Kennard. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

The Intruders by Louise Jensen

EXCERPT: I’ve identified sounds, taste, touch and smells but now there’s something else.
A feeling.
A slow crawl of trepidation from the tips of my toes to the top of my scalp.
I stop abruptly. ‘James,’ my tone is urgent now, ‘I don’t like this anymore . . .’
‘Relax Cass. We’re here.’
He fumbles to untie the blindfold and then I’m blinking in the unaccustomed brightness. Curved around me is a horseshoe shaped manor house. With its wings stretching either side of me I feel like the house is holding me.
Gripping me.
Despite the low temperature a flush of heat rushes through me. I push up the sleeves of my jumper. Stepping back, my eyes scan the black and white Tudor timberwork above the entrance. The iron ‘Newington House’ sign blistered with rust.
Ivy clings to the stone building. There’s a sense of someone watching me through the small leaded windows.
This is not a tourist attraction. That much is clear from the unkempt courtyard. The tangle of weeds and nettles.
A crow lands in the tree to my left; he screeches, and it sounds like a warning.

ABOUT ‘THE INTRUDERS’: They were told to leave. They should have listened.

It should be the perfect opportunity: a manor house available rent free in exchange for a bit of housesitting. But when Cass and James dig deeper, they find the place has been abandoned since a robbery left almost all the inhabitants dead almost thirty years ago. But they’ve got to save for a deposit somehow, so they move in, and things quickly take a strange turn. Objects disappear and turn up in odd places, the clock always stops at the same time, and the house is oppressive yet strangely familiar. Could it just be bad memories, or are the house’s secrets a little closer to home?

MY THOUGHTS: There’s no such thing as a free lunch – or, in this case, a free house.

The Intruders by Louise Jensen will put your spidey senses on high alert. There’s an insidious creepiness to the storyline. Nothing major, or over the top, just little unexplained things. Things that eat into Cass’s mind, but that James seems able to explain away. Logically. Calmly. The sounds of children playing. Singing. The smell of freshly cut lemons. The hairbrush that won’t stay in the drawer. A window that opens itself. The clock that stops every day at 8.30 p.m. . . . .

I don’t blame Cass for feeling spooked. Especially when James has to go away on business. And Cass has had problems in the past – a little mental disturbance, or two.

The story is told over two timelines – now and thirty years ago when the Madley family lived, and was murdered, in Newington House. Louise Jensen cleverly manipulates the storyline – I had no idea where she was taking me but was quite happy to go along for the ride – and throws in a few stunning twists. She creates a chilling atmosphere with a palpable air of mystery surrounding all the characters.

And the ending? – Twisted. You’ll need to suspend your belief. It is disturbing but strangely fitting.

I listened to the audiobook of The Intruders which was superbly narrated by Helen Keeley.

And don’t skip the author’s note at the end where she relates how this book came about.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.3

#TheIntruders #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: When I was little I was obsessed by Enid Blyton. Her characters were so real to me they became my friends. I often huddled under my covers, stifling my yawns and straining my eyes, as I read ‘just one more page’ by torchlight.

Mr Townsend, my primary school English teacher always encouraged my love of literature, and it wasn’t long before I’d read everything my school had to offer. The first book I created was six pages long, had stick-man illustrations and was sellotaped together. I was immensely proud of it. Writing was a huge part of my life, until one day it wasn’t.

I can’t remember ever making a conscious decision to stop writing but it became easier to act on the advice I was given – ‘grow up and get a proper job’ – and my dreams were tightly packed away, gathering dust for the next twenty years.

My thirties were a car crash. Literally. I sustained injuries which when coupled with a pre-existing condition forced me to radically change my lifestyle. I felt utterly lost and utterly alone. Always an avid reader I began to devour books at an alarming rate. ‘You’ll have read every book in here soon,’ my local librarian said. ‘You’ll have to write your own.’

And there was a flicker, a shift, a rising of hope. I grasped that nugget of possibility and I wrote. I wrote when I was happy. I wrote when I was sad. I wrote when I was scared and in-between writing, I read, read and read some more. Words have the power to lift, to heal. They have illuminated my world, which for a time became very dark.

As Anne Frank said ‘I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.’

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins UK Audio, HQ via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Intruders written by Louise Jensen and narrated by Helen Keeley. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

First Lines Friday

Photo by Thought Catalog on Pexels.com

Welcome to First Lines Friday, originally hosted by Reading is my Superpower.

Instead of judging a book by its cover, her are the first few lines which I hope will make you want to read this book.

These lines are from a book I am currently reading from my local library – a ‘purely for pleasure’ read.

<i>Thirty years ago, in a village in East Anglia where the land is swallowed up by mudflats and marshes and a hard wind blows in from the sea, a woman went missing.</i>

Do you like what you’ve just read?

Does it make you want to read more?

These are the opening lines of Has Anyone Seen Charlotte Salter? by Nicci French.

A nerve-tingling and atmospheric thriller from master of suspense Nicci French about two families shattered by tragedy and the secrets that have been waiting decades to be revealed.

On the day of Alec Salter’s fiftieth birthday party, just before Christmas 1990, his wife Charlotte vanishes. Most of the small English village of Glensted is at the party for hours before anyone realizes Charlotte is missing.

While Alec brushes off her disappearance, their four children—especially fifteen-year-old Etty—grow increasingly anxious as the cold winter hours become days and she doesn’t return. When Charlotte’s coat is found by the river, they fear the worst. Then the body of the Salters’ neighbor, Duncan Ackerley, is found floating in the river by his son Morgan and Etty. The police investigate and conclude that Duncan and Charlotte were having an affair before he killed her and committed suicide.

Thirty years later, Morgan Ackerley, a successful documentarian, has returned to Glensted with his older brother Greg to make podcast based on their shared tragedy with the Salters. Alec, stricken with dementia, is entering an elder care facility while Etty helps put his affairs in order. But as the Ackerleys ask to interview the Salters, the entire town gets caught up in the unresolved cases. Allegations are made, secrets are revealed, and a suspicious fire leads to a murder.

With the podcast making national news, London sends Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor to Glensted to take over the investigation. Resented by her mostly male colleagues, she has no tolerance for either their sexism or their incompetence. And she will stop at nothing to uncover the truth as a new and terrifying picture of what really happened to Charlotte Salter and Duncan Ackerley emerges.

Happy publication day – The Trial by Jo Spain

EXCERPT: Before she arrives at her destination, she hesitates.
For a moment, she thinks she feels somebody’s eyes on her. She spins on her heel and looks back at where she’s just come from.
She sees, or thinks she sees, the shadow of somebody who’s just turned the corner.
He’s gone now, but she suspects she knows who it is.
She knew he’d be watching her.
She just didn’t think he’d start so soon.

ABOUT ‘THE TRIAL’: 2014, Dublin: at St Edmunds, an elite college on the outskirts of the city, twenty-year-old medical student Theo gets up one morning, leaving behind his sleeping girlfriend, Dani, and his studies – never to be seen again. With too many unanswered questions, Dani simply can’t accept Theo’s disappearance and reports him missing, even though no one else seems concerned, including Theo’s father.

Ten years later, Dani returns to the college as a history professor. With her mother suffering from severe dementia, and her past at St Edmunds still haunting her, she’s trying for a new start. But not all is as it seems behind the cloistered college walls – meanwhile, Dani is hiding secrets of her own.

MY THOUGHTS: Only a few pages in, I got that lovely prickling sensation on the back of my neck that meant I was in for a great read. And it was.

Jo Spain has created a tension, a heightened level of suspense that just didn’t let up until I closed the cover for the final time and was able to take a deep breath.

The story is told over two timelines, 2014 and 2024, almost exclusively from the point of view of Dani. In 2014 she is mystified and devastated first by the disappearance of her boyfriend Theo and the diagnosis of her mother’s Alzheimer’s. 2024 and she is back at her old college on the faculty staff where her past keeps coming back to haunt her and something unsavory is going on that may adversely affect the health of millions of Alzheimer’s patients.

The Trial is an exceedingly well written thriller. Its premise is topical and plausible; the execution flawless. The chapters are short and snappy, the tension palpable, the twists fresh and interesting.
Highly recommended.

The Trial by Jo Spain is scheduled for publication 25 April 2024.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheTrial #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Jo, a graduate of Trinity College Dublin, writes TV screenplays full-time. She lives in Dublin with her husband and four young children. In her spare time (she has four children, there is no spare time really) she likes to read. She also watches TV obsessively.
Jo thinks up her plots on long runs in the woods. Her husband sleeps with one eye open.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Quercus Books via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of The Trial by Jo Spain for review. all opinions expressed in this review are my own personal opinions.

The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street by Marlish Glorie

EXCERPT: Armed with an arsenal of cleaning products, cloths, buckets ladder and tools, Helen went at the old building with the relentless force of a prosecution lawyer hammering a witness under cross-examination. The grubby bookshop’s defence was meagre and came to pieces under Helen’s scrutiny, surrendering up its filth to her tireless hands.

The irony that she had left one dump to land in another did not escape her. But this time she was free to do as she pleased; for once, junk was subordinate to her. And she didn’t want Vivian’s help; she wanted this job, she’d earned the right to throw out whatever and however she pleased.

ABOUT ‘THE BOOKSHOP ON JACARANDA STREET’: Helen can’t sleep. Her husband’s hoarding tendencies have taken over not only their house, but their marriage too, and she needs out. In a moment of desperation, Helen burns her bed, and leaves. Seeking to rediscover herself, she rather spontaneously seizes the opportunity to buy a run-down secondhand bookstore. But when her two adult sons unexpectedly return home with their own problems, Helen’s attempt to turn her life into something out of a literary novel starts to look like more of a comedy of errors. As quirky characters browse the shelves of The Book Maze, and relationships are put to the test, Helen fights to write her own happy ending to her story.

MY THOUGHTS: The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street is the book that ended my reading slump. I loved this Australian family drama which begins with Helen chopping up and setting on fire the bed she cannot sleep on, dragged home from some deceased estate by her husband Arnold who has become an inveterate hoarder.

Helen is rather judgmental. She judges books by their cover, people by their appearance. She’s probably not the best person to own a second-hand bookstore, especially when she believes that anyone who doesn’t read classics is ill-educated. Thank goodness for Vivian her younger son who, although he suffers from depression, has a far more realistic grip on what customers want.

There are some wonderful characters; not the least is Razoo who is illiterate but owns a second-hand book warehouse.

This story is quirky, poignant, entertaining and utterly charming. Once started, I only put it down when I went to sleep, and then not voluntarily. Marlish Glorie tells a story of love and loss, of the harm of long-term hoarding, of grieving and the bonds of a very dysfunctional family.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#TheBookshoponJacarandaStreet @FremantlePress

THE AUTHOR: Marlish Glorie is a novelist, short-story writer, mentor and teacher of creative writing. Marlish loves in Perth, Western Australia with her husband Lindsay.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Fremantle Press for providing a copy of The Bookshop on Jacaranda Street for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

What’s new on my bedside table . . .

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

Yay!!!! Only three new ARCs arrived in my inbox this week! Excuse me while I do a little dance . . .

My first new title is a publisher’s widget – The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley. I see this isn’t getting great reviews, but I have enjoyed everything else I have read by her, so we’ll see . . . It certainly sounds enticing!

Midsummer, the Dorset coast

In the shadows of an ancient wood, guests gather for the opening weekend of The Manor: a beautiful new countryside retreat.

But under the burning midsummer sun, darkness stirs. Old friends and enemies circulate among the guests. And the candles have barely been lit for a solstice supper when the body is found.

It all began with a secret, fifteen years ago. Now the past has crashed the party. And it’ll end in murder at…

THE MIDNIGHT FEAST

I have read so many amazing reviews about Goyhood by new-to-me author Rueven Fenton that I just couldn’t resist requesting it.

When Mayer (née Marty) Belkin fled small town Georgia for Brooklyn nearly thirty years ago, he thought he’d left his wasted youth behind. Now he’s a Talmud scholar married into one of the greatest rabbinical families in the world – a dirt poor country boy reinvented in the image of God.

But his mother’s untimely death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his ne’er-do-well twin brother David aren’t, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer’s only recourse is to convert to Judaism. But the earliest date he can get is a week from now. What are two estranged brothers to do in the interim?

So begins the Belkins’ Rumspringa through America’s Deep South with Mom’s ashes in tow, plus two tagalongs: an insightful Instagram influencer named Charlayne Valentine and Popeye, a one-eyed dog. As the crew gets tangled up in a series of increasingly surreal adventures, Mayer grapples with a God who betrayed him and an emotionally withdrawn wife in Brooklyn who has yet to learn her husband is a counterfeit Jew.

And to round out this weeks books is the latest in the Josie ‘nosey’ Parker cosy mystery series by Fiona Leitch – The Cornish Campsite Murder.

Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker is back in 2024 with a brand new Cornish mystery to unravel…

Just along the coast from Penstowan, the local festival has filled the area with revellers young and old. Former Met police officer Jodie ‘Nosey’ Parker has agreed to step in and help run the Pie Hard food truck, along with her rather reluctant fiancé, DCI Nathan Withers.

As they prepare for a weekend of camping and being elbow deep in shortcrust pastry, Jodie hadn’t bargained on witnessing a fight between members of the lead band.

But when the body of one of the band members is found dead not far from the campsite, Jodie finds it hard to believe it was an accident. Especially when the other members had so much to gain…

I still have 22 pending requests, 2 past publication date but which are not archived until some time later in May.

I have 515 books on my NetGalley shelf, one less than last week. Hey, I’ll take it. It’s a gain, or a loss, however you want to look at it! At least it makes my 72% feedback ratio a little more secure . . .

Goodreads group, All About Books is having another readathon starting at 12.01 am Friday 26 April and finishing at 11.59 p.m. Sunday 28 April for which I have signed up.

I have completed 8/9 books and all four books by Australian authors for my Aussie Readers April challenge. I will read the 9th and remaining book after I have finished my current read. I will easily complete this challenge before the end of the month.

I have just signed up for the May Aussie Reader’s challenge. The featured author is Sophie Green.

I have read 7/14 books for the Autumn Aussie Readers challenge, so I am right on target!

I have completed my first task of 24 for the World Book Day Challenge which I need to complete before 23 April 2025.

When I was at the library recently, our librarian introduced me to Beanstack an online reading library-based reading challenge but I didn’t get around to signing up for it until yesterday. There is a timer where you can log your reading minutes, Book bingo on which I have this morning completed my first square, and a place to publish your reviews. There are several other features that I haven’t yet had time to explore but will do as soon as possible.

My annual goals I am just going to update at the end of each month, and as it is the last Wednesday of the month, here goes –

I have read 87 of my goal of 225 books for my 2024 Goodreads Reading challenge- 18 books ahead of schedule; and 64 of my goal of 150 NetGalley titles. I can always increase my goals later in the year.

I have read 13 of my goal of 20 Backlist titles for 2024. These titles must have been on my shelf for longer than 12 months to qualify.

I have read 22 of my 24 book goal for my 2024 library love challenge, so I may need to reset that goal too.

I selected the My Precious (I had my earbuds surgically implanted) level of 30+ audiobooks for 2024. I have so far listened to 19/30.

Another few days and we’ll be 1/3 of the way through the year!

Dustin and Luke fly back from Perth Thursday night – that week has gone by fast! Luke loved the reptile park so much that they made a return visit yesterday and Luke got to feed a snake! He was so excited. He keeps messaging me telling me what he’s doing. He’ll be spending time with his Australian grandad for the last two days of his visit which will be nice for both of them.

I have a busy morning ahead. I need to tidy up my office desk as I have mislaid two vital bits of paper. My friend Annette is staying tonight after we get back from seeing Dragon in concert so I need to make up a bed for her. Pete’s dinner is simmering away in the crockpot, but I need to get some food in for the weekend, do laundry, and sort out what I am wearing tonight. The day is going to be beautiful, but not that warm. It will be hot inside the event centre but cold outside. What to wear???? Boots, definitely. I hate to have cold feet!

Have a wonderful week, and read on!

Voices in the Dark by Fleur McDonald

EXCERPT: When her ringtone, Kaylee Bell’s ‘Keith’ had ripped through the kitchen causing her to jump, Sassi knew there was something amiss. No one called so late at night.
The photo that had been taken last Christmas of her and Abe flashed onto the screen and her first thought had been: Which one is it? Which grandparent?
‘It’s bad, Sassi,’ her uncle told her when she answered.
Her hands shaking, she’d slid down next to Jarrah and buried her fingers in the kelpie’s caramel fur.
‘What’s happened?’
‘Not sure. Dad managed to raise the alarm, but . . .’ His voice had trailed off and Sassi realised her kettle was screaming a high-pitched whistle above her. Sticking a finger in her ear and ignoring the sound, she stayed where she was.
‘The ambo couldn’t say much, but he suggested we get everyone together as quickly as we can. I’ve rung your mother.’
Sassi snorted. ‘She won’t be much use.’
‘Sassi.’ As always Abe’s calm and conciliatory tone didn’t change. Sassi was angry and he was the peacemaker. ‘She’s going to be on the first plane she can get out of South Africa.’
She’d probably prefer the borders were still shut so she didn’t have to come back.’
Abe ignored her comments. ‘You need to come now,’ he said. ‘Don’t wait.’

ABOUT ‘VOICES IN THE DARK’: Sassi Stapleton is called home after news her grandmother is unwell. Less than an hour away from her hometown, Barker, she swerves to miss a roo and her car rolls down an embankment and she’s left hanging. By the time she is found, her grandmother has already passed away.

Sassi’s mother, Amber, returns from South Africa, and as soon as she arrives family tensions between her and her brother, Abe, are back in the forefront of everyone’s minds.

When it quickly becomes clear that Sassi’s grandfather Mr Stapleton is unable to live alone, the hunt is on to find a carer. Rasha enters the family home, firmly entrenching herself as someone they can’t do without, and before long Mr Stapleton is happier than he has been in years.

Then bruises start appearing on Mr Stapleton and he becomes withdrawn, refusing to talk even to Sassi.

None of the family are convinced that Rasha could hurt anyone. Amber is his daughter; Sassi, his granddaughter. None of these three could hurt Mr Stapleton. Could they?

MY THOUGHTS: I really enjoy reading stories set in small towns, Australian ones in particular, and Voices in the Dark set in the small town of Barker, four hours out of Adelaide, South Australia, didn’t disappoint. This is a family drama with no romance but a lot of love, secrets, lies, greed and resentment to fuel the storyline.

Small towns can be difficult to live in. Everyone knows everyone else’s business. Scandals never really die, beliefs are firmly entrenched, and grudges can be held for generations. But when the chips are down, everyone pulls together. Barker is no different. Sassi is still that ‘illegitimate Stapleton kid’, and Rasha is ‘a person of color’ taking work away from the locals. ‘She doesn’t belong here.’

Voices in the Dark is very much a character driven drama, and I loved the characters – well, most of them anyway. There’s a few louts and larrikins in Barker, but then aren’t there in every town? And Amber, Sassi’s mother, is, and I’m being kind here, a complicated character. She’s arrogant, entitled, racist and cold . . . I couldn’t find one spark of warmth or humanity in her. But she too has a tragic back story.

There are some wonderful relationships that I loved reading about – Abe and his wife Renee and their twin sons being one; Dave, the local detective and his wife Kim are another. There’s an enticing bit of drama going on in Dave’s family as well as in his workplace.

There’s a bit of a story behind Detective Dave Burrows. He appeared in Fleur McDonald’s first book, ‘Dust’. Since then, he’s appeared as a secondary character in sixteen of her novels and has taken a lead role in another six. I guess if you’ve read a lot of this author’s work, you will already be familiar with him. Unfortunately I haven’t, but that is something I am going to remedy.

I also love Sassi and Abe’s relationship. They are more like brother and sister than uncle and niece. Sassi is a lovely character. She’s had a bit of a rough time of it, having been abandoned by her mother as a young child; her grandmother’s death is more like the loss of a mother and the sudden disintegration of her long-term relationship is a shock, but she is a strong young woman who has her focus in the right place.

I do have some qualms about how the book ended. I’m not entirely sure that Dave did the right thing here. If you read or have read Voices in the Dark, I’d love to know what you think.

A good, solid four-star read that has left me wanting to read more from this author.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

#VoicesintheDark #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: After growing up on a farm near Orroroo in South Australia, Fleur McDonald’s first job was jillarooing in the outback. She has been involved in agriculture all her life, including helping manage an 8000-acre station for twenty years. Today Fleur and her energetic kelpie, Jack, live in Esperance, Western Australia,

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Allen & Unwin via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Voices in the Dark by Fleur McDonald for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.