Detective fiction – Sandy's Book a Day Blog

Watching what I’m reading . . .

Happy Sunday afternoon! We’ve had a very busy day with having Luke to stay. We came home from Hamilton yesterday after hockey. Luke got player of the day which he was very excited about. We stuck around afterwards for a while and helped with the fundraising efforts which pays for their uniforms and fees to the hockey grounds. It was nice to meet and chat with some of Luke’s friends’ parents too. Luke and I stayed up a little later than usual and watched Dr Doolittle. I think I enjoyed it more than he did.🤣🤣This morning he and I walked down to the local high school (not far) and played tennis on the courts and then Luke practiced his ball handling skills with his hockey stick while I hit the tennis ball against the wall. This afternoon we have been picking mandarins for Luke to sell for Lego money.

He has also written his first book review (see my earlier post – Kelpie Chaos) which has been added onto mine.

I haven’t had much time to read since we left for hockey yesterday morning. I was so tired last night, my eyes closed the moment my head hit the pillow and Luke was up and about super-early this morning so there was no lying in bed with my books!

So, what am I currently reading? . . . A New Dawn at Owl’s Lodge by Jessica Redland is my current ARC read. I have read a few books by this author now and they never fail to enchant me.

Could one chance meeting change your life forever?

Zara is at a crossroads in life. While she adores her job as a producer’s assistant working on hit TV shows, travelling around the country means she doesn’t truly feel that she has a home. With a fractured relationship with her family and unrequited love weighing heavily on her heart, she is torn about what her next step in life should be…

Snowy is hiding from the world. He’s devoted his life to home schooling his young son and caring for sick owls at his home, Owl’s Lodge, deep in the Yorkshire Wolds countryside. While he’s passionate about both, it’s a lonely existence and he’s starting to question his decisions. But how do you step back into a world you’ve pushed away for years…?

When Zara brings an injured owl to Owl’s Lodge, its frosty, reclusive owner is far from welcoming. Despite hostilities, there’s a connection that neither could ever have prepared themselves for. As they discover a shared passion, a new friendship blossoms, but both Zara and Snowy are used to shutting people out.

Can they both find the courage to open up and the strength to move on from their pasts? And what could this mean for their future happiness?

My current backlist book is from my 2019 ARC backlog – All That’s Bright and Gone by Eliza Nellums. It is told from the POV of a six year old girl.

I know my brother is dead. But sometimes Mama gets confused.

Six-year-old Aoife knows better than to talk to people no one else can see, like her best friend Teddy who her mother says is invisible. He’s not, but Mama says it’s rude anyways. So when Mama starts talking to Aoife’s older brother Theo, Aoife is surprised. And when she stops the car in the middle of an intersection, crying and screaming, Aoife gets a bad feeling–because even if they don’t talk about it, everyone knows Theo died a long time ago. He was murdered.

Eventually, Aoife is taken home by her Uncle Donny who says he’ll stay with her until Mama comes home from the hospital, but Aoife doesn’t buy it. The only way to bring Mama home is to find out what really happened to Theo. Even with Teddy by her side, there’s a lot about the grown-up world that Aoife doesn’t understand, but if Aoife doesn’t help her family, who will?

And my read for pleasure is The Shelley Bay Ladies Swimming Society by Sophie Green. I read my first book by this author a few weeks back and loved it so picked this up when I was in the library during the week.

It’s 1982 in Australia. THE MAN FROM SNOWY RIVER is a box office hit and Paul Hogan is on the TV. In a seaside suburb, housewife Theresa takes up swimming. She wants to get fit; she also wants a few precious minutes to herself. So at sunrise each day she strikes out past the waves. From the same beach, the widowed Marie swims. With her husband gone, bathing is the one constant in her new life. After finding herself in a desperate situation, 25-year-old Leanne only has herself to rely on. She became a nurse to help others, even as she resists help herself. Elaine has recently moved from England. Far from home and without her adult sons, her closest friend is a gin bottle. In the waters of Shelly Bay, these four women find each other. They will survive bluebottle stings and heartbreak; they will laugh so hard they swallow water, and they will plunge their tears into the ocean’s salt. They will find solace and companionship and learn that love takes many forms. Most of all, they will cherish their friendship, each and every day.

I have six books to read for review this week – The Art of Murder by Fiona Walker is the first.

Welcome to the beautiful English village of Inkbury. Tucked deep in the North Wessex Downs, its only claim to fame is the picturesque riverside that once appeared in a Richard Curtis movie. That is, until the murder…

Former stand-up comic Juno Mulligan has been suffering a serious sense-of-humour failure. Not only has she lost the love of her life, but she’s having to relocate to the (admittedly idyllic) village of Inkbury to watch out for her elderly mother, who she’s genuinely worried might be marrying a wife-killer.

She hopes that her old friend, disgraced-journalist-turned-novelist Phoebe Fredericks can help her crack the case of whether her mother’s perma-tanned, iceberg-smiled, three-times-a-widower fiancé is hiding a murderous past.

But before they have a chance, the local art dealer washes up distinctly dead in the village’s famous river. His lover is in the frame, but Juno and Phoebe suspect that there is a deeper secret… One that relates to Phoebe’s own past and Juno’s present.

Will the unofficial Village Detective Agency solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? In sleepy Inkbury, as they soon discover, living one’s best midlife can be murder.

The Sisters of Blue Mountain Beach by Kalan Chapman Lloyd, a new-to-me author.

The Sisters of Blue Mountain Beach is a gripping tale revolving around the lives of three remarkable women who suddenly go missing in the devastating aftermath of a ferocious hurricane on Florida’s renowned 30A.

Arden, the youngest, finds herself at a crossroads in her life, grappling with difficult decisions and a sense of longing for something more. Cilla, newly retired and ready to start anew, has recently received a devastating diagnosis of cancer, causing her to confront her mortality and the urgency to live each day to its fullest. Mary Fran, the oldest, is mourning the loss of her beloved husband and the secrets he left behind, wondering if there is more life for her in a world that feels tilted on its axis.

As they navigate their individual struggles, they find solace in each other’s company, sharing memories, heated arguments, and countless meals together amidst the serene backdrop of Blue Mountain Beach. The emerald waters of the Gulf of Mexico serve as a poignant reminder of the beauty and fragility of life.

As the search for the missing women intensifies, the bonds between Arden, Cilla, and Mary Fran become stronger than ever. With each passing day, they find hope, in and with each other. But as secrets are uncovered and hidden truths emerge, the sisters’ lives are forever altered.

In the Midnight Rain by Barbara O’Neill

Biographer Ellie Connor is in Gideon, Texas, to research blues singer Mabel Beauvais who, on the verge of fame, mysteriously disappeared more than forty years ago. Gideon holds another mystery for Ellie. It’s the truth about her parents—a restless mother who died young and a father she never knew. They are an unsettled piece of Ellie’s own past. Somewhere in this town is the answer to both of her quests.

No one is more accommodating than charismatic Laurence “Blue” Reynard, a local with deep roots in Gideon. Sexy and charming, he’s also getting under Ellie’s skin like a smooth jazz rhythm. Yet beneath his seductive facade is a soul damaged by loss. Tragic, wanting, and beautiful. So wrong for a woman just passing through town. If only his passion and vulnerability weren’t so irresistible.

As Ellie pieces together Mabel’s puzzling life and that of her father, Blue takes the surprising journey with her. What then for Ellie? Follow her instincts and say goodbye, or follow her heart?

Still Waters by Matt Goldman, an author I read for the first time last year.

If you’re reading this email, I am dead. I know this will sound strange, but someone has been trying to kill me.

Liv and Gabe Ahlstrom are estranged siblings who haven’t seen each other in years, but that’s about to change when they receive a rare call from their older brother’s wife. “Mack is dead,” she says. “He died of a seizure.” Five minutes after they hang up, Liv and Gabe each receive a scheduled email from their dead brother, claiming that he was murdered.

The siblings return to their family run resort in the Northwoods of Minnesota to investigate Mack’s claims, but Leech Lake has more in store for them than either could imagine. Drawn into a tangled web of lies and betrayal that spans decades, they put their lives on the line to unravel the truth about their brother, their parents, themselves, and the small town in which they grew up. After all, no one can keep a secret in a small town, but someone in Leech Lake is willing to kill for the truth to stay buried.

The Charmed Friends of Trove Isle by new-to-me author Annie Rains.

Ten years after she left her hometown of Trove Isle, NC, Melody Palmer is back to receive an unexpected inheritance—her great aunt’s thrift store, Hidden Treasures. There, in a glass case beneath the register, Melody spies the long-lost charm bracelet she shared with her high school friends, Liz and Bri, and her younger sister, Alyssa. After a devastating prom night accident, it disappeared, and the girls’ friendship evaporated with it. Slipping the bracelet on her arm for safekeeping, Melody soon finds herself crossing paths with her former friends once more.

While Melody fled, Liz has stayed in Trove Isle, helping with her parents’ business instead of pursuing her photography goals. Guilt still weighs on her after that fateful night when they lost Alyssa. For Bri, the consequences were even more stark. After spiraling into self-destruction, Bri served four years in a women’s state prison and is about to be released—but can Trove Isle ever feel like home again?

Yet despite everything that’s changed, the promise that the bracelet once held—of adventures, achievements, love, and lifelong friendship—hasn’t quite faded. And together, they might yet find a way to reconcile their pasts and futures, one charm at a time . . .

and, finally, The Blood Promise by another new-to-me author, Liz Mistry. (more birds on the cover! – I feel haunted.)

A deadly gift

Imogen Clark wakes up on her 16th birthday to find her parents dead at the breakfast table, along with a message from their killer.

A twist of fate

Detectives Jazzy Solanki and Annie McQueen join the investigation, but the more they discover, the more Jazzy suspects that the killing is a twisted message for her. Jazzy shares the same birthday as Imogen, and believes that this is more than a coincidence.

A race to catch a killer

When Jazzy discovers the connection between the killer and the stalker who has been following her for years, she is forced to confront the dark past she was desperate to keep hidden. She must stop at nothing to solve the case, before she becomes the next victim…

Once again, I doubt very much that I will get all these read but, as usual, I will do my very best.

I have received this email twice from Amazon in the past week: <i>An initial warning has been sent to you. Because of your repeated violation of our Community Guidelines we’ve removed your ability to participate in Community features. </i>

They have provided an email address to contact them re their decision, so twice I have emailed them asking for clarification on:

Precisely what guideline/s I have violated; and
When I might be permitted to commence posting my reviews again.

No reply to date and they have actually REMOVED all my reviews. Has this happened to anyone else? Any tips on how to deal with it?

We have quite a social week coming up with two friends having BIG milestone birthdays and throwing parties to celebrate. So next weekend might be a bit lean on reading too!

Happy reading!💕📚

What’s new on my bedside table? . . .

Happy hump day! It’s a stormy day here in New Zealand. Heavy rain but thankfully not particularly cold. I have been to Book Club at the library today and we had some very spirited discussions! I have come home with a bag of books to read – one library, the others borrowed from other group members. The librarian also talked to us about an app called Beanstack which a lot of libraries are using for inter-library reading challenges. I have been logging my reading on it for almost 3 weeks now and participating in the Master of Minutes challenge and the Bingo Genre Challenge. I’ll update you on my progress later in the post. But first, lets see what new books have arrived on my bedside table in the past week

I’ll deal with the library book first – On Call, a memoir from the life of a surgeon, daughter and mother by Ineke Meredith.

The world of surgery is strange, messy and intense. From a man presenting with fishhooks in his stomach to being punched in the face by a patient, it’s all in a mad day’s work for a female general surgeon. Even wit emergency operations in the wee hours and constantly being mistaken for a nurse, there are still moments of laughter and tenderness amid the chaos.

When Ineke’s parents in Samoa fall ill, she becomes torn between her roles as a surgeon, a daughter and a single working mother, leading her to ask: are the sacrifices of a life in scrubs worth it?

This is an extraordinary memoir from inside the operating room about the heart it takes to survive.

Now for my NetGalley ARC shelves: 5 new titles this week, which is better than the seven last week, BUT it has still pushed my total of books on my ARC shelf a few points higher. 😖

I selected Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid for two reasons. Firstly, I love Val McDermid’s writing, and secondly it fills the criteria of a retelling of one of Shakespeare’s plays for the World Book Day challenge on one of my Goodreads groups.

A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre, and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.

Thank you to my Goodreads friend CarolG for putting me onto The Fells by Cath Staincliffe. This is a new-to-me author.

A missing woman. A cold case. A dark secret, buried deep beneath the Yorkshire Dales.

Summer 1997. Vicky Mott slips out the door of her remote stone cottage, and into the pale dawn light. She won’t wake her friends. Not after the night they just had.

She scrawls a note, her hand trembling with excitement. Gone to see the sun rise. V xxx

That’s the last anyone ever hears from vibrant twenty-year-old Vicky.

Everyone warned her. Of the predator stalking the lush green fells. Convicted killer Terence Bielby. He strangled three hikers before he got to Vicky. Now he has her blood on his hands, too.

It’s only a matter of time until the evidence surfaces . . .

2019. A human skeleton is discovered in a dark and treacherous cave beneath the Dales. The final resting place of Vicky Mott?

Detectives Leo Donovan and Shan Young think they’ve found the key to this decades-old mystery. But every answer they unearth only leads to more questions.

All Donovan’s instincts tell him that, this time, Bielby’s innocent.

But if the Fellside Strangler didn’t do it, then who?

I discovered Australian author Janet Gover earlier this year and just loved her writing! Her new book, Wedding Bells by the Creek (a Coorah Creek novel) is due for publication in July.

Are there some things that can’t be forgiven?

Helen Walsh has never stopped searching for the daughter who ran away from home when she was just fifteen. Now Tia has found her. Helen longs for her daughter’s forgiveness. Will a Coorah Creek wedding help heal their rift?

Ed Collins has walked Helen’s path, and he knows that she needs more than her daughter’s forgiveness. Ed feels compelled to help her, as he is increasingly drawn to her kind and loving heart.

Then Ed’s wife Stephanie returns to the tiny outback town – thirteen years after she deserted Ed and their young son, Scott. Steph was his first and only love, and now Ed is being asked to forgive.

But how do you forgive what you will never forget?

Maddie Please is an author who never fails to please me. Her latest book, Old Girls on Deck is another July release.

It’s never too late to sail a new course…

When retired Jill Parker wins an all-expenses paid mediterranean cruise for two she is thrilled! At 63 life in retirement has got a little bit bland for Jill and this might be just the holiday she and husband Eddy need to get the sparks back in their marriage.

But when Eddy admits he would much prefer to build his patio and look through the latest DIY magazine, Jill is left with only one other option – her sister Diana.

Diana has become rather reclusive since her husband, Caspar died, but perhaps this is the push she needs to bring some excitement back into her life, too?

Could this trip be just what both sisters need to reconnect and chart a new path for their futures?

Excited to be exploring new horizons and catching up, the sisters soon discover that not everything is smooth sailing on board. And as they enjoy cocktails together at sundown, they discover that they are both actually a little all at sea…

I’ll be reading Silent Ritual by Andrew James Greig thanks to Ceecee, another Goodreads friend. He is also a new-to-me author.

An ear-shattering scream pierces the quiet Glasgow street as a mother stands frozen in her doorway, groceries strewn at her feet. Her son holds a bloodied knife while his father lies dead before him.

As Logan Martin begins his prison sentence for the brutal murder of his father, the eighteen-year-old’s aunt hires private investigator Teàrlach Paterson. She believes Logan is innocent and wants Teàrlach to uncover the truth.

Teàrlach’s visit to the Martin family home yields two disturbing discoveries: a pentagram etched under the carpet in Logan’s sister’s bedroom, and a link to the sinister deaths of their elderly neighbours—a journal with the same ominous symbol lies in the couple’s home.

While ritualistic murders plague the city, bodies placed precisely on an occult pentagram, bound in intricate knots, Teàrlach and his team unearth the sinister inspiration behind the killings in a mysterious ancient map.

Then, two young women are reported missing, and Teàrlach fears the worst. He’s inching closer to a killer who is weaving a complex web of murder rooted in Glasgow’s pagan past. But can Teàrlach stop the twisted soul from carrying out another cruel ritual? This time, one of his own is about to be in grave danger.

With my doing a fair bit of reading for pleasure in the past week, and a wee requesting spree, I have increased the number of titles on my NetGalley shelf from 515 to 519. I need to stop reading my friends’ reviews!🤣🤣 My feedback ration is somehow still at 72%, and I have 15 pending requests, down from 23.

I am a little ahead of schedule for my Aussie Readers May challenge having completed 6/10 reads I signed up for, and I have started the seventh book.

I am right on target to complete my Aussie Readers Autumn Challenge with 11/13 titles read and a little over two weeks to go.

Since I joined Beanstack 22 days ago, I have logged 6227 minutes reading and read 29 books. Our library has set a target of 2,000,000 minutes for the year. I have completed 7/24 genre challenges on my bingo card.

I am off to Dustin’s tomorrow. He is off on his annual boy’s weekend away with the mates he went through Tech with, so I am staying with Luke for the night, taking him to his hockey game Saturday morning then bringing him down to our place for the rest of the weekend. Dustin will pick him up Sunday night after he gets back. Luke and I are planning some serious brainstorming on the story we are writing – The Magic Island. I will do some work on it after aquarobics and grocery shopping this morning.

Sorry this post is late out. We had terrible weather yesterday and the internet kept cutting in and out, phone calls were dropping. I just couldn’t get the book covers to download. The weather is still stormy this morning, but my computer seems to be better behaved!

I had better get moving. I need to get ready for aquarobics and get on my way.

Happy reading! 💕📚

What’s new on my bedside table? . . .

Do you have problems with deciding where contemporary fiction ends and historical begins? I certainly do. Is a book set in the 1960s or 70s historical fiction? It doesn’t feel like it to me, because I have lived through those times. But to someone in their 20s, it must seem so. Does anyone have any guidelines which may help iron out my confusion and indecision? I’d be grateful if you share them.

So here we are on hump day again. I have finally decided to stop fighting the greys in my hair and give in to them. My hair grows really fast, so two weeks after I have been to the hairdresser, I have a noticeable skunk stripe. It’s extremely frustrating, because I end up pulling my hair back into a ponytail all the time in an effort to make it less noticeable. Can you see Pete smirking? Because he says it doesn’t work. He’s probably right. I went to the hairdresser yesterday and Tracy put an ash blond through my hair to match my ‘skunk’ stripe as my husband so eloquently terms it, and I love it! I really don’t know why I was so anti going grey for so long!

So, what’s new on my bedside table this week?

I have had more book mail from Fremantle Press – just the one this time. Thank you, Clare and Adam. Right Way Down and Other Poems is an anthology of poems for children chosen by Rebecca M/ Newman and Sally Murphy, and illustrated by Briony Stewart. I have been dipping in and out at odd moments and am mostly loving what is offered. Expect my review soon.

Stand on your head with Sally Murphy.

Explode some dynamite with Cristy Burne.

Shoot some hoops with Cheryl Kickett-Tucker.

Grow a poettree with Meg McKinlay.

Curl up next to your cat with Amber Moffat.

Watch a bit of Stink-o-Vision with James Foley.

These and loads more poems by Australian poets are there to discover in Right Way Down. With striking illustrations by Briony Stewart, these poems will have you laughing, thinking, and playing with words – whichever way you read them.

And, oh dear! I have seven new ARC titles from NetGalley. How did that happen?

I’ll blame aliens . . . or computer hackers. Or alien computer hackers! (sorry, Luke and I have been working on a story together and I am very much still in stories-Luke-would-like mode.)

Death is No Excuse by David Baker jumped out at me because Pete and I are STILL procrastinating over our wills. I know, I know. But hopefully this book will have all the answers and get me motivated to finish everything.

What do Abraham Lincoln, Pablo Picasso, Aretha Franklin and Howard Hughes all have in common? They died without wills, left messy estates and tormented their surviving families who had to lawyer up and fight through the resulting nightmares for years.
Whether the reasons for this are death denial, penny-pinching or just too busy to be bothered, the majority of Americans will die in exactly the same predicament—no wills, no planning and nobody lined up to help their surviving families get what’s coming to them.
“Death Is No Excuse” is an insightful roadmap through the legal potholes of unplanned death and disability, offered by a veteran attorney who’s handled the worst of these cases for over forty years. It’s a plain-spoken, surprisingly entertaining guide to everything you need to know about planning for death or disability, as well as other calamities that can occur along the way, be they divorce, avoidable tax burdens or getting ripped off as you toddle into old age.
Told in twenty-three brisk chapters, each punctuated with a case history of life gone off the rails when people ignore the insights this book offers, “Death Is No Excuse” tells you how to avoid the pitfalls of un-planned death and disability.

Most of you will know by now that Stuart MacBride is one of my very favorite authors. His latest book is In a Place of Darkness and due for publication June 2024 (that’s so as all you other Stuart MacBride fans can preorder it.)

THE CLOCK IS TICKING…

Detective Constable Angus MacVicar has just landed his dream job – transferred out of uniform and assigned to Oldcastle’s biggest ongoing murder investigation: Operation Telegram, hunting the ‘Fortnight Killer’.

Every two weeks another couple is targeted. One victim is left at the scene, their corpse used as a twisted message board. The second body is never seen again.

This should be the perfect chance for Angus to prove himself, but instead of working on the investigation’s front line, he’s lumbered with the forensic psychologist from hell. A sarcastic know-it-all American, on loan from the FBI, who seems determined to alienate everyone while dragging Angus into a shadowy world of conspiracies, lies, and violence.

It’s been twelve days since the Fortnight Killer last struck, and the investigation’s running out of time. Angus’s shiny new job might just be the death of him…

I was excited to be approved for Amor Towles collection of short stories, Table For Two. That cover makes me think of Sean Connery as James Bond and his martini, ‘shaken not stirred’. Yes, I know it’s a wine glass and Sean Connery would probably have assassinated the bartender for such a transgression, but it’s the vibes the cover gives off.

Amor Towles

shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Both this title and the next were a case of cover love! As winter is rapidly closing in (we had a frost last night and another expected tonight) I am drawn to anything summery. The End of Summer is by new-to-me author Charlotte Philby.

Your mother is not who you think she is…

When the phone rings in Judy McVee’s Languedoc farmhouse, she knows her past has finally caught up with her. It’s her daughter, frantically asking why there are journalists on her London doorstep making terrible accusations.

Decades earlier, Judy was a girl with big plans – to ensnare a rich husband, to make something of herself, to rise above her upbringing and leave behind past tragedies. Wealthy young widower Rory Harrington seemed the perfect target – but Judy hadn’t reckoned on actually falling in love with him.

Now her daughter Francesca, who has secrets of her own, must come to terms with the realisation that the mother she thought she knew wasn’t real. Where has Judy gone – and was anything she told her family true?

The Next Mrs Parrish by Liv Constantine is a sequel to The Last Mrs Parrish, which I am going to have to get from the library or pick up from a secondhand shop.

Amber Patterson Parrish has come a long way. Hard work and immaculate planning turned her from invisible wallflower to prominent socialite, but there have been bumps along the way. Less than a year after her husband Jackson’s tax-evasion scandal, Amber reigns supreme over the Bishops Harbor community. But with Jackson being released from prison, Amber’s free time – and money – is vanishing.

Meanwhile, Daphne Parrish left Bishops Harbor after her divorce from Jackson, swearing she would never go back. But when one of her daughters runs away from home, desperate to see her father, Daphne agrees to return for the summer. Jackson swears he’s a changed man, but Daphne knows all too well that he can’t be trusted.

When a ghost from Amber’s past emerges looking for revenge, these three find unlikely allies in one another. But who is playing who? When all is said and done, they’ll have to fight tooth and nail for everything they have left in this zero-sum game.

I have read several of Kate Quinns books with varying degrees of success, but after reading a few rave reviews of The Briar Club I knew I just had to have it and, what do you know, it was ‘read now’ for me! It was meant to be. 😉

Washington, D.C., 1950

Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, an all-female boarding house in the heart of the US capital, where secrets hide behind respectable facades.

But when the mysterious Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbours – a poised English beauty, a policeman’s daughter, a frustrated female baseball star, and a rabidly pro-McCarthy typist – into an unlikely friendship.

Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their troubled lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. And when a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club must decide once and for all: who is the true enemy in their midst?

And last but not least is the audiobook of The Other Year by Rea Frey, and narrated by Brittany Pressley.

Can the entire course of a life be traced back to a single moment?

On a coveted two-week beach vacation, working mom Kate Baker’s nine-year-old daughter, Olivia, vanishes suddenly among the waves—a heart-dropping incident that threatens to uproot her entire reality. But in the next moment, Olivia resurfaces, joyously splashing.

What would I do if she didn’t come up? Kate wonders. How would I live without her?

In another set of circumstances that hold a different fate, Kate doesn’t have to wonder. Because in that “other” world, in the pulse-pounding seconds after Olivia goes under, she doesn’t come back up.

Told in parallel timelines, Kate begins to live two lives—one in which Olivia resurfaces and one in which she doesn’t. In the reality that follows her daughter’s death, she maneuvers through every mother’s worst nightmare, facing grief, rage, and the question of purpose in the aftermath of such profound loss. She endures, day by day, in a world without her daughter.

In her alternate timeline, while she explores a tremulous romance with her best friend, Jason, she finds herself grappling with the ex-husband who abandoned Kate and Olivia years prior. Even as Kate scrambles to hold her daughter close, Olivia pulls further away. The line between joy and loss seems to get thinner with each passing day.

Woven into a single story, both Kates discover a breathtaking fragility and resilience in their respective journeys. Bringing to light the drastic polarities dire circumstances often create, The Other Year explores truths about love, loss, and the sharp turns any life can take in the blink of an eye.

Well I hope you see something there that gets your requesting finger twitching!

I had a lovely afternoon with Luke yesterday, picking him up from school (i had trouble finding his new classroom and was late!😬) then taking him to swimming class. He is swimming like a little fish now. We played in the playground at the pool complex for a while then headed home to inspect the new cattle, as yet unnamed, and the chicken coop. After hockey Saturday morning Luke is going to pick up the eight chickens he has bought. The breeder has said that they should start laying in the next 2 – 3 weeks, then he will have eggs for sale at the gate. He is a very enterprising seven-year-old!

Pete should be home soon with his new (well new to us) Toyota Hilux ute! Me thinks he has watched too many Barry Crump ads over the years 😂🤣If you have never seen them, do a search for Barry Crump Toyota advert. It is classic kiwiana!

Well, the temperature is dropping so I need to get the clothes off the line, shut all the windows and doors which have been wide open through the middle of the day, and light the fire. I also need to think about what to have for dinner tonight because, right now, I have no ideas!

Have a wonderful week.

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.

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.

What’s new on my bedside table? . . .

Happy hump day!

Until a few moments ago I only had three new ARCs on my shelf, but as I was looking, feeling quite pleased with myself I have to admit, up popped another! But as it was a Kate Robards book, Only the Guilty Survive, and I loved her first book – The Three Deaths of Willa Stannard – I’m not going to complain. And what a beautiful cover!

The mass suicide of a cult known as The Flock sent shockwaves through the small rural town of Iola, Michigan. Led by the charismatic Dominic Bragg, The Flock camped at an abandoned bird sanctuary before their sudden and shocking demise. The deaths came just weeks after one of their members, Laurel Tai, a local pageant queen, was abducted.

The town turned its blame and fear onto the sole survivor, Claire Kettler–Laurel’s best friend. Burdened by grief and unanswered questions about her friend’s murder and her fellow cult members’ deaths, Claire can’t help but wonder what really happened, especially when the cult leader is nowhere to be found.

When podcaster Arlo Stone begins poking around ten years later, determined to uncover the truth about the cult and Laurel’s murder, Claire is propelled back into action. In a desperate attempt to puzzle out the past and keep her secrets from being spilled for the entertainment of thousands of listeners, Claire must dig into a tangle of unanswered questions before time runs out and history repeats itself.

This weeks ARCs are all by authors whose previous books I have loved. I am trying to be a little more picky about my requesting. My second title is Guilty Mothers, the 20th title in the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons.

In a quiet kitchen, where two mugs wait by the kettle to be filled, Sheryl Hawne lies in a pool of blood. Her only daughter, Katie, is found at her side, still clutching the murder weapon and apparently incapable of speech. To Detective Kim Stone, the case seems open and shut. But Katie is in no state to be questioned, so Kim and the team must dig deep to understand what triggered this brutal act.

Soon, they learn that Katie participated in beauty pageants as a child, and her mother kept a shrine to her achievements. As Kim gazes at the golden trophies and shiny rosettes, she is forced to wonder if this was what set Katie on the path to murder…

But then Kim receives a shocking call. Another woman is dead. And with Katie safely locked up, she cannot be the killer. The second victim also entered her daughter in pageants, and a broken tiara is found thrust down her throat. Someone clearly feels that these mothers are guilty – and that they deserve to die. Forcing back the memories of her own monstrous mother, Kim vows to find justice for these women, no matter what pain they caused.

Now more than a day behind their killer, Kim races to learn more about a competitive world where appearances are everything and mothers will go to any lengths to ensure their daughters triumph. Buried somewhere in this dark past is the key to unlocking the case… but will Kim be able to find it before another family is destroyed forever?

I read my first book by Australian author Leoni Kelsall earlier this year and so was excited to see another offering from he so soon. The Homestead in the Eucalypts is her new title and is due for publication 02 July.

When student doctor Taylor Lawrence’s city life is turned upside down, she seeks sanctuary on her grandparents’ farm in the South Australian countryside.

During the lonely nights, she fantasises of a time long-gone; of Anna, who, rising at dawn to milk the cows and fetch water from the well, is caught in a bushfire that threatens to leave her reputation as blackened as the surrounding bushland. And of Anna’s rescuer, fellow settler, Luke Hartmann.

Reality blurs as Taylor repeatedly escapes into Anna’s world, and she realises she must discover whether her dreams are pure fantasy—or if they recount a story more familiar than she could ever imagine.

Either way, it seems she’ll end up with a broken mind or a broken heart. The problem is, Taylor is no longer sure which she would prefer.

I posted a review of Caro Ramsay’s The Suffering of Strangers yesterday, and here today I have her new title – Out of the Dark, #3 in the DI Christie Kaplan series.

A young woman is missing, but has she run away – or been captured?

A dying cop asks DCI Christine Caplan to fulfil her last wish: to investigate a cold case that’s still preying on her mind. The naked body of a young man that was found in a lonely wood, dismissed as a down and out by her superiors. Caplan connects the case to other victims left to die in the bleak Scottish forests, injured and unable to escape. As the scent grows stronger, the cold cases suddenly seem dangerously hot.

In this thrilling hunt for the missing girl, Caplan must trace where love and control get out of hand, and question where power lies in any relationship. Meanwhile, the dark nights of Scotland conceal a terrifying game of cat and mouse . . .

So, I now have 516 unread books on my NetGalley shelf, one more than last week – a definite improvement! And I have 21 pending requests.

My feedback ratio remains on a very shaky 72%.

Next Tuesday I will be starting the

Challenge on The Perks of Beng a Book Addict group on Goodreads.

LIST OF TASKS

📖 Read a book with a character who is a writer
📖 Read a book with a character who loves reading
📖 Read a book with a character who is a librarian
📖 Read a book with the word “typewriter” in the text
📖 Read a book where the main setting is a bookstore
📖 Read a book with the word “LIBRARY” in the title/series title
📖 Read a book with the letters B*O*O*K in the title/series title and/or the author’s name
📖 Read a book with the letters P*E*N in the title
📖 Read a book with the author’s initials in the word “READING”
📖 (Re)read a book by a favourite author
📖 Read a book from a favourite genre
📖 Read a book of fiction where reference is made to a real book
📖 Read a book recommended to you by a GR Friend
📖 Read a book recommended by a favourite author
📖 Read biography about or the memoirs/autobiography of an author
📖 Read a book with an author using a pen name
📖 Read a non-fiction book connected to reading in some way (your explanation)
📖 Read a book where the main setting is one of the countries listed in the post above
📖 Read a book where one of the cities listed in the post above is mentioned
📖 Read a book from this list Portal
📖 Read a book with a title that starts with a letter from SHAKESPEARE (the/a(n) can be ignored)
📖 Read a book with a character or written by an author called William (or any of its variations)
📖 Read a book whose author was born in April
📖 Read a book that was first published between 1995 – 2024
📖 Read a book that is a retelling of one of Shakespeare’s plays
📖 Read a book that contains (parts of) a poem or a collection of poems
📖 Read a play or read a book where a character is an actor/actress
📖 Read a book originally written in a different language than your own
📖 Read a book you have borrowed from a Library
📖 Read a book you own and haven’t read yet

ABOUT THE CHALLENGE:

📖 This is an individual challenge

📖 You can complete all tasks, but it’s not necessary, however, you need to finish a minimum of 12 tasks to consider your challenge accomplished.

📖 You can start any time from 23 April 2024 and need to finish before 23 April 2025.

📖 You can use 1 book to cover a maximum of 3 tasks if you’d like to do so, but you can also use 1 book/task. Up to you.

📖 For this challenge, there are no restrictions/special conditions on page numbers, genres, etc… :), feel free to read whatever you like!

I am going to try and use only one book per task.

For the Aussie Readers April challenge, I have completed reading 4/9 titles and the first of the 4 Australian authors I selected. I have got the biggest read, Moth to the Flame by Joy Dettman 592 pages, finished but have yet to write my review. I am only a little behind on this challenge.

And for the Autumn Aussie Readers challenge I have completed 6/13 books including 3/4 Australian authors I selected. I am one book behind where I should be with this challenge.

We have been having very foggy mornings this week and cool evenings. Our cat is no fonder of this weather than I am and isn’t straying far from home. She has claimed the chair beside the fire for her own in the evenings.

We were meant to be going to the NZ SuperCars round in Taupo this weekend but someone (that would be me!) forgot to book the tickets and they sold out weeks ago. So I guess we will be watching on TV. No biggie – at least I’m warm, comfortable and can see everything!

We’ve a friend’s birthday on Saturday but, other than that, the rest of our plans are weather dependent. Pete wants to finish painting the exterior basement walls, and I have a few jobs to do in the garden that I need his ute for.

Have you any plans for the weekend?

Happy reading my friends and stay safe.

The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay

This is a title from my 2018 backlist.

EXCERPT: Roberta was aware she was screaming. ‘Where did that car go? she was shouting in the woman’s face, flecking her skin with saliva. She plunged her hands into her pockets, grabbing only the silky lining and fresh air, frantically searching for her phone. It was on the dashboard of the car. James had called. She’d put it back in the cradle on the dashboard. After she had moaned about Sholto, how horrible he was, how noisy.
Well, her world was quiet now.
‘Where did it go?’ She heard the screeching of a banshee. She knew it was her, but she couldn’t stop herself.
Now Barry was stopping people, the woman at the auto bank, the teenager walking the pug, another customer. Roberta scanned them, her finger held horizontally, pointing at each one, thinking that one of them could have taken the baby; one of them must have seen something they were not telling her. It was a conspiracy. They were all in it together. Cars do not disappear, not in that short period of time. How long had it been?
She heard the word “Duster”.
‘What? What?’ She wiped the snot from her face.
The teenager with the pug pointed. ‘Look, there’s a blue Duster parked around there.’ Just as the man who worked the front till for Barry shouted something from the end of the road and waved up the side street.
Roberta ran to the corner, to the narrow road that led to the small car park behind the shops. Not somewhere to leave a car on a rainy, darkening night. Not somewhere she would have parked. She thought she had been careful.
The Duster was there. She stopped dead, registering the number plate. Then began moving quickly again, almost laughing. Somebody had played a little joke and she had fallen for it. She could see the front seat, the outline of Sholto’s car seat, still in its place. She ripped open the door. Wrapped up warm in his yellow blanket, the baby was there. He was fine.
He was quiet, he was gurgling and content.
She pulled down his fluffy blue coverlet trimmed with creamy fluffy lambs.
And then she started screaming.

ABOUT ‘THE SUFFERING OF STRANGERS’: When a six-week-old baby is stolen from outside a village shop, Detective Inspector Costello quickly surmises there’s more to this case than meets the eye. As she questions those involved, she uncovers evidence that this was no impulsive act as the police initially assumed, but something cold, logical, meticulously planned. Who has taken Baby Sholto ? and why?

Colin Anderson meanwhile is on the Cold Case Unit, reviewing the unsolved rape of a young mother back in 1996. Convinced this wasn’t the first ? or last – time the attacker struck, Anderson looks for a pattern. But when he does find a connection, it reaches back into his own past . . .

MY THOUGHTS: The Suffering of Strangers is #9 in the Anderson and Costello series, a wonderfully realistic and gritty series set in Glasgow. Now, just a wee word of warning: this is a series that does need to be read in order because sometimes the cases overlap from one book to the next – as is the case in this book.

There is a lot of grim reading in this book – child abduction, domestic abuse, rape, missing persons and human trafficking. The Anderson and Costello team have been split up with Anderson having been sent to re-examine cold cases and Costello to the domestic violence unit.

There are multiple storylines within The Suffering of Strangers. Ramsay juggles these with ease, resulting in a tense and absorbing read. The plot is complex and riveting. One of the team members becomes personally involved, a historic act coming home to roost. It was most surprising and, well, almost comforting.

The characters are every bit as important as the plot. Past events weigh heavily on our characters and somewhat influence their decisions in the present – not always wisely.

Ramsay doesn’t pull her punches. Some of this is quite harrowing to read, but all is relevant and timely. She highlights the inadequacies of the social services, but also their lack of support for burnt out and overworked staff, and the consequences of the system not working as it should.

A gritty and rewarding read.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.1

#SufferingOfStrangersthe #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Caro Ramsay was born and educated in Glasgow. She has been writing stories since she was five years old, developing a keen interest in crime fiction.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Severn House for providing a digital ARC of The Suffering of Strangers by Caro Ramsay for review. I apologise sincerely for taking so long to read this. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

A Marriage of Lies by Amanda McKinney

EXCERPT: ‘Mrs Velky,’ Agent Briggs says, ‘as I’m sure you’re aware, this is pretty much a slam dunk case. By denying legal counsel, and by your continued silence on the matter, you are basically admitting guilt. Do you understand that?’
‘Yes.’
‘So, you are admitting guilt?’ Zeal asks. ‘Did you kill Cora Granger? Would you like to make a confession right now?’
‘Yes.’
A moment of shocked silence fills the room.
I look up, my teary eyes as cold as ice.
‘I killed Cora Granger.’

ABOUT ‘A MARRIAGE OF LIES’: Beneath the surface of every marriage there are secrets. This one is deadly.

My husband is lying. The minute he came home with alcohol on his breath and unable to look me in the eyes I knew it.

We used to be in love – the intense ‘I can’t be without you for a second’ kind. Where it hurts deep to be apart.

But now, we’re the couple that keep secrets from each other.

We hide the truth.

He thought I wouldn’t find out. I’m a detective – it’s literally my job to uncover clues and solve mysteries. I know what he did.

And now I’m sitting here, in a police interview, being asked the question ‘did you kill her?’ to which I utter one life-shattering ‘yes.’

MY THOUGHTS: This is my third book by this author and, while I loved the other two I have read, A Marriage of Lies fell short for me. I didn’t feel clever solving this mystery early on; I felt disappointed that between the book blurb and the first few chapters, the solution jumped out at me. The clues are all there in flashing neon. The only thing that kept me reading was the ‘why?’ and trying to figure out how all these people were connected.

The author doles out that information very sparingly initially, kind of like giving someone on a diet a little chocolate to keep them invested. It works.

The story is told mainly from the POV of Detective Rowan Velky and her therapist, Amber. There are occasional chapters presented by various other people. Rowan is a complicated character – she has had a bleak upbringing, one which brought her into contact with her husband, Shep. She cares for her aunt Jenny who has Alzheimers. Her marriage isn’t great, yet Rowan feels indebted to Shep and is reluctant to end it despite her suspicions that Shep is playing away. This is only one of the reason’s she is seeing a therapist.

The story moves along at a good pace, there is a great sense of place, and the mutilation of the bodies adds a certain frisson of tension. I really liked the why of it all, but the ending lets the whole book down. It was all too easy, too quick and quite deflated my balloon. There’s also quite a bit of ‘telling’ rather than experiencing at the end.

I had another major niggle – the medical aspects of Connor’s condition. Authors, please, if you are going to throw in a complicated medical condition – do your research. You need to get these things right.

I didn’t think the sexually explicit scene between Rowan and Shep was necessary – in fact I found it quite gross. I don’t normally mind sexually explicit scenes, but this felt like it had been inserted just to provide the obligatory sex scene.

Although this is a decent read (except for that one scene – pun intended), quick and easy, it could have been better.

⭐⭐.5

#AMarriageofLies #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Set in small, Southern towns, Amanda’s books are page-turning murder mysteries peppered with steamy romance She lives in Arkansas with her handsome husband, two beautiful boys, and three obnoxious dogs.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Storm Publishing via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of A Marriage of Lies by Amanda McKinney for review. All opinions expressed in his review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Watching what I’m reading . . .

Happy Sunday afternoon! I’ve had a very social morning. Went out for coffee with a friend with whom I’ve been trying to catch up for the last two weeks. while we were having coffee one of the aquarobics group ladies arrived with her husband. I hadn’t seen Cathryn since before Christmas, so we had a quick catch up while they were waiting for their coffees. Now Pete has gone off to catch up with one of his mates and, once I have finished this post, I am going to catch up with a friend who has just returned from 3 weeks in Vietnam and is off to the South Island for a week tomorrow for work.

We have had heavy rain and storms for the past two days. Today is reasonably fine with just the odd shower, but the remainder of the week is not looking great, 😬🌧️☔so I am getting as much laundry done today as possible.

Dustin and Luke are flying out to Western Australia Thursday for a week, so I need to make up a care parcel and send over for Kyle. I also found a journal I had bought to include in Luke’s birthday parcel but somehow missed that I need to get to him so he has something to write in while he is away.

Even though I am running behind with my NetGalley reads, only one of my three current books is a NetGalley ARC, and that is a backlist one from 2018. I am listening to the audiobook of Die Last (Max Wolfe #4) by Tony Parsons and narrated by Colin Mace.

A terrifying secret. A missing girl. As dawn breaks on a snowy February morning, a refrigerated lorry is found parked in the heart of London’s Chinatown. Inside twelve women are discovered – all dead from hypothermia. But when DC Max Wolfe looks in the cab of truck, he finds thirteen passports. One woman has survived. Where is she? And what sort of danger is she in? The hunt for her will take Max into the dark heart of a terrifying world where nothing and nobody is safe.

I am reading Telling Tales (Vera Stanhope #2) by Ann Cleeves, a title from my own physical library and part of my Aussie Reader’s Challenge for April. Ann Cleeves is the featured author. I’m finding it hard to put this down!

Ten years after Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel, disturbing new evidence proving her innocence emerges in the East Yorkshire village of Elvet. Abigail’s killer is still at large. For Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend – and of the fearful winter’s day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch. Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope makes fresh inquiries, and the villagers are hauled back to a time they would rather forget. Tensions begin to mount, but are people afraid of the killer, or of their own guilty pasts?

My third read is the third book in Joy Dettman’s Woody Creek series, Like a Moth to the Flame. Also a title I need to complete my April Aussie Readers Challenge, and another read I find hard to put down.

The year is 1946. The war ended five months ago. Jim Hooper, Jenny Morrison’s only love, was lost to that war. And if not for Jenny, he would never have gone. “An eye for an eye,” Vern Hooper says. An unforgiving man, Vern wants custody of Jenny’s son, his only grandson, and is quietly planning his day in court. Then Jenny’s father Archie Foote swoops back into town. Archie offers Jenny a tantalising chance at fame and fortune; one way or another he is determined to play a part in her life. Is Jenny’s luck about to change, or is she drawn to trouble like a moth is drawn to the flame?

I have only one ARC to be read for review in the coming week, so am looking forward to catching up on some more titles published earlier this year that I have missed reading because there were simply too many! The Call by Kerry Wilkinson is due for publication 17th April.

Your fiancé calls. ‘A little girl needs help.’ Then they both disappear…

Melody gazes across the rippling lake to the trees on the shore, waiting for her fiancé Evan to arrive so their family holiday can begin. Here in this cabin in a small Canadian island town, there’s so much space for their son to play. It’s going to be perfect – just like the first time Melody visited as a child. But then a call from Evan shatters her world.

‘There’s someone in the road. I think it’s a little girl. She’s covered in mud. Or… is it blood?’ His voice becomes distant. ‘Are you OK? What’s your name?’ Then there’s a thud.

Evan never arrives to the holiday cabin. Melody, and her son, are terrified and desperate for answers. But with miles of endless, empty forest, and no reports of a missing girl, what hope is there of finding Evan?

The more questions Melody asks of the locals, the more she fears a terrible secret hides just out of sight. And the closer she gets to the truth, the more danger she is in…

I had forgotten quite how much I enjoy Kerry Wilkinson’s writing until I read one of his backtitles recently, which prompted me to request this.

Do you have authors that just seem to drop off your reading radar for no particular reason?

I did get one extra title read this week and will be publishing my review for A Marriage of Lies by Amanda McKinney early in the week.

So, that’s me for now. I have a couple of little jobs I want to finish in the garden and then it will be nose to the grindstone (or book! 😂🤣) for the rest of the afternoon.

Happy reading! 💕📚