EXCERPT: ‘Och bugger, I’ve lost my hairbrush.’ “I’ve got one in my bag, if you want to risk potential botulism by diving in there. I’m sure there’s a Coronation chicken sandwich from last week lurking in the bottom.’ ‘I’ll take my chances,’ I laughed and was about to close my bag when a wrecking ball of realisation slammed into the picture and hit me right in the stomach. Oh, dear God, no. My eyes searched as my hands frantically began to pull every single thing from the bag. Phone. Purse. Perfume. Lipstick. Electricity bill. I had no idea why that was there, because I was sure I’d paid it. Make-up compact. Boarding pass. Hair bobbles. Don’s comb. A plastic spoon I always carried in case little Buddy needed an emergency yoghurt. Assorted tissues. A packet of mints. Some loose change. No brush. The wound in my chest burst wide open yet again. And no little pouch. My precious rings were gone.
ABOUT ‘ONE LONG WEEKEND’: 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.
MY THOUGHTS: This is a stunning multi-generational drama cum romance. Val pops up regularly in Shari Low’s novels, and she is an absolute darling, and a hoot!
There is an author’s note at the beginning, talking about how this book came to be and, at the end, another with the outcome of her own experience. Don’t skip these. There’s also a precis of the characters at the beginning, but the four we need to concern ourselves most with are the four whose points of view narrate the story: Val Murray, mother, grandmother, friend and widow who has a love of caramel wafers; Alice McLenn, a cleaner who is tied to a man she despises and mother of Rory; Rory Brookes McLenn, Alice’s son, married to the glamorous Julia, and currently weathering yet another personal storm; and Sophie Smith, a primary school teacher in search of the ex she has never forgotten.
One Long Weekend is a book that had my anxiety levels soaring through the roof. I am paranoid about losing my rings! So I felt every bit of and empathised with Val’s panic and stress. After reading this I am going to be even more vigilant!
The bulk of the story takes place over a four-day weekend, so the pacing and emotions are intense. I don’t want to say anything more about the plot because there’s nothing I can say that isn’t going to act as a spoiler. Suffice it to say that this is classic Shari Low fare – it’s amusing, entertaining and utterly heart-wrenching as the various characters come together in search of Val’s rings. If you haven’t read a Shari Low book before, what are you waiting for? – now is a great time to start!
⭐⭐⭐⭐.5
#OneLongWeekend #NetGalley
THE AUTHOR: Once upon a time Shari met a guy, got engaged after a week, and thirty-something years later she lives near Glasgow with the one they said would never last. Their children have now grown and scattered across the world, so she spends an inordinate amount of time on video calls and aeroplanes.
DISCLSOURE: Thank you to Boldwood Books via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of One Long Weekend by Shari Low for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
HELP! I am completely lost with the changes to this site . . . Where has everyone gone? I can’t find the posts of everyone I follow. I miss you! This is not fun! Put it back to how it was, WordPress, please . . .
Meanwhile if you have managed to navigate the new system, please pass on some tips, ’cause I am just spinning around in circles going nowhere!
Currently I am reading The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier. The Hitchcock movie sure is different than Du Maurier’s story and sorry, Mr Hitchcock, but I greatly prefer the original story to your screenplay. It’s definitely creepier.
‘How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew . . . ‘
A classic of alienation and horror, ‘The Birds’ was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man’s sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of ‘Monte Verità’ promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject’s life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three’s a crowd . . .
I am listening to a title from my 2019 backlist, We Hope for Better Things written by Erin Bartels and narrated by Steina Neilson. This is a powerful debut novel telling the story of three generations of Balsam women, told against the backdrop of racism and violence in America.
When Detroit Free Press reporter Elizabeth Balsam meets James Rich, his strange request–that she look up a relative she didn’t know she had in order to deliver an old camera and a box of photos–seems like it isn’t worth her time. But when she loses her job after a botched investigation, she suddenly finds herself with nothing but time.
At her great-aunt’s 150-year-old farmhouse north of Detroit, Elizabeth uncovers a series of mysterious items, locked doors, and hidden graves. As she searches for answers to the riddles around her, the remarkable stories of two women who lived in this very house emerge as testaments to love, resilience, and courage in the face of war, racism, and misunderstanding. And as Elizabeth soon discovers, the past is never as past as we might like to think.
And my pleasure read this week is Hannah Richell’s The Search Party. I have read and loved everything this author has written.
A spellbinding locked-room mystery about a glamping trip gone horribly wrong when a powerful storm leaves the participants stranded and forced to confront long-held secrets and a shocking disappearance.
Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion. But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears.
Moving between the police investigation, a hospital room, and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive and twisty destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.
I must admit to being a little creeped out by the birds appearing on the cover of two out of three books that I am currently reading. Don’t laugh, but even chickens terrify me. The only good place for them is in the oven.
This week I have a total of five ARCs to read for review. I am very much looking forward to getting into Behind a Closed Door by J.D. Barker.
Would you kill a total stranger to save someone you love?
Sugar & Spice is the latest app craze taking the world by storm, but for Abby and Brendan Hollander, downloading it leads to a dangerous game of life and death. When the app assigns them a series of increasingly taboo tasks, they soon find themselves caught up in a twisted web of seduction and violence.
Old Girls Behaving Badly by Kate Galley will, I believe, be the perfect antidote to J.D. Barker’s dark read.
Something old, something new, something stolen…?
Gina Knight is looking forward to the prospect of retirement with her husband of forty-three years. Until, to her surprise, said husband decides he needs to ‘find himself’ – alone – and disappears to Santa Fe, leaving a Dear John letter in his wake.
Now Gina needs a new role in life, not to mention somewhere to live, so she applies for the position of Companion to elderly Dorothy Reed. At eighty-nine, ‘Dot’ needs someone to help her around the house – or at least, her family seems to think so. Her companion’s first role would be to accompany Dot for a week-long extravagant wedding party.
But when Georgina arrives at the large Norfolk estate where the wedding will take place, she quickly discovers Dot has an ulterior motive for hiring her. While the other guests are busy sipping champagne and playing croquet, Dot needs Georgina to help her solve a mystery – about a missing painting, which she believes is hidden somewhere in the house.
Because, after all, who would suspect two old ladies of getting up to mischief?
We Were the Universe by Kimberley King Parsons will be my next read. I really enjoyed Black Light by this author.
The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.
When she returns home to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle in to her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?
I have loved every book by Jessica Redland that I have read – thank you Carla @CarlaLovestoRead for introducing me to her books. Her latest is A New Dawn at Owl’s Lodge.
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?
And finally for the week is a collection of short stories by Amor Towles, Table for Two.
Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he 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.
Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.
Does anything there interest you? Or perhaps there’s something that’s already on your shelf . . . let me know.
Welcome to First Lines Friday, originally hosted by Reading is my Superpower.
Instead of judging a book by its cover, here are the first few lines which I hope will make you want to read this book.
These lines are from the library book I am currently reading.
<i> Dominic – Sunday afternoon
He has no idea how long he has been sitting there. There’s no clock in the room, just a table, three chairs and a single narrow window set high into the wall – too high to offer anything but a glimpse of the blank grey sky outside. It could have been twenty minutes since the police ushered him in and asked him to ‘wait here, please’; it could have been far longer. Dominic knows in moments of heightened stress that seconds can feel like minutes and minutes like hours, though the vending machine cup of tea that someone brought him cooled ages ago. He also knows that every time he thinks about what might be happening outside this room, he feels a painful constriction in his chest, a tight band pressing vice-like against his lungs, making breathing hard.
He would be more help out there. Not shut away in a hospital consulting room, sitting in his damp clothing, waiting to answer questions – questions he’s certain he won’t have the answers to. But the two detectives had been insistent – he was to assist with their enquiries. Almost, he thinks, as if they suspect him of something.</i>
So, what do you think?
Do you like what you’ve just read?
Does it make you want to read more?
These are the opening lines of <i>The Search Party</i> by Hannah Richell.
When I first saw this cover, it instantly gave me vibes of <i>The Birds</i>, Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s short story by the same name.
Five old friends reunite for an idyllic glamping holiday on the rugged Cornwall coast, but tensions rise when a storm leaves them stranded and someone goes missing.
Max and Annie Kingsley have left the London rat race with their twelve-year-old son to set up a glamping site in the wilds of Cornwall. Eager for a dry run ahead of their opening, they invite three old university friends and their families for a long-needed reunion and a relaxing weekend.
But the festivities soon go awry as tensions arise between the children (and subsequently their parents), explosive secrets come to light, and a sudden storm moves in, cutting them off from help as one in the group disappears.
Moving between a police investigation, a hospital room and the catastrophic weekend, The Search Party is a propulsive destination thriller about the tenuous bonds of friendship and the lengths parents will go to protect their children.
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!
The Peugeot doesn’t stand a chance when the Mercedes livestock truck carrying 150 unhappy sheep ploughs into it on the back road to Creswick. It is the fourth day of June 1975, the fourth day of winter and darkness falls by 5.30. Pippa, who is just six years old and loves nothing more than her Ballerina Barbie (though Deluxe Curl Barbie comes a close second), has chosen to perch on the edge of the back seat, right in the middle so she has a better view out the front windscreen because she isn’t quite tall enough to see out the side windows. But her brother Max, who is seven, just won’t stop the rib-digging and the hair-pulling, and when she complains her dad, Liam, says, ‘Don’t tease your sister, Max,’ and Max just keeps going, so finally she turns to punch him. She clenches her fist hard and she swings her arm out and right at that moment, before her fist even has the chance to connect with Max’s cheek, the truck lands on them.
ABOUT ‘WITH WINTER COMES DARKNESS’: 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.
MY THOUGHTS: With Winter Comes Darkness is not a book to be rushed through. The writing is intricate, richly detailed, quietly powerful and almost poetic at times. There were instances I had to close the covers and walk away just to breathe, to get away from the anguish that oozes from the pages. At times I felt my heart was breaking for Max, who stops talking, and for Alice, whose whole world has imploded, and yes, even (maybe especially) for Ellery, awaiting trial for murder.
Lena, Alice’s mother, and Maggie, Liam’s mother, are wonderful supplementary characters; each of whom expresses their love in different ways and each of whom has hidden depths. Bruce would have to get the award for the world’s most supportive and understanding boss. I fell in, then out, of love with Claudia very rapidly, and the less said about Liam the better. Detective Rush is another character with hidden depths. Every character in this book is so well drawn that they could walk off the page and into real life.
This is a book filled with drama, tragedy and love; a mother’s love for her child (several times over); the tragedy of losing a child; the drama of a marriage going down the drain. And then there is Ellery. Enigmatic, mysterious Ellery on remand for murder, who fascinates Alice and gives her life focus. Ellery is the character who really stood out for me. Ellery and Max, each of whom is carrying a massive burden, a secret that is crippling them.
This is a subtly written story, one that will tear at your heartstrings. I defy anyone to read this without shedding a tear or two. It is beautiful and tragic. It is a classic in the making.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
#WithWinterComesDarkness #NetGalley
THE AUTHOR: She has lived in country Victoria, Australia, for most of her life. When Robbi isn’t writing, she is painting, or reading or hanging out with her family and friends, all of whom she adores. She loves procrasti-cooking, especially when thinking about the next chapter in her writing. She also loves cheese, any cheese, all cheese and lemon gin or dirty martinis, the blues, and more cheese.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia, HQ & MIRA, via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of With Winter Comes Darkness by Robbi Neal for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Happy Sunday afternoon from New Zealand. We are having an absolutely beautiful day with clear blue skies and the sun has some real heat to it. I have been out in the garden, the clothes are drying in the breeze that has sprung up, and we are off to catch up with friends later in the afternoon. It’s homemade hamburgers and wedges for dinner tonight.
Currently I am reading and listening to When Cicadas Cry by Caroline Cleveland and narrated by Adam Barr. I have two theories as to who is behind both this current murder and the historical double murder Addie is investigating. But will I be right? This is a superbly intriguing and atmospheric read and Adam Barr is an excellent narrator. Even the cover is superbly atmospheric!
A high-profile murder case
A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tension, this is not just a murder case: it’s a powder keg.
A haunting cold case
Two young women are murdered on quiet Edisto Beach, an hour southeast of Walterboro, and the killer disappears without a trace. Thirty-four years later, the mystery remains unsolved. Could there be a connection to Stander’s case?
A killer who’s watching
Stander takes on Jenkins’s defense, but he’s up against a formidable solicitor with powerful allies. Worse, his client is hiding a bombshell secret. When Addie Stone reopens the cold case, she discovers more long-buried secrets in this small town. Would someone kill again to keep them?
With Winter Comes Darkness is the second book I have read by Australian author Robbi Neal and she is certainly keeping me in the dark . . . I have no idea what the outcome of this is going to be.
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.
The Inaugural Meeting of the Fairvale Ladies Book Club by Sophie Green has totally captured my heart. Sophie Green is a new author to me, and I am going to be reading everything she has ever written!
Books bring them together – but friendship will transform all of their lives. Five very different women come together in the Northern Territory of the 1970s by an exceptional new Australian author.
In 1978 the Northern Territory has begun to self-govern. Cyclone Tracy is a recent memory and telephones not yet a fixture on the cattle stations dominating the rugged outback. Life is hard and people are isolated. But they find ways to connect.
Sybil is the matriarch of Fairvale Station, run by her husband, Joe. Their eldest son, Lachlan, was Joe’s designated successor but he has left the Territory – for good. It is up to their second son, Ben, to take his brother’s place. But that doesn’t stop Sybil grieving the absence of her child. With her oldest friend, Rita, now living in Alice Springs and working for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, and Ben’s English wife, Kate, finding it difficult to adjust to life at Fairvale, Sybil comes up with a way to give them all companionship and purpose: they all love to read, and she forms a book club.
Mother-of-three Sallyanne is invited to join them. Sallyanne dreams of a life far removed from the dusty town of Katherine where she lives with her difficult husband, Mick. Completing the group is Della, who left Texas for Australia looking for adventure and work on the land.
These five women are united by one need: to overcome the vast differences of Australia’s Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love. Books bring them together – but friendship will transform all of their lives.
I have seven books to read for review in the coming week – excuse me for rolling around the floor, 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣. It just ain’t gonna happen. However I will, as always, do my best. I have already started When Cicadas Cry, so you never know . . . I might just get there, or somewhere close.
The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier is a great way to start the week. I can remember being scared silly by Alfred Hitchcock’s movie adaptation of Du Maurier’s short story as a teenager.
A classic of alienation and horror, ‘The Birds’ was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man’s sense of dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of ‘Monte Verità’ promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject’s life; a date with a cinema usherette leads to a walk in the cemetery; and a jealous father finds a remedy when three’s a crowd . . .
I couldn’t help but be attracted by the title Death Cleaning and Other Units of Measurement by Nancy Burke. So this is two volumes of short stories to start my week with.
We’ve heard of Swedish Death Cleaning. With a bit of fatalistic humor, we purchase books on how to do this, and discover why it is so freeing. In the title story of this new collection, “Death Cleaning,” a recently retired man is cleaning out, but not his closets. Instead he faces memories, mistakes, regrets, and selfish ways in a spiritual cleaning after he finds himself locked out of his house in his bathrobe one snowy January morning.
In the “Other Units of Measure” a man is in love with the voice of his GPS, a teenage couple hides their flaws as they discover love, and a young wife is inspired by a dead seagull to do what she needs to do. All contend with the virtual yardsticks inside that drive their judgment of others and themselves, creating hierarchies of value that can be randomly and unjustly applied in life’s circumstances. These stories suggest we reconsider some of our own.
I have never read Barbara O’Neal before, but the title and cover of The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue called to me, and I couldn’t say no.
A loving wife and a mother of three accomplished children, forty-six-year-old Trudy Marino has an uncomplicated life—until she’s blindsided by her husband’s affair. But in Trudy’s close-knit neighborhood, she’s not alone in navigating the sudden surprises in a woman’s life.
Her neighbor Roberta has just lost her husband of sixty-two years and struggles with bittersweet memories and grief. Roberta’s granddaughter Jade is a divorcée who has taken up a cathartic new hobby to get over her cheating ex. And there’s Shannelle, whose creative aspirations are fracturing her marriage.
Then Trudy meets Angel, a sensual young man with the vulnerable heart of a poet who awakens her to invigorating new sensations. With a bracing confidence and three dear friends coming together in confusion, anger, and hope, Trudy is encouraged to take control of her life, to reflect on the choices she didn’t make, and to fulfill the youthful dreams she abandoned. As a new world opens up, Trudy can only marvel at where to go from here.
Again it was the title and cover of the Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson that attracted me here. It sounds like such fun!
It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
I can never resist anything that is set in the Hamptons, and so Summer After Summer by Lauren Bailey has also found its way onto my shelf.
Olivia Taylor’s marriage is in a death spiral when she agrees to come home to the Hamptons to help her father and sisters pack up the family estate. If it looks like she’s running away from her soon-to-be-ex Wes and New York City, well, she is. But someone has to take care of things and that’s always been Olivia’s role in the family. After years of financial trouble, someone’s finally bailing them out with a huge offer to buy their beachfront property, which is a good thing, although it means losing the home she grew up in, where her mother died, and where she first met Fred, the love of her life.
It’s been five years since the last time things blew up between Olivia and Fred, but much longer since the first time. At this point, Olivia fears it was never meant to be, so there’s no reason to feel butterflies in her stomach at the idea of seeing him again. They’ve already tried, and tried again…and again…but she’s newly single, and she isn’t the same person she was the last time–and Fred has changed, too.
This time, things will be different. Maybe, just maybe, the fifth time’s the charm.
My final book for the week will be The Revenge Club by Kathy Lette, an author I haven’t read for a number of years.
WHEN THE ODDS ARE AGAINST YOU, IT’S TIME TO GET EVEN.
Matilda, Jo, Penny and Cressy are all women at the top of their game; so imagine their surprise when they start to be personally overlooked and professionally pushed aside by less-qualified men.
Only they’re not going down without a fight.
Society might think the women have passed their amuse-by dates but the Revenge Club have other plans.
After all, why go to bed angry when you could stay up and plot diabolical retribution? Let the games begin…
Have you read any of these?
Are any of these on your reading radar?
What are you reading this week?
I’m going to head back outside and make the most of this marvellous weather – it’s apparently going to be wet tomorrow.
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.
What Happened to Us? by Faith Hogan is another title from my 2018 backlist.
EXCERPT: DUBLIN The first night of winter and it was wet, very wet, and she knew the rain was pouring in drops down her face, could feel them drip, drip, dripping off the end of her nose. She could feel the tears too, hot and stingy in her eyes. Someone had given her a cigarette, miraculously she’s managed to smoke halfway down, but it was soggy and extinguished now, which was no bad thing. She’d never smoked, why add to her list of failures at this late stage? At the far end of the lane, something or someone caught her eye, but she must be mistaken for who, in their right mind, would be out on an evening like this? Probably a stray cat, attracted by the heat and aromas that emanated from the fans blowing into the frigid night air. Her thoughts darted back to the kitchen behind her, Kevin, bloody Kevin. Well, she hadn’t seen that coming had she. She was still reeling, angry, upset and, yes, she could admit it to herself, broken-hearted. And Valentina? Kevin was in love with Valentina, he’d told her so himself, so it must be true.
ABOUT ‘WHAT HAPPENED TO US?’ Sometimes the end is only the beginning… After ten years together, Dubliner Carrie Nolan is devastated when she’s dumped by Kevin Mulvey without even a backwards glance. But on reflection, she had been sacrificing her own long-term happiness by pandering to his excessive ego – well, not anymore! While Kevin is ‘living the dream’ with his beautiful new Brazilian girlfriend, Carrie seeks solace from a circle of mismatched strangers who need her as much as she needs them. Then suddenly a catastrophic sequence of events leaves Carrie unsure if there’s anyone she can trust. How far do you need to fall before you realise it’s never too late to start again?
MY THOUGHTS: What Happened to Us? is a lovely read – uncomplicated, with just the right amount of angst and drama, a broken heart and a romance along with just a touch of a crime thriller all delivered in a nice easy to read format.
Carrie is a lovely character – one of life’s fixers, but this is something even she can’t fix. There are things she can do though – like help Jane, the elderly publican across the road, and Luke, who seems every bit as lost as the stray dog he was watching out for. Carrie is the sort of person I would like for a friend. She is warm, caring and totally selfless, which Kevin has been taking advantage of for years!
Kevin and Valentina are very easy to dislike. Kevin for being the lazy, selfish, disloyal git that he is, and Valentina for being grasping, greedy, conniving and whiny. Don’t even let me get started on Valentina’s two bullying ‘cousins’!
With an engaging storyline and equally engaging characters, this certainly didn’t feel like 444 pages . I romped through it, rooting for Carrie, Luke, Jane and Teddy (the dog) every step of the way. An enjoyable, entertaining and uplifting read.
I listened to the audiobook of What Happened to Us?, narrated by Clare McKenna. While I loved her Irish accent, and she also did a brilliant job of the Columbian accents, she did speak very fast.
⭐⭐⭐.7
#WhatHappenedToUs #NetGalley
THE AUTHOR: Faith Hogan writes grown up women’s fiction which is unashamedly uplifting, feel good and inspiring.
She gained an Honours Degree in English Literature and Psychology from Dublin City University and a Postgraduate Degree from University College, Galway.
She also writes crime fiction as Geraldine Hogan.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Aria via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of What Happened to Us by Faith Hogan for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
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.
EXCERPT: ‘Your train was cancelled yesterday, so you went for a walk and found this weird charity shop, saw a strange clock, got locked in and then got out again?’ Marguerite’s podgy hand flew to her mouth, almost batting the tantric crystals clean across the scuffed floor tiles of Mrs Hall’s Pantry. ‘Oh goodness gracious me,’ she said, and gave a neighing peal of laughter. ‘You must think I’m a complete numpty!’ Pat smiled faintly, making a considerable effort not to look as if she agreed. ‘I went back,’ said Marguerite. ‘I wasn’t working this morning, so I went back to the charity shop. I wanted to go back and see how much this clock I saw cost. At that point I hadn’t twigged that it wasn’t real.’ She paused dramatically. ‘And?’ ‘It wasn’t there!’ ‘The clock?’ ‘No, the whole shop. When I went back this morning, the whole shop had just vanished!’
ABOUT ‘A CLOCK STOPPED DEAD’: Retired schoolteachers and amateur sleuths Liz, Pat and Thelma are giving up their coffee morning for a brand-new mystery. The perfect cosy crime story for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, by Richard Osman
Retired teachers Pat, Liz and Thelma are happiest whiling away their hours over coffee, cake and chat at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.
But when their good friend Marguerite claims to have uncovered a mysterious charity shop that has since vanished, they simply can’t resist investigating.
Before long, our trio of unlikely sleuths find themselves embroiled in a race against the clock to get to the bottom of this mystery – but who has a secret to hide and how far will they go to keep it concealed?
MY THOUGHTS: I quite enjoyed catching up with this trio of ex-school teachers, but I didn’t love it as much as I wanted to. I think, because there is simply too much dialogue. Far too much. Understandable perhaps with the author being a playwright first and foremost. So I shall temper that comment by saying ‘far too much dialogue for a novel.’ I find it very hard to get a sense of place or character with so much dialogue and so little of anything else.
I do love the characters, Pat, Liz and Thelma. There’s a little conflict between them in this installment that leaves Pat wondering if, after twenty-five years, give or take, they were all growing apart now that the common bond of teaching that had drawn them together was gone.
There are adjustments to be made all round. Two of the women have their adult children return home unexpectedly, Pat has to come to terms with her aging, and Thelma has something to learn about her husband.
There are some beautifully humorous moments such as when Pat’s husband Rod is trying to plan a holiday for them, and the feud between Polly, Thelma’s workmate at a (different) charity shop, and the manager of said shop. The window display scene is priceless.
But the mystery . . . the mystery is messy and hard to follow. There are psuedo-supernatural elements that only cloud the issues, too many extra characters and simply too much going on with all the different side-stories. The author seems to have thrown everything but the kitchen sink into this – but wait, I may be wrong, he may well have thrown the kitchen sink in as well – I’m sure there was a mention of dishes being done . . .
To be quite honest, I was more interested in what was going on in the lives of these three women than I was in the mystery.
I do love the lead ins to each chapter, a la Winnie-the-Pooh, e.g. CHAPTER FIVE Two friends don’t fall out and a plan is hatched
My least favorite book of the series so far. (sorry!😬) And I should perhaps mention that although there is a complete mystery in each of these books, I don’t really think that this would read easily as a stand-alone. There’s a lot of back history to these characters.
⭐⭐⭐.5
#AClockStoppedDeadJMHall #NetGalley
THE AUTHOR: J.M. Hall is an author, playwright and deputy head of a primary school. His plays have been produced in theatres across the UK as well as for radio.
DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Avon Books UK via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of A Clock Stopped Dead by J.M. Hall for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.
Sandy's Book a Day Blog 