This Week on the Blog
The week started with a tale of an investigation into a fictional murderess in 1950s England as I reviewed Peter Robinson’s Before The Poison.
On Tuesday I followed this up with another tale set in the 1950s, also with a dual time-line in the modern day, – The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde by Eve Chase – I hope my review conveyed just how much I loved this book.
This Week in Books saw me highlight books by the authors Santa Montefiore, Herman Koch and A.J. Waines
On Thursday I hosted a guest post by Simon Booker entitled ‘The Camaraderie of Crime’ as part of the blog tour for his latest book, Kill Me Twice, the second in the Morgan Vine series
My review of the stunning The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne came next, a book I fully admit I should have got around to reading many years ago.
Finally I reviewed Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood which was another book that had been on my ‘to read’ list for a while and one I chose as part of my 20 Books of Summer Challenge – this book was every bit as good as I’d been led to believe. The extra bonus is that I can now enjoy the adaption coming up on Netflix this autumn.
This Time Last Year…
I was reading Before I Let You In by Jenny Blackhurst, a psychological thriller based around female friendship. Jenny Blackhurst didn’t go for the more obvious new friendship that wasn’t quite what it seemed as a basis for this story, she chose to use three long-standing and mutually supportive friends with the ‘sensible’ role having been assigned, as might be expected, to Karen the psychiatrist. As you might expect something or someone is going to upset this mutually supportive group!
You can read my full review here or click on the book cover
Blurb
Karen is meant to be the one who fixes problems.
It’s her job, as a psychiatrist – and it’s always been her role as a friend.
But Jessica is different. She should be the patient, the one that Karen helps.
But she knows things about Karen. Her friends, her personal life. Things no patient should know.
And Karen is starting to wonder if she should have let her in . . . Amazon
Stacking the Shelves
Well I’ll let you into a secret… I’ve been on a little bit of a book buying spree!
After loving The Vanishing of Audrey Wilde as much as I did, I simply had to buy a copy of Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase
One golden family. One fateful summer. Four lives changed forever.
Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family’s country estate where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, one stormy evening in 1968, it does.
The idyllic world of the four Alton children is shattered. Fiercely bonded by the tragic events, they grow up fast. But when a glamorous stranger arrives, these loyalties are tested. Forbidden passions simmer. And another catastrophe looms . . .
Decades later, Lorna and her fiancé wind their way through the countryside searching for a wedding venue. Lorna is drawn to a beautiful crumbling old house she hazily remembers from her childhood, feels a bond she does not understand. When she finds a disturbing message carved into an old oak tree by one of the Alton children, she begins to realize that Black Rabbit Hall’s secret history is as dark and tangled as its woods, and that, much like her own past, it must be brought into the light.
A thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by Black Rabbit Hall. A story of forgotten childhood and broken dreams, secrets and heartache, and the strength of a family’s love. Amazon
And because I’d read Can Anybody Help Me? by Sinéad Crowley the first in the Claire Doyle series and had a copy of the third book, One Bad Turn, I needed to read Are You Watching Me?
Blurb
strong>Dear Elizabeth, I’ve been watching you. I hope to see you . . . Soon.
Liz Cafferky is on the up. Rescued from her dark past by the owner of a drop-in center for older men, Liz soon finds herself as the charity’s face – and the unwilling darling of the Dublin media.
Amidst her claustrophobic fame, Liz barely notices a letter from a new fan. But then one of the centre’s clients is brutally murdered, and Elizabeth receives another, more sinister note.
Running from her own ghosts, Liz is too scared to go to the police. And with no leads, there is little Sergeant Claire Boyle can do to protect her. Amazon
And just because I have realised quite how much I have missed reading non-fiction since choosing a few for my 20 Books of Summer Challenge, I have a copy of Wedlock: How Georgian Britain’s Worst Husband Met His Match by Wendy Moore
Blurb
WEDLOCK is the remarkable story of the Countess of Strathmore and her marriage to Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary Eleanor Bowes was one of Britain’s richest young heiresses. She married the Count of Strathmore who died young, and pregnant with her lover’s child, Mary became engaged to George Gray. Then in swooped Andrew Robinson Stoney. Mary was bowled over and married him within the week.
But nothing was as it seemed. Stoney was broke, and his pursuit of the wealthy Countess a calculated ploy. Once married to Mary, he embarked on years of ill treatment, seizing her lands, beating her, terrorising servants, introducing prostitutes to the family home, kidnapping his own sister. But finally after many years, a servant helped Mary to escape. She began a high-profile divorce case that was the scandal of the day and was successful. But then Andrew kidnapped her and undertook a week-long rampage of terror and cruelty until the law finally caught up with him. Amazon
What have you added to your shelves this week? What do you think of my finds?
Since my last post I’ve read just 2 books and gained 5!
Making a Grand Total of 182
Physical Books – 103
Kindle Books – 62
NetGalley Books – 18
