Sadly the memo that Christmas is coming hasn’t reached my workload so I’ve had another stupidly busy week trying to do the job I’m paid to, as well as all those other bits that need to be attended to at this time of year – hey ho!
I did manage to catch up with the last part of Rillington Place on BBC iPlayer yesterday, I now need to see the film, 10 Rillington Place starring Richard Attenborough to compare.
This Week on the Blog
My first review of the week was for The Stepmother by Claire Seeber, an author I have followed since her debut book Bad Friends which was published in 2008, my conclusion, this was her best book so far.
On Tuesday my excerpt came from The Facts of Life and Death by Belinda Bauer, a cracking read with one of the best child narrators I think I’ve come across. My full review will follow soon!
In something of a parenting heavy This Week in Books I also featured A Mother’s Confession by Kelly Rimmer.
Thursday’s review was for The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle which had the intriguing premise of a husband, having died in a plane crash. If that wasn’t bad enough his wife thought he was headed for another destination entirely.
On Friday I reviewed what is most likely to be my last non-fiction read of 2016, and guess what? It was all about poisoners; first published in 1993 A Gallery of Poisoners by Adrian Vincent takes us on quite a tongue-in-cheek tour around thirteen poisoners covering over 120 years.
Yesterday I finally reviewed the last of my reads that I’d picked out for the 20 Books of Summer 2016 – better late than never is my motto! Standing in the Shadows is a crime fiction novel written by a resident of Jersey Jon Stasiak and set here on the island too. For that reason alone I persevered despite the paranormal aspects and I’m glad I did, the finale was worth it.
This Time Last Year…
I was reading Missing Presumed by Susie Steiner which was published in February of this year. The start of a new crime series written by a former journalist and commissioning editor at the Guardian. DS Manon is a likeable if slightly abrasive detective who is part of the team who investigates the disappearance of Cambridge graduate Edith Hind. Refreshingly we get a glimpse of the other ongoing cases giving a realistic feel to this new series. You can read my full review here
Blurb
A MISSING GIRL
Edith Hind is gone, leaving just her coat, a smear of blood and a half-open door.
A DESPERATE FAMILY
Each of her friends and relatives has a version of the truth. But none quite adds up.
A DETECTIVE AT BREAKING POINT
The press grows hungrier by the day. Can DS Manon Bradshaw fend them off, before a missing persons case becomes a murder investigation? Amazon
Stacking the Shelves
Well the first addition is fairly placed on fellow blogger’s head – you know who you are FictionFan because I was very taken with her excellent review of Black Widow by Chris Brookmyer, as I haven’t read any of these books. She kindly pointed out that if I wanted to try Want You Gone is on NetGalley. So I now have the eighth book in the Jack Parlabane series which is due to be published in April 2017.
Blurb
What if all your secrets were put online?
Sam Morpeth is growing up way too fast, left to fend for a younger sister with learning difficulties when their mother goes to prison and watching her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger begins to blackmail her online, drawing her into a trap she may not escape alive.
Who would you turn to?
Meanwhile, reporter Jack Parlabane has finally got his career back on track, but his success has left him indebted to a volatile source on the wrong side of the law. Now that debt is being called in, and it could cost him everything.
What would you be capable of?
Thrown together by a common enemy, Sam and Jack are about to discover they have more in common than they realize – and might be each other’s only hope. NetGalley
In the post I received The River At Night by Erica Ferencik from the publishers Bloomsbury, the first of a range of titles for their new imprint Raven.
Blurb
‘A thought came to me that I couldn’t force away: What we are wearing is how we’ll be identified out in the wilderness.’
Win Allen doesn’t want an adventure.
After a miserable divorce and the death of her beloved brother, she just wants to spend some time with her three best friends, far away from her soul-crushing job. But athletic, energetic Pia has other plans.
Plans for an adrenaline-raising, breath-taking, white-water rafting trip in the Maine wilderness. Five thousand square miles of remote countryside. Just mountains, rivers and fresh air.
No phone coverage. No people. No help… Amazon
My last new title is from Amazon Vine by an author I’ve been keen to try for a while so news that she was starting a new series meant this was impossible to resist; The Legacy by Yrsa Sigurdardottir is Iceland’s outstanding crime novelist so I’m hoping to be impressed. This book will be published in the UK on 23 March 2017.
Blurb
The murder was meant as a punishment – but what sin could justify the method?
The only person who might have answers is the victim’s seven-year-old daughter, found hiding in the room where her mother died. And she’s not talking.
Newly promoted, out of his depth, detective Huldar turns to Freyja and the Children’s House for their expertise with traumatised young people. Freyja, who distrusts the police in general and Huldar in particular, isn’t best pleased. But she’s determined to keep little Margret safe.
It may prove tricky. The killer is leaving them strange clues: warnings in text messages, sums scribbled on bits of paper, numbers broadcast on the radio. He’s telling a dark and secret story – but how can they crack the code? And if they do, will they be next? Amazon
TBR WATCH
Since my last post I have read 4 books and I gained 3 so this week my TBR has dramatically fallen to 176 books, the lowest it has been since mid-September
95 physical books
69 e-books
12 books on NetGalley
What have you found to read this week?
