#30. Picked Without Reading The Blurb – Pine by Francine Toon (Paperback)

Sometimes I think book cover designers are not given the credit that they deserve. For me, an intriguing cover can be a reason why I choose a book, and the cover on Pine was precisely why I bought it. I think the cover is simple, but hauntingly beautiful and intriguing. Fortunately, the book was just as good as the cover, and I can see why this was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Crime Debut of the Year. 

“Lauren and her father Niall live alone in the Highlands, in a small village surrounded by forest. When a woman stumbles on to the road one Halloween night, Niall drives her back to their house. In the morning, she’s gone.

In a community where daughters rebel and men quietly rage, mysteries like these are not out of the ordinary. Lauren looks for answers in her tarot cards, hoping she might be able to read her father’s turbulent mind. Neighbours know more than they let on, but when a local teenager goes missing it’s no longer clear who she can trust.

In a place that can feel like the edge of the world, In the shadow of the Highland forest, Francine Toon captures the wildness of rural childhood and the intensity of small-town claustrophobia. In a place that can feel like the edge of the word, she unites the chill of the modern Gothic with the pulse of a thriller. It is the perfect novel for our haunted times..”

This is a perfect winter read; a good gothic thriller set in the wild Scottish Highlands that chills you to the bone. It’s one for curling yourself up in a blanket to read, preferably in front of a roaring fire and maybe with a little tipple of something to hand! 

Ten-year-old Lauren lives with her father in a tiny village near the Moray Firth. Her mother disappeared shortly after her birth and her father drowns his sorrows in bottles of whisky. This book reminded me of “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins – not in terms of the story – but because of the feeling of unease when reading it, and the mysterious ghostly figure seen wandering the woods dressed in a white dressing gown. 

One night when Lauren and her father are driving home, a female figure steps out in front of their vehicle. She’s unresponsive, and they take her back to their home. They give her something to eat and a bed for the night but come morning the woman has gone. Lauren vividly remembers the events of the night, but her father doesn’t, however, he is usually intoxicated most evenings so that doesn’t come as a surprise. Lauren keeps seeing this gaunt female figure, wearing just a dressing gown in this bleak, frozen Scottish landscape. Other villagers have seen the figure too, but they quickly forget they have seen her, which leaves Lauren confused and scared.

#29. Published In A Year Of The Dragon – Ten Seconds by Robert Gold (Audible)

2024 is the year of the Wood Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac. This meant that there were numerous novels to choose from in this year’s releases (let alone books from previous years of the dragon!) 

As I’ve been completing this challenge, I’ve been switching books from their initial category into a more suitable one and several of my #29 choices have ended up elsewhere. 

I noticed that Gold’s latest Ben Harper novel had been released on Audible, and as I’d read Eleven Liars earlier in the year, I decided I would listen to Ten Seconds whilst the earlier storyline was still in my memory. I couldn’t find another category to house this book, so it has ended up as my year of the dragon book choice.

“After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.

To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed.

But time is of the essence, and soon it's not just Madeline's life on the line . . .”

For me, one of the joys of listening to these novels is that they are easy to follow. I don’t want very complicated storylines for an Audible book because I want to be focused on my surroundings whilst walking, or I don’t want to be concentrating so hard on the book that I chop my finger off whilst cooking. This third novel in the series is about an hour shorter than the previous one, so it made for a quick easy listen and introduced us to plenty of characters, old and new, in another multi-layered tale.

In the previous storylines of this Ben Harper series, each case he has worked on has had a personal connection to him. In the earlier books we have visited the family history of the main character Ben and then we learnt about detective Dani Cash, his romantic “lead.” In this book we delve into the past of Ben’s boss Madeline Wilson. She now finds herself in grave danger thanks to her past investigations into crime and corruption when she was a young reporter. (It seems that if you know Ben Harper you should always keep your doors and windows locked and run if he ever asks for help!)

#26. Hybrid Genre – The Village Healer’s Book of Cures by Jennifer Sherman Roberts (Kindle)

This book was another Amazon Prime First read.  

Chosen in October 2023, the blurb sounded of a similar vein to a book I’d enjoyed called The Witchfinder’s Sister by Beth Underdown. Both books feature a character called Matthew Hopkins, who in real life was a ruthless English witch-hunter and self-styled Witchfinder General. His career flourished during the English Civil War 1642-1651 and he was prevalent in the East Anglian area of England. His job as a witch-finder lasted from 1644-1647, but during those three years, he and his colleague sent more people to be hanged for witchcraft than all previous witch-finders in the preceding 160 years.  

“In seventeenth-century England, a female healer enflames the fury of a witchfinder in this propulsive novel about murder, revenge, and the dangerous power of knowledge.

Mary Fawcett refines the healing recipes she’s inherited from generations of women before her—an uncanny and moral calling to empathize with the sick. When witchfinder Matthew Hopkins arrives in her small village, stoking the fires of hate, he sees not healing but the devil at work. Mary’s benevolent skills have now cast her and her young brother under suspicion of witchery.

Soon, the husband of one of Mary’s patients is found murdered, his body carved with strange symbols. For Hopkins, it’s further evidence of dark arts. When the whispering village turns against her, Mary dares to trust a stranger: an enigmatic alchemist, scarred body and soul, who knows the dead man’s secrets.

As Hopkins’s fervor escalates, Mary must outsmart the devil himself to save her life and the lives of those she loves. Unfolding the true potential of her gifts could make Mary a more empowered adversary than a witchfinder ever feared.”

At under 300 pages this was a quick read. I found the start of the book interesting, but as the story progressed the plot started to veer off tangent and I wasn’t sure what I was reading, a murder mystery, a story about how women were mistreated in the 17th Century, or a book about the supernatural. I know the novel is a mixed genre, but I didn’t feel the author knew where the storyline was heading, so it just became a confusing mash-up of a tale.

Mary Fawcett is a young woman who is a talented healer. She has studied the recipes of her ancestors and refined them so that she can help the weak and sick in her village. Her parents are dead and so she is looking after her young brother Tom who was born with a club foot. The other children avoid him, so his best friend is a crow he named Greedyguts. 

#24. A Cover Without People On It – The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa (Paperback)

I’m most definitely an animal person rather than a people person. I love animals and merely tolerate people. If asked, I prefer horses and cats to any other animal. I don’t dislike dogs, but I’ve always had cats. I can’t say owned, because no-one owns a cat, they make that very clear. That’s not to say they aren’t loving animals, they are, but everything is on their own terms. Perhaps that’s why I like them. You can learn a lot from a cat, if only you can be bothered to look.

“I heard this heavy sniffling sound.

Then a brush of whiskers.

When I opened my eyes, Tom was lounging on his side, gazing at me.

His black eyes were urging me to Get up!

He led me to the living room cupboard.

I’m hungry, so bring out some snacks! he said.

It was 3a.m.”

One of my favourite books over the last few years is ‘The Travelling Cat Chronicles’ by Hiro Arikawa. Even several years after reading it I get emotional thinking about it. I couldn’t remember sobbing over a book like that before. When I noticed this book by the same author in the bookshop, I didn’t think twice about buying the it. 

‘The Goodbye Cat’ has left me with mixed emotions. I think if you read a book you love, you leave yourself open to disappointment when the next one is published. I hadn’t realised it was a book of seven short stories when I bought it (I only looked at the front cover.) The various stories it tells revolve around the relationship between humans and cats, and as the title implies, each story ends with a goodbye, whether it being death or moving on in a different manner. It’s therefore essential to make sure you have a box of tissues handy!

#23. The Other Book With The Similar Plot – Murder on Lake Garda by Tom Hindle (Paperback)

As mentioned in the previous blog, this book was my friend’s holiday read which she passed to me once she’d finished with it.

I was already reading two books that I had taken with me, but one of them was a nice hardback I didn’t want ruining with sea and sand, so this seemed a perfect book to pop to the beach with. 

I wasn’t filled with much confidence as her assessment of the book was basically ‘it’s okay for a holiday read.’ By her tone, I surmised it’d be a quick easy read that wouldn’t give the old grey cells too much of a problem. Sadly, I was right, the new Agatha Christie this was not!

“One happy couple.

Two divided families.

A wedding party to die for.

 

On the private island of Castello Fiore - surrounded by the glittering waters of Lake Garda - the illustrious Heywood family gathers for a wedding to remember.

 

But as the ceremony begins, a blood-curdling scream brings the celebrations to a violent halt.

 

With the guests trapped on the island as they await the police, old secrets come to light and family rivalries threaten to explode.

 

Everyone is desperate to know . . .

 

Who is the killer?

 

And can they be found before they strike again?”

 

So, what is my issue with this book that I didn’t have with ‘The Guest List’? Well for starters I worked out who had been murdered after the first two pages…even though we hadn’t been told who had died (in two pages you haven’t been told much to be honest!) Secondly, we go back in time to two days before the murder, just so people’s back stories can be laid out before us. As soon as one of the characters said their name wasn’t short for anything, I thought, oh I imagine it is, and I wondered what the other variations of that name were, so as I ploughed on reading, I realised which one it was. The author has tried to incorporate alternate narratives to add to the tension and possibly sow seeds of doubt, but for me, the red herrings in the book turned out to be more of a pink-footed goose chase… and I’m not talking Fuchsia Pink here, more of a Blossom or Baby Pink. At least the ending made sense, if predictable, so not all was bad. In honesty, I kept reading because it was part of the challenge and to see whether my assumptions were correct. Just call me Jane Marple!

As a beach read goes, it was enjoyable enough and the setting I was in enhanced the experience. I might have been in Montenegro, but I was sat on a beach with a mountain range looming up before me, which reminded me so much of my holiday by Lake Garda several years ago. Coincidentally, I stayed in Malcesine where this book is set, and I have visited the castle where the wedding took place. The castle is actually on the mainland, but it does house a museum and a wedding was in full-swing  when we visited; the happy couple having their photos taken in the most idyllic surroundings.

#22. A Plot Similar to Another Book – The Guest List by Lucy Foley (Paperback)

This was originally going to be my “#7. At Least Four Different POV” read, however, whilst on holiday my friend finished reading “Murder on Lake Garda” and then handed it over to me.

As she told me the premise of the book, I couldn’t help but think it sounded like a very familiar story…in fact very similar to the previous book I’d just read! Now a murder on an island is not a new idea, indeed Agatha Christie did just that in great style with “And Then There Were None.” The first book I read for this challenge, “Daisy Darker” also features people stranded on an island where a murder takes place, however, both ‘The Guest List’ and ‘Murder on Lake Garda’ feature a WEDDING and MURDER on an island where there is a mystery to be solved!

"Each has a secret

Each has a motive

Off the windswept Irish coast, guests gather for the wedding of the year 

Old friends

Past grudges

Happy families

Hidden jealousies

Thirteen guests

One body

One guest won’t leave this wedding alive..."

The book starts in the middle of the story, where the marriage of Jules Keegan and Will Slater has just taken place. This seems rather apt seeing as the focus of events takes place on an island in the middle of the sea!

The wedding guests are celebrating in a marquee as a storm starts raging across the island, the intensity of the tempestuous wind causes the electrics to short circuit and for a moment the guests are left in darkness. When the generator begins to operate and the lights come back on, the guests hear a terrified scream emanating from the darkness outside…

#21. Written By A Ghostwriter – There’s a Hole in my Bucket by Royd Tolkien (Kindle)

This is another of my forgotten Amazon First Reads – this time from July 2021. I picked this book because of the Tolkien name, but I knew it wasn’t going to be anything like the Lord of the Ring books due the difficult and sensitive subject matter. I did think it would be a harrowing but interesting read and would be treated with suitable gravitas. I was wrong.

 

“Having grown up on their great-grandfather’s stories, Royd Tolkien and his brother, Mike, have always enjoyed adventures. So when Mike is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, the brothers decide to use the time they have left to tick off as much as possible from Mike’s bucket list, from remote camping in Norway to travelling through Royd’s beloved New Zealand.

Yet, when Royd loses Mike, he discovers his brother had been writing another kind of bucket list: fifty things he wanted Royd to do after his death. His first task? Mike wants his mild-mannered brother to trip up on his way to the lectern to deliver his eulogy. What follows is a set of emotionally charged tests that will push Royd firmly out of his comfort zone.

This is the story of Royd’s journey to accomplish a challenging, humorous, and often heart-breaking list of unknown tasks that chart the brothers’ lives from childhood to adulthood. But above all, it is a story of the sibling bond, of grief—and of treasuring every moment.”

 

Due to the subject matter, I really wanted to be more positive about this book, but I found it hard to keep engaged reading, so I could only read a couple of the short chapters each evening until I eventually got to the end. The 357 pages seem to go on forever.

I cannot imagine how hard it would be to watch my adventurous brother become ill, health gradually declining, desperate to find an answer from doctors to what is wrong, only to finally be told it was Motor Neurone Disease. It doesn’t bear thinking about, and I wouldn’t wish that sort of suffering on anyone, but this book just feels like a self-indulgent bit of therapy cashing in on the Tolkien name.

It is clear from the book that Royd and Mike loved one another dearly but were very different people. Mike might have been the younger brother, but he would tease Royd mercilessly and always push that little bit further; whether it was how high he could climb a tree or how high he could throw himself out of an airplane, Mike always had to get the better of Royd who didn’t share the same bon homie as his brother, he seemed happier with his feet on the ground with a cuppa.

#20. A Revenge Story – Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Audible)

The temptation to re-read The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas for the umpteenth time was hard to resist. It is a classic novel about revenge, but I put my thinking cap on and looked through my library of books and thought maybe it was about time I found out what Crime and Punishment was all about, as a) it is a classic novel I haven’t read, b) I keep putting off reading it, so this reading challenge is a good excuse to get it over with and c) whilst it is a novel about redemption, it does explore the themes of revenge and guilt…

 

“A century after it first appeared, Crime and Punishment remains one of the most gripping psychological thrillers. A poverty-stricken young man, seeing his family making sacrifices for him, is faced with an opportunity to solve his financial problems with one simple but horrifying act: the murder of a pawnbroker. She is, he feels, just a parasite on society. But does the end justify the means? Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov makes his decision and then has to live with it. Dostoyevsky, in masterly fashion, contrasts the comedy and tragedy of life in St. Petersburg with the anguish and turmoil of Raskolnikov's inner life.”

 

I haven’t tried to read Crime and Punishment before because it sounds a bit depressing, and I thought it would be a dry and difficult read. I picked up an Audible copy in a 2-4-1 deal because it didn’t matter if I never listened to it, as in essence it was free. I’m delighted to say I really enjoyed both the book and this narration of it. Both Constantine Gregory’s narration, and Dostoevsky’s unique characters and writing style pull together, to provide an interesting look into the thoughts and mind of a killer.

This is a long book to listen to, but it clips along at fair speed to keep the listener engaged, but still slow enough to allow contemplation about the characters and their motives and actions. It is not only the protagonist’s actions called into question, but the people around him. What drives them? Are they ultimately good or bad people?

Meet Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov, an impoverished student, and the man at the heart of this tale. He has feelings of superiority over others, but as with all narcissists, he is no better than the other men he walks amongst. He has accrued debts with a local money lender, Alyona Ivanovna, and as he walks around his squalid neighbourhood, he has the notion of killing someone. He is utterly revulsed at this idea, yet the thought will no longer leave his head. It is said that some people have their best ideas whilst sitting in a pub, but the same cannot be said for Raskolnikov. He hears the conversations of the other drinkers; all are wishing that Alyona Ivanovna was dead.

#19. A Buddy Read – The Trial by Rob Rinder (Kindle)

I’ll admit that when I initially saw the release of this book, I thought, “not another celeb writing a book” but then my niece said she’d read it and enjoyed it; and so this challenge became the perfect excuse to read the book and an opportunity to discuss it with someone afterwards. I confess, I enjoyed reading the book and I’m now looking forward to reading book two and seeing Adam Green progress in his career. Rob Rinder has stuck to what he knows, being a barrister, a Jewish mother, and being charming and witty. It all adds up to an engaging read from start to finish. 

“When hero policeman Grant Cliveden dies from a poisoning in the Old Bailey, it threatens to shake the country to its core.

The evidence points to one man. Jimmy Knight has been convicted of multiple offences before and defending him will be no easy task. Not least because this is trainee barrister Adam Green's first case.

But it will quickly become clear that Jimmy Knight is not the only person in Cliveden's past with an axe to grind.

The only thing that's certain is that this is a trial which will push Adam - and the justice system itself - to the limit. . .”

 

Both legal thriller and courtroom drama, ‘The Trial’ is an engrossing read from someone who obviously knows a lot about the subject matter. Whilst the book looks at the dark side of corruption and justice within the legal system, it has a bright energy running through it, with engaging characters, enormous wit and a clever and unusual style of murder.

Beloved national hero (he once saved the Queen) DI Grant Clivedon is about to give his testimony in a major drug case at the Old Bailey, when he dramatically collapses and dies. Jimmy Knight has just been released from a ten-year stretch in prison for committing armed robbery. Co-incidence? Jimmy has history with the deceased and reports show that he met Clivedon in a pub only hours before he died. Perhaps Jimmy slipped a slow-release poison in Clivedon’s pint; at least that was going to be the working theory despite there being no tangible evidence linking Jimmy to the incident.

#18. An Apostrophe In The Title – Don’t Close Your Eyes by P A Cunliffe (Kindle)

Every month I receive a list of books from Amazon Prime First Reads UK and I look through to find what I think is the best choice in a list of titles, where the blurb doesn’t interest me and it’s written by someone I’ve never heard of. I tend to download a title because it’s free. It will go onto my Kindle App and often get forgotten about, but at least I know if I get stuck somewhere, there’s a book sitting on my ‘phone that I can read. Sometimes the book is as bad as I feared, other times I find a gem of a book; mostly the book is fine, but I probably wouldn’t buy it. This is one reason why I am enjoying this challenge; I am getting through some titles I doubt I would normally read. A book with an apostrophe should be easy to find, but there are very few on my bookshelf, and those that I have, I’ve already read, so, I’ve scrolled through my Kindle and I’ve found a debut novel from an author whose book I picked out in June 2023!

“One missing person. Ten sleepless nights. Whatever happens, don't close your eyes...

Catherine is frantic. It's her husband Simon's turn to take their son to nursery and he's nowhere to be seen. He promised he'd be here. So, where is he? And why isn't he taking her calls?

Her worst fears are soon realised when the police arrive at her door to tell her that Simon is missing, presumed dead. Refusing to accept that he's gone, Catherine spends her days retracing his last steps, and her nights searching the streets in desperation.

She will not rest, she will not sleep, until she's put her family back together.

The days merge into one, and things quickly unravel. Then comes another knock at the door. This time, a young woman. A stranger. Who tells Catherine she doesn't know her husband at all. That their whole life is a lie.

Catherine needs to know the truth. She needs to find Simon more than ever.

The body can't survive for more than 10 days without sleep. Will Catherine find her husband and uncover the truth, before it's too late?”

 

This is an interesting, albeit predictable book, and you will need to be able to suspend your disbelief to get through it all! It was one of those perfect quick read books you can get through in a wet weekend without too much trouble.

The book is told from various points of view and Easter eggs are drip fed through the story allowing the clues to build up so you can second guess the ending. There are also excerpts of a recording that is “played” in between the main chapters until it suddenly twigs in your head what’s going on and who it is in the recording.

The book starts with a newspaper clipping from September 2018, in which a jogger pushes a woman in front of a double-decker London bus. The woman was specifically targeted but survives; the jogger gets away, but there is a police appeal for anyone who might recognise the man in the CCTV footage.

November 2022, Catherine has been woken up by her son and she is exasperated. She is due to meet her friend for a full day of treats; a lie-in, brunch with her friend, followed by visiting an art exhibition. This is a day she has been looking forward to, but her husband is no-where to be found and it is his turn to take their son to nursery. Catherine can’t understand where he is, she has tried calling his ‘phone but he doesn’t answer. He had left a message on her phone in the early hours, so she assumes he has been out all-night drinking with work colleagues. She hurries to get her son Charlie ready for nursery, but as she opens the door to leave the house she is met by the police who inform her that Simon’s body has been found in a burnt out car.

#17. Nominated For The Booker Prize – Possession by A S Byatt (Audible)

I purchased this Audible book in February 2021. I found it tedious to listen to, despite the wonderful narration of actor Samuel West, and I stopped listening after the first few chapters thinking I’d try again “when I was in the mood.” At nearly 22 hours long, I couldn’t find the enthusiasm to listen to it.  I noticed that this title crept slowly to the bottom of my list as I continued to buy and listen to other titles which I found infinitely more engaging within the first few minutes of listening to them. 

When I read the blurb, I thought I had been buying an edgy detective novel, but this is a detective work more akin to family history research than a “who dunnit” murder mystery!  As I was looking for titles that had been nominated for the Booker Prize, I remembered that I still had this book to listen to and not only had it been nominated, but it had also won the prize, so it must have something going for it. 

Indeed, the book is cleverly constructed, and I found Sam West read it beautifully, however, it is a book full of beautiful prose and poetry and it is challenging to listen to and remember what’s going on.  If I need to sit and concentrate on a book, then my first choice is a paperback and this is a book you need to concentrate on, and perhaps flick the pages back and forth to remind you of events or look at things again in detail. You can't do this with an audio book and so my experience of the book fell a little short, but I still enjoyed it! 

“Winner of England's Booker Prize 1990.

 Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story. It is the tale of a pair of young scholars researching the lives of two Victorian poets.

 Following a trail of  letters, journals and poems, they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time.”

Roland Michell is a literary researcher who has recently completed his PhD studying the eminent (fictitious) Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash. He is frustrated that he cannot find himself a permanent job, however, whilst in a London library, he discovers, hidden in the back of a book that once belonged to Ash, two draft handwritten letters to an unknown woman. Excited by this discovery, he secretes these letters with his personal belongings before returning the book to the librarian. Michell suspects that Ash must have been having an affair and begins to delve deeper to unearth who the letters were meant for. His knowledge of Ash leads him to theorise that the letters were intended for a contemporary of Ash, a minor poet named Christabel LaMotte.

Dr Maud Bailey is both a distant relative and scholar of Christabel LaMotte and Michell arranges to meet her in Lincoln to discuss his hypothesis.  Maud shows him some additional documents which show a likely correspondence took place between the two poets around 1858/59. It would be a significant find for the academics if Ash and LaMotte had been having an affair, as it had been widely understood that Ash was happily married, and LaMotte was probably a lesbian. Michell admits to Maud about the letters he has stolen, whilst she confirms she is intrigued and wants to find out more about the affair. Any academic who managed to discover the truth about the relationship would bolster their career, so Maud and Roland try to keep their research secret; but hot on their heels are another group of scholars including James Blackadder, and American scholars Mortimer Cropper and Leonora Stern, thus much excitement and underhand activities follow in the pursuit of the truth.

#16. An Omniscient Narrator – Arthur & George by Julian Barnes (Audible)

As a child, I used to watch the ITV series “Sherlock Holmes” starring Jeremy Brett and David Burke on the family black and white TV. According to my mother, Brett was the perfect Holmes, and as I grew older and watched other people try to inhabit the character, I had to agree. Brett and Burke were the perfect double act as Holmes and Watson, but what of their creator? I knew very little about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Despite owning a beautiful clothbound version of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes (and a copy on Audible to listen to on the way to work) I’ve never thought about the man behind the pen. I stumbled across this title on Audible, I think it was in one of their 2-4-1 sales; I'd read some other works of Julian Barnes and knew he was a good writer, so I was interested to hear what he had to say about the real lives of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

 

“As boys, George, the son of a Midlands vicar, and Arthur, living in shabby genteel Edinburgh, find themselves in a vast and complex world at the heart of the British Empire. Years later—one struggling with his identity in a world hostile to his ancestry, the other creating the world’s most famous detective while in love with a woman who is not his wife—their fates become inextricably connected.”

 

I think the story of George Edalji and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a fascinating one, and it is obvious that Julian Barnes has done an enormous amount of research into the lives of both men, but I think I made a huge mistake in getting this book on Audible. It is hard to write an unbiased review of a book when you're trying to work out if the book is badly written, or if it's due to the poor narrator. In this instance, I think it is safe to say that my main criticism of the book is not Barnes' beautiful prose, but the narration on Audible. My concentration was removed from the story and transferred instead to the poor accents, mispronunciations and general telling of the story, which is a great travesty to Barnes. 

George Edalji was a myopic solicitor, the son of a country vicar, and part Asian. His path only crossed with that of the creator of Sherlock Holmes for several months, but there meeting was most fortunate, as Doyle was instrumental in correcting a serious miscarriage of justice.

#15. Part Of A Duology – Deeper Than the Dead by Debra Webb (Kindle)

This was my selection from my Amazon Prime First Reads UK options for July 2024. At the time it was stated that this was the first book in a duology, and I thought the blurb sounded interesting enough for there to be a second book and that I’d read it once it was released. It now transpires that this is the first book in a new detective series, but I’m keeping it here under the #15 as I began reading it when I was under the impression there were only going to be two books!
 
“Crime analyst and newly disgraced deputy police chief Vera Boyett doesn’t visit home often, and she certainly doesn’t venture back into the cave on her family land. But when the remains of her long-missing stepmother are discovered, Vera will have to face a past that threatens all she is. She and her sister Eve had a fairy-tale childhood: good until it was tragic, with a stepmother they never found a bond with. At least they had each other, a baby half-sister, and a mutual devotion that would have them do the unthinkable. It’s a summer in small-town Tennessee, so thick with humidity it could drown you and so rife with secrets it could smother you. And deep beneath the surface, there are more bodies than you’d think….”
 
Twenty-two years ago, Vera Boyett's stepmother Sheree disappeared, it was presumed she had run away with her lover.  Human remains have now been discovered in a cave on the Boyett land in Fayetteville, and Vera's sisters need her to return home as the remains belong to Sheree. 39-year-old Vera has spent fifteen years working with the Memphis Police Department, working her way up to her current role of Deputy Chief in a specialised unit. Unfortunately for Vera, everyone on her team has been suspended, following a horrific shooting that claimed the lives of two of her officers. Vera is to be the scapegoat and the unit that she helped to create will be disbanded. With her career in tatters and the recent unearthing of human remains where she grew up, she is eager to head back to see her younger sister Eve and half-sister Luna. 

As with many novels focusing on domestic drama, families often have skeletons hidden in the closet, and Vera and Eve are no exception to this rule; although their skeleton is literally in a cave they used to play in as children. Twenty-two years ago, a family drama that they would prefer to keep hidden is about to be unearthed, but unknown to them both, there wasn't just one body hidden in the cave. Further remains are soon discovered in a deeper part of the cave system; some remains were deposited before Sheree's body was dumped there, and others were deposited after Sherree. Who else knew about the complex cave system and why was it chosen to dump the bodies in? 

#14. A Grieving Character – Eleven Liars by Robert Gold (Audible)

In 2020, as part of Hatchette publishers “secret reader” scheme, I received an advance copy of Robert’s book, “Twelve Secrets.” I enjoyed the book, so when I saw the second book in the Ben Harper series titled “Eleven Liars” pop up on Audible, I thought I would listen and see how the storyline had progressed.

 

“Journalist Ben Harper is on his way home when he sees the flames in the churchyard. The derelict community centre is on fire. And somebody is trapped inside.

With Ben's help the person escapes, only to flee the scene before they can be identified. Now the small town of Haddley is abuzz with rumours. Was this an accident, or arson?

Then a skeleton is found in the burnt-out foundations.

And when the identity of the victim is revealed, Ben is confronted with a crime that is terrifyingly close to home. As he uncovers a web of deceit and destruction that goes back decades, Ben quickly learns that in this small town, everybody has something to hide.”

 

This book starts pretty much from where the last one left off. Whilst it isn’t strictly necessary to read the first book in the series, I would recommend it, mainly because it helps to understand who the characters are, how their relationships fit together, and what issues have affected them in the first book. That said, the plot of the book is straightforward enough to follow, in chronological order, and Gold adds bit of information from the earlier novel, so you can quickly pick up on the back story without it hindering the rest of the plot.

The action starts immediately when investigative journalist Ben Harper takes a shortcut home  through the local cemetery and saves the life of a man who is trapped in a burning building. Despite Ben’s heroics, the man flees the scene before Ben can recognise him. The next day a skeleton is found in the ruins of the burnt-out building. No-one claims to know the identity of the body, or how it ended up in the foundations of the church’s community centre.

#13. An Academic Thriller – Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton (Paperback)

This is the second Rosamund Lupton novel I managed to sneak into this challenge and it was easy to see why it was chosen as ‘Book of the Year’ by The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, Stylist, Red and Good Housekeeping.

 

“In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Pupils and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff. Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news. In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love.”

 

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds…it’s not that long a time, unless you are being held hostage. If you’re anxiously waiting for help to come, it can seem an inordinately long amount of time.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock…the amount of suspense that can be derived just from the thought of a clock ticking down. Will help come? Will the children be safe? Will the police fail in those last minutes? Whatever happens, we know that it will all be over in three hours. This is a book you can’t put down; you can’t leave the children in the school to their fate without knowing the outcome.

School shootings and stabbings are the horrific news headlines no-one wants to see, yet here, between these safe pages, you are invested in this cat and mouse game between police and gunmen, entering the psyche of the person at large. Why on earth would they want to target innocent children, children that have been dropped off at a place of safety, children who should spend the day knowing that in a few hours they’ll be back at home watching TV or texting their friends.

This is a story built on a parent’s worst nightmare, you are going to be with them every step of the way until you know whether their child is safe or not. Three hours is not a long time at all, and I certainly needed a bit longer than that to devour this book but devour it I did over a wet and windy weekend.

#12. Starting With The Letter "L" – Lullaby by Leila Slimani (Paperback)

“The baby is dead. It took only a few seconds.”

Browsing the local bookshop, I gasped in shock as I read those words. The first chapter is only 2.5 pages long, so I just continued reading, mouth open.  Immediately I knew I wanted to read this book, and that it was one I wouldn’t put down until it was finished, so armed with my new purchase, I headed off to the local park, bought an ice-cream, and continued reading.

“When Myriam decides to return to work, she and her husband look for a nanny for their two young children. They find their dream candidate: Louise: a quiet, polite and devoted woman who sings to their children, cleans the family's chic Paris apartment, stays late without complaint and hosts enviable birthday parties. But as the couple and their nanny become increasingly dependent on each other, jealousy, resentment and suspicions start to breed, and Myriam and Paul's idyllic domesticity is shattered.”

From the first lines, Leila Slimani sets out her intention, that this is going to be a horrific tale and one that those triggered by child violence should not read. There is not going to be a soft approach to any of the issues which are raised in this book. Within the first paragraph you know that a baby is dead, a little girl is in a critical condition and the mother is hysterical. A 4^th person has tried to take their own life. The wheels have been set in motion and the reader must make an uncomfortable decision, keep reading and head out on a  journey to find out how and why the children are dead, or leave the book on the shelf and find something less disturbing in the bookshop.

TRUST. Such a short word, but so powerful. Believing someone, hoping that they are honest, reliable, that they are speaking the truth…it is a difficult thing to do, especially the older you get. We put trust in people all our lives, from our early years of trusting someone with a secret that they then tell the whole school about, so you find out that they’re not as reliable as once thought, to getting older and trusting a complete stranger to operate on us.

I’ve never had the worry about employing someone to look after a child. The closest I’ve got to is when I go on holiday, there’s only one person I trust with the welfare of my cat; God knows what I’ll do if I (or they) ever move house. I know my cat is safe, so I really can’t imagine how hard it would be for me to put my trust in someone to look after my flesh and blood – especially a small defenceless child.

“ ‘My nanny is a miracle-worker.’ That is what Myriam says when she describes Louise’s sudden entrance into their lives.”

After interviewing several candidates for the role of a nanny, Myriam and Paul decide they have struck gold when Louise walks into their life. She is immediately at ease holding the baby and playing games with Mila, calling her a princess. She cooks dinner and cleans the house so that Myriam can concentrate on her career as a successful lawyer, and Paul can continue with his demanding schedules working as a music producer. Louise quickly makes herself indispensable, the household has never run so smoothly, but there is already a chilling discomfort as each page is turned, the reader is aware, unlike the parents, that Louise is no Mary Poppins.

#11. Title Starting With the Letter ‘K’ – The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley (Audible)

This is the fourth book by Natasha Pulley that I have listened to, and then decided that it would have been better to have read a physical copy of the book. At some point, I may treat myself to the books, because I’m sure there are details that I’ve missed whilst walking and getting distracted by something I’ve seen. That is a shame really, because her books are full of such exquisite details, they deserve more attention than what I’ve given them.

 

“Joe Tournier has a bad case of amnesia. His first memory is of stepping off a train in the nineteenth-century French colony of England. The only clue Joe has about his identity is a century-old postcard of a Scottish lighthouse that arrives in London the same month he does. Written in illegal English—instead of French—the postcard is signed only with the letter “M,” but Joe is certain whoever wrote it knows him far better than he currently knows himself, and he's determined to find the writer. The search for M, though, will drive Joe from French-ruled London to rebel-owned Scotland and finally onto the battle ships of a lost empire's Royal Navy. In the process, Joe will remake history, and himself.”

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if the history you thought you knew was wrong? What if you were given the chance to go back in time and change events that have already happened? If you did change things, then the future as you know it wouldn’t be able to exist…you might not be able to exist; those you love now might not exist because of the changes you’ve made. It’s quite the deep soul-searching question, and one that comes to play out in this novel.

The first thing that I have to say about this book is that it is a slow burn, in fact all the novels I’ve read by Natasha Pulley are slow burns, which is why I think I would do better reading her books than trying to listen to them. That said, I don’t mean to suggest that the books are boring, rambling on about nothing, I mean that the story slowly unfurls. Pulley is a storyteller, she weaves a magical tale around “nothingness,” it is as though you can read several pages and still feel left in the dark, but you continue to read because you know, you know, that something interesting is being kept from you, it’s just ever so slightly out of reach, but with a bit of patience, the answer will come in its own time. At some point, everything you have been told will suddenly start to make sense.

The year is 1898 when Joe Tournier disembarks from a train in London into a world which is unfamiliar to both him and us the reader; only this isn’t London, it’s Londres. The UK is under French rule and slavery still seems to exist, somehow, the French won the Battle of Trafalgar, and the English are now slaves.

#10. Told In Non-Chronological Order – After the Silence by Louise O’Neill (Audible)

I first heard of this book when it was chosen by broadcaster Laura Whitmore as her ‘Bring Your Own Book’ for the BBC's “Between the Covers” program. She described Louise O’Neill as a “beautiful Irish writer,” and that whilst this novel is a work of fiction it is based loosely on similar events that have happened in the past in Ireland.

Years ago, I listened to a true crime podcast called “West Cork” on Audible. It was the fascinating, yet harrowing tale of the murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier near her holiday home in Co. Cork in December 1996. Whilst suspicions were rife, no-one in Ireland was ever charged with her death, although there has always been whispers that locals knew more than they were letting on. This novel has echoes of that, and that is why I added it to my TBR pile.

 

“Nessa Crowley's murderer has been protected by silence for ten years.

Until a team of documentary makers decide to find out the truth.

 

On the day of Henry and Keelin Kinsella's wild party at their big house a violent storm engulfed the island of Inisrun, cutting it off from the mainland. When morning broke Nessa Crowley's lifeless body lay in the garden, her last breath silenced by the music and the thunder.

 

The killer couldn't have escaped Inisrun, but no-one was charged with the murder. The mystery that surrounded the death of Nessa remained hidden. But the islanders knew who to blame for the crime that changed them forever.

 

Ten years later a documentary crew arrives, there to lift the lid off the Kinsella's carefully constructed lives, determined to find evidence that will prove Henry's guilt and Keelin's complicity in the murder of beautiful Nessa.”

 

The Kinsella family have it all. Henry and Keelin have two beautiful grown-up children, a son and a daughter, they live in a gorgeous mansion on the small island of Inisrun, and they are wealthier than most people dream about. But is it just an illusion? Ten years ago, Keelin held a birthday party in which one of the infamous “Crowley Girls” died. The small island community blamed Henry, but he was never arrested, and no-one was found guilty of committing murder. The Kinsella’s become unpopular inhabitants on the island, and the disdain shown by the islanders who treat them with suspicion causes a tense atmosphere, one in which Keelin now deems it necessary to live a life of enforced solitude.

Two Australian filmmakers have arrived on Inisrun to film a documentary about the infamous death, a documentary which Henry hopes will help to clear his name and put the past behind him. The story is told via interviews with various island residents and Keelin Kinsella; however, it becomes clear she isn’t comfortable telling her version of the story to the camera.