Weekly Wrap Up (July 8)

Well what a week! I celebrated yet another birthday on Monday, they are now coming round all too fast, with a lovely meal but suffice to say workwise this has been a difficult week that has left me chasing my tail, so I apologise for the lack of response to so many comments, but hopefully next week will be better.

The sunflowers are really going for it now with a new flower opening daily, particularly loving the red variety to mix things up!

This Week on the Blog

Well despite my reading time being minimal this week I do still have a stack of books to review but as it was July the first post of the week was my Five of the Best June 2014 to 2018.

My first review was for the first miss for The Classics Club, I didn’t really enjoy Off With His Head by Ngaio Marsh.

This Week in Books featured the authors Gillian McAllister, Cara Hunter and Anna Mazzola.

My review of Sanctum by Denise Mina was well-received and well-timed as although this book was first published in 2002 it was published as an eBook on the day I reviewed it. This was my second review for my 20 Books of Summer 2018 challenge. Yes, lagging a wee bit here!

Next I reviewed a non-fiction Victorian true crime, The Killing of Georgie Moore by Colin Evans, one of my own books knocking another one of the Mount TBR Challenge.

Finishing the week off was my review for a newly published psychological thriller Take Me In by Sabine Durrant, an author I admire for creating tension without pushing the boundaries of reality too far to do so.

This Time Last Year…

I was reading the psychological thriller They All Fall Down by Tammy Cohen, an author who always provides satisfying reads.

The setting of this novel is in a private psychiatric clinic and right from the off there is a feeling that Hannah isn’t there of her own volition, but quite why and what happened before is left in the shadows. This isn’t the only mystery though, two women have died at the small clinic and Hannah is worried that they weren’t the suicides that everyone presumes. The problem is Hannah clearly has problems and she’s not being taken seriously by anyone, least of all her husband Danny who is becoming increasingly frustrated with what he thinks is her continued paranoia.

With twists and turns enhanced by the fabulous pace the dialogue which is also absolutely pitch perfect.

You can read my full review here or click on the book cover.

Blurb

Hannah had a normal life – a loving husband, a good job. Until she did something shocking.

Now she’s in a psychiatric clinic. It should be a safe place. But patients keep dying.

The doctors say it’s suicide. Hannah knows they’re lying.

Can she make anyone believe her before the killer strikes again? Amazon

Stacking the Shelves

I was delighted to receive an email from Steve Robinson, the creator of the genealogist Jefferson Tayte providing me with a copy of the seventh in this wonderful series Letters from the Dead which will be published on 14 August 2018.

Blurb

When genealogist Jefferson Tayte is hired to prove the identity of a black sheep in his client’s family tree, he unwillingly finds himself drawn into a murder investigation with nothing more to go on than a 150-year-old letter and a connection to a legendary ruby that has been missing for generations.
As more letters are mysteriously left for him, Tayte becomes immersed in a centuries-old tale of greed, murder and forbidden love that takes his research from the wilds of the Scottish Highlands to the colour and heat of colonial India.

A dark secret is buried in Jaipur, steeped in treachery and scandal. But why is it having such deadly repercussions in the present? Can Tayte find the ruby and prevent the past from repeating itself before it’s too late?

This is the seventh book in the Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mystery series but it can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story. NetGalley

As I mentioned it was my birthday and amongst my pile of lovely gifts my daughter gave me a copy of The Truth by Peter James. Although I’ve read all of the Roy Grace series, I haven’t read many of his stand-alone books and I’m looking forward to reading this one.

Blurb

Susan and John Carter are crazy about each other and life is perfect but for one thing – they are on the brink of financial disaster. Surely being a surrogate mother to another man’s child won’t harm such a strong relationship? Especially when the mysterious Mr Sarotzini is offering to save their home and business – everything they’ve worked for.

What seems to be a perfect solution begins to feel like an impossible situation. Susan’s pregnancy is disturbingly painful but no-one will tell her why. It becomes apparent that Sarotzini wields immense power and Susan begins to doubt everything she knows. As she realises the terrifying origin of the dark forces Saratzini controls she is in fear for herself and John but most of all for her unborn baby… Amazon

My brother also sought out a selection of brilliant books and has duly checked they have all been added to the spreadsheet, which for some reason he finds highly amusing. Here are a couple that he has bought me so that he can borrow them when I am done! As his birthday is only nine days after mine,I have duly returned the favour!

Victorian Murders by Jan Bondeson is clearly for both of us…

Blurb

This book features fifty-six Victorian cases of murder covered in the sensational weekly penny journal the Illustrated Police News between 1867 and 1900.
Some of them are famous, like the Bravo Mystery of 1876, the Llangibby Massacre of 1878 and the Mrs Pearcey case of 1890; others are little-known, like the Acton Atrocity of 1880, the Ramsgate Mystery of 1893 and the Grafton Street Murder of 1894. Take your ticket for the house of horrors. Amazon

As is the wonderfully titled Lady Bette and the Murder of Mr Thynn by Nigel Pickford.

Blurb

Lady Bette, the 14-year-old heiress to the vast Northumberland estates, becomes the victim of a plot by her grandmother, the Countess Howard, to marry her to the dissolute fortune-hunter Thomas Thynn, a man three times her age with an evil reputation. Revolted by her new husband, Lady Bette flees to Holland. Within weeks, Thynn is gunned down in the street by three hired assassins.

Who is behind the contract killing? Is it the Swedish Count Coningsmark, young and glamorous with blond hair down to his waist? Or is it a political assassination as the anti-Catholic press maintains? Thynn was, after all, a key player in the Protestant faction to exclude the Catholic James, Duke of York, as his brother Charles II’s successor.

Nigel Pickford creates a world of tension and insecurity, of constant plotting and counter-plotting and of rabid anti-Catholicism, where massive street demonstrations and public Papal burnings are weekly events. The action moves from the great landed estates of Syon and Petworth to the cheap taverns and brothels of London, and finally to Newgate and the gallows – the sporting spectacle of the day. In the process, the book gives us a vivid and deeply researched portrait of Restoration society. Amazon

What have you found to read this week? Do share!

Since my last post I have read only 2 books and I have gained 7 so the TBR is on the way up again with 172!
Physical Books – 112
Kindle Books – 41
NetGalley Books –19
Audio Books –1

As three of this weeks reviews were of my own books I’ve added another 3 tokens so I’m 2 books in credit, having bought no new books.