The Liar’s Room – Simon Lelic

Psychological Thriller
5*s

This is one of those books where you have to hang onto your seat and follow the ride wherever it takes you, and oh my goodness what a ride it is!

Susanna is a counsellor and on the day we meet her she has two new clients to meet. When the first one, Adam Geraghty walks through the door he seems familiar but she can’t work out where she knows him from. And then he starts to talk…

Susanna is probably more on her guard than the average counsellor because she has a deep and dark secret. The type of secret that is worth saying goodbye to her old life, and starting somewhere else with a brand new identity, all evidence of the past covered over. So now she leads a narrow life which consists of her, and her daughter Emily who is now fourteen years old. Susanna loves Emily and sees her role in life, above all others to keep her safe.

So much of this novel is the conversation between counsellor and counselled which gives the book an incredibly claustrophobic feel. The dialogue between the two is captivating and made all the more so because we know Susanna has something she is trying to hide, but what it is and why she needs to keep it quiet is eked out in a way that had this reader conjuring up different scenarios, most widely off-beam. On one level it is fascinating to watch the game that is being played out in front of our eyes. The weighing up of options on the one hand with the absolute determination to keep the upper hand on the other gives us an immediate view of how liars operate which felt quite unlike anything else in the genre. Yes we often come across manipulative characters and we even see them in full flow but to have an entire book that is based upon a sustained conversation is very unusual indeed.

Although some of the themes have quite naturally been explored by other writers, this is an author so sure of his penmanship that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions to what these might be and he doesn’t go down the well-worn path of what is often trodden by writers in this genre; prepare to be surprised.

The Liar’s Room is clever, very clever. Yes, once I got quite a way into the book, I was able to discern some of what had either happened, was happening or would happen, but I was a long way off the entirety of the answers to all the myriad of questions. This is both spell-binding and compelling and terrifically well written and has firmly cemented Simon Lelic as an outstanding writer. I was already a fan having read and loved The Child Who and more recently The House, and The Liar’s Room has just added to my admiration of an author who can create some basically unlikeable characters but with enough credibility to keeping it real which meant that I couldn’t feel a bit of sympathy for them on at least on some level.

This would undoubtedly be a terrific book club read which I’m sure would provoke some lively discussion because of the strong reactions it is bound create.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to the publishers Penguin who allowed me to read a copy of The Liar’s Room ahead of publication in paperback on 9 August 2018. Thank you also to Simon Lelic for keeping me up way past my bedtime in order to find out what happened, and then later still as I pondered what I had just read.

First Published UK: 28 July 2018
Publisher: Penguin 
No of Pages: 352
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Amazon UK
Amazon US

Dead Souls – Angela Marsons

Crime Fiction
5*s

I am a huge fan of the DI Kim Stone series set in the Black Country and so it is to my immense shame that it has taken me quite so long to getting around to reading the sixth book in the series. Fortunately this explosive episode will spur me on to reading the next one which is ready and waiting on my kindle for my future enjoyment.

When routine demonstration dig for forensic archaeologists turns into a something far more practical than expected. Bones are found in the examination site and Macedonian forensic archaeologist Dr A. summons our feisty and tenacious DI to the site. Unfortunately given that DI Kim Stone has had a difficult relationship with the neighbouring force’s Detective’s, Tom Travis, for nigh on five years so she is not overly impressed when he turns up claiming that the investigation should be led by his team. Certain that Woody will back her plea for her team to continue Kim Stone is less than impressed when she’s ordered to work alongside Travis as a new model in joint investigations, pooling resources to get results.

What happens next is a tests Kim’s patience and professionalism to the max.

The joy of reading a series is to meet up with old favourite characters as much as it is to ‘solve’ the particular crime being investigated and Angela Marsons doesn’t disappoint. Although Kim is busy working with Travis to unearth (no pun intended) the old bones, her team are forced to work on without her. A suspected suicide, the horrific attack on a Polish immigrant and road traffic accident force see DS Dawson and DS Bryant pair up together for the first time which leaves PC Stacey Banks on her own in the office. I think it was an exceptionally good idea to mix the team up, with Bryant not around to rein Kim in we see another side to both of them allowing a move away from Kim’s personal problems and see Bryant appreciating other skills apart from his boss’s and it was fabulous to have Stacey in the limelight for a change, again allowing us to see her outside her usual unflappable self.

There really wasn’t much of a chance to take a breath as essentially we’re following three strands of storylines – trying to work out why the bones were on an ancient tenant farmer’s land, meeting with a vile racist intent on moving immigrants out of his area and seeing Stacey investigate under her own initiative. What would Kim Stone think?

The plotting is superb with the answers to some of the questions seemingly obvious, but of course only once I had the answers! Angela Marsons isn’t afraid to tackle some difficult subjects in her books and nowhere more so than in this one, and yet although she doesn’t shy away from exposing hate crime she does so with what I felt was some level of understanding of the subject matter so that I didn’t feel that this was a writer using the storyline as some kind of bandwagon to leap upon but something that has been researched and digested before being offered up to her readers.

I started by saying that I have the next book, Broken Bones, ready to read and I can assure you that after this explosive and exciting read and having reminded myself why I have recommended this series to so many others, I won’t be leaving it too long before reading the next in the series.

Dead Souls was my third book of the year for my Mount TBR Challenge 2018, having been bought in April 2017 it is worth another third of a book token which means I now have one book in the bank!! 

Previous Books featuring Kim Stone
Silent Scream
Evil Games
Lost Girls
Play Dead
Blood Lines

First Published UK: 25 April 2017
Publisher: Bookouture
No of Pages: 414
Genre: Crime Fiction Series
Amazon UK
Amazon US

 

My Sister’s Bones – Nuala Ellwood

Crime Fiction
5*s

Well this story was so much more than I expected, the war journalist not a token character to make a difference like I suspected, but someone who really felt like they’d seen and done all those terrifying things that it is easier to shy away from when it comes on the news.

When Kate Rafter returns to Hearne Bay following the death of her mother she is collected from the train station by her brother-in-law Paul. It is clear from the outset that there is trouble between Kate and her younger sister Sally and even when we are forced to confront Kate’s version of events, there are questions as to the real cause.

I’m often wary of crime books that strongly have mental illness at the very centre of their tale, not because I’m in any doubt of the awfulness of the condition but because I harbour slight suspicions as to the author’s motives – do they chose to portray someone this way to be politically correct? Or to capture readers who suffer similarly? Perhaps it has been chosen to excuse the actions of a character to make the unbelievable, less absurd? Not so in this book. Yes Kate is suffering from the effects of all that she has witnessed and she hears voices, sees hallucinations and takes strong tablets to help her sleep, but, and this is crucial for me to keep faith, she is also strong, she takes herself to task, unwilling to play the victim, she wants to return to work. So although we have a reason to doubt her visions, as I got to know more about her, all that she sees and hears has echoes in the war-zones she recently left, it all felt authentic.

What is equally interesting is that we follow Kate in a police station over the course of her detention for some unknown crime. She is guarded, trying not to provide ammunition to the police but we are as unsure of her motive as her crime. In between the interviews she narrates her tale, going back to the weeks leading up to her arrest. Because I knew some of this background and her need to present her most sane self to the police this also gave me a clue as to the strength of this woman, this is no flaky airhead playing at being a war-zone journalist, imagining she’s been to Syria, this is someone who has seen things we don’t even want to imagine.

Most of the book is narrated by Kate but we get to see another perspective through her alcoholic sister’s eyes. Sally always felt her mother preferred clever Kate who succeeded at everything and had moved away and left them, including her mother who had been shattered by the death of their brother when he was just a toddler. This is just one of the shadowy truths that litter this book. We know David died, but how and why isn’t instantly apparent, neither is the disappearance of Hannah, Sally’s daughter.

With many themes of a distressing nature this book could easily have turned into a complete misery fest but it is far too clever for that. Although there is plenty to despair about, some of it far too distressing to deeply contemplate, there is also a plot with a definite ending which lifts this head and shoulders above the competition. I loved the way that the themes reappear throughout the story and loop back to re-examine the truths based upon updated information whilst never labouring the point.

In short, this book was so good, not always an easy read but an informative one, and yet the author never preaches, she is telling a story which has everything you’d expect from a good mystery, in fact there are several mysteries all of which are revealed with an understated style which will make you gasp.

Thank you to Penguin who allowed me to read a copy prior to the publication date of tomorrow. This review is my unbiased thanks to them.

Published UK: 1 November 2016
Publisher: Penguin 
No of Pages: 400
Genre: Crime Fiction
Amazon UK
Amazon US

On My Bookshelf

As I haven’t acquired any new books this week – how good am I? I thought I’d share my bookshelves with you this week having got the idea from another bookshelf sharer; Snazzy Books

So for one week only I have some pictures and I will answer some pre-ordained questions.

I often rearrange my bookshelves mainly because I can’t keep all the books that pass through this house so I have to rationalise fairly frequently. I tend to do this by giving my books away in small amounts rather than having one big clear-out.

This is the shelf that originally made up the header for my blog and the most prominent of the bookshelves in the house, the one book-loving guests first gravitate to when if they are like me want to have a good nose!  These are the bigger paperbacks that I have and on this shelf because they are more or less the same size.   The newest addition to this shelf is No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary

How do you organise your books?
Each bookshelf is organised in a slightly different way. The full bookshelf (aka bookshelf 1) has the top shelf by size, the middle shelf is half-full of recently read larger books and half-full of the dual time historical novels by Kate Morton, Katherine Webb and Rachel Hore.

The bottom shelf is smaller favourite books and new additions to the TBR!

Favourite Authors that appear on your shelf?

These live on bookshelf 3 – amongst others you will find my Peter James collection, including You Are Dead, Sophie Hannah, Reginald Hill, Margaret Forster and Barbara Vine books. This shelf isn’t as easily accessible, being in the hallway, which is fine because I’m not so keen on lending these books out – many of them have been on several house moves with me!

What books do you have that you want to read soon but haven’t yet got around to?

Well these live on the bottom shelf of bookshelf 2 – apart from the overspill to bookshelf 1 (see above)

The book I’m most looking forward to reading from this shelf is The Night Watch by Sarah Waters after remembering how much I love her books when I read The Paying Guests

Which books do I wish that were on my bookshelf but aren’t?

I wish I’d kept a selection of my childhood favourites. I was often given books as presents and had beautiful copies of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Peter Pan, Anne of Green Gables etc alongside well-worn copies of an abundance of Enid Blyton books, Noel Streatfeild and Roald Dahl.

Which books on your shelf are borrowed?

I have been lent a copy of A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry by a work colleague

Blurb

With a compassionate realism and narrative sweep that recall the work of Charles Dickens, this magnificent novel captures all the cruelty and corruption, dignity and heroism, of India.
The time is 1975. The place is an unnamed city by the sea. The government has just declared a State of Emergency, in whose upheavals four strangers – a spirited widow, a young student uprooted from his idyllic hill station, and two tailors who have fled the caste violence of their native village – will be thrust together, forced to share one cramped apartment and an uncertain future.
As the characters move from distrust to friendship and from friendship to love, A Fine Balance creates an enduring panorama of the human spirit in an inhuman state. Goodreads

So that’s a snapshot of my books that sit neatly on a bookshelf and aren’t squirreled away because I may have run out of space again! Check out Snazzy Books shelfie too!

What’s on your bookshelf today?

Richard and Judy’s Book Club – Autumn 2014

I’m always interested to see which books make it onto Richard and Judy’s Book Club and the autumn list is now out.

There are two on here that I’ve already read and another three or four that had made it onto my radar and will now probably make the TBR for sure.

When a teenage girl goes missing her mother discovers she doesn’t know her daughter as well as she thought in Jane Shemilt’s haunting debut novel, Daughter.

The Night Of The Disappearance – She used to tell me everything. They have a picture. It’ll help. But it doesn’t show the way her hair shines so brightly it looks like sheets of gold. She has a tiny mole, just beneath her left eyebrow. She smells very faintly of lemons. She bites her nails. She never cries. She loves autumn, I wanted to tell them. She collects leaves, like a child does. She is just a child. Find her. One year later – Naomi is still missing. Jenny is a mother on the brink of obsession. The Malcolm family is in pieces. Is finding the truth about Naomi the only way to put them back together? Or is the truth the thing that will finally tear them apart?

My review of Daughter by Jane Shemilt can be read here

Harry August is on his deathbed. Again. No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now. As Harry nears the end of his eleventh life, a little girl appears at his bedside. ‘I nearly missed you, Doctor August,’ she says. ‘I need to send a message.’ This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.

In 1875, Sisi, the Empress of Austria is the woman that every man desires and every woman envies. Beautiful, athletic and intelligent, Sisi has everything – except happiness. Bored with the stultifying etiquette of the Hapsburg Court and her dutiful but unexciting husband, Franz Joseph, Sisi comes to England to hunt. She comes looking for excitement and she finds it in the dashing form of Captain Bay Middleton, the only man in Europe who can outride her. Ten years younger than her and engaged to the rich and devoted Charlotte, Bay has everything to lose by falling for a woman who can never be his. But Bay and the Empress are as reckless as each other, and their mutual attraction is a force that cannot be denied.

I’m stranded on Mars. I have no way to communicate with Earth. I’m in a Habitat designed to last 31 days. If the Oxygenator breaks down, I’ll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks down, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’ll just kind of explode. If none of those things happen, I’ll eventually run out of food and starve to death. So yeah. I’m screwed.

Called to a woman’s refuge to take a routine witness statement, DI Marnie Rome instead walks in on an attempted murder. Trying to uncover the truth from layers of secrets, Marnie finds herself confronting her own demons. Because she, of all people, knows that it can be those closest to us we should fear the most…

Read my review of Someone Else’s Skin here

When time is running out every moment is precious…When Claire starts to write her Memory Book, she already knows that this scrapbook of mementoes will soon be all her daughters and husband have of her. But how can she hold onto the past when her future is slipping through her fingers…?

London, 1727 – and Tom Hawkins is about to fall from his heaven of card games, brothels and coffee-houses into the hell of a debtors’ prison. The Marshalsea is a savage world of its own, with simple rules: those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol’s rutheless governor and his cronies. The trouble is, Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules – even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain’s beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet. Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon, Tom’s choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder – or be the next to die.

‘All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.’ Rick Stein’s childhood in 1950s rural Oxfordshire and North Cornwall was idyllic. His parents were charming and gregarious, their five children much-loved and given freedom typical of the time. As he grew older, the holidays were filled with loud and lively parties in his parents’ Cornish barn. But ever-present was the unpredicatible mood of his bipolar father, with Rick frequently the focus of his anger and sadness. When Rick was 18 his father killed himself. Emotionally adrift, Rick left for Australia, carrying a suitcase stamped with his father’s initials. Manual labour in the outback followed by adventures in America and Mexico toughened up the naive public schoolboy, but at heart he was still lost and unsure what to do with his life. Eventually, Cornwall called him home. From the entrepreneurial days of his mobile disco, the Purple Tiger, to his first, unlikely unlikely nightclub where much of the time was spent breaking up drink-fuelled fights, Rick charts his personal journey in a way that is both wry and perceptive; engaging and witty.

Have you read any of these, or do you think you might?

To get the reviews features and more go visit Richard and Judy’s Book Club here.

Book Sales are Dangerous for Addicts

Yesterday it was our local Guide Dogs For The Blind paperback book sale which is a charity which I support by going to each of their bi-annual events. This year was no different so off we went to St Ouens (pronounced Wans) Parish Hall to see what we could find.

Not forgetting that I made a pledge not so very long ago  to reduce those books I own on my TBR to a more manageable level, (actually this post was done less than a month ago), I only took one bag and was really there to browse and maybe pick up one or two books…. it didn’t work, I started off well but it soon descended into chaos as I picked the below stash…

An absolute bargain!

Out of these The Chemistry of Death has been on my wishlist since I read the powerful Stone Bruises by Simon Beckett as has The Stranger House a standalone novel by the wonderful late Reginald Hill and then added another of his books, Pictures of Perfection which is part of the Dalziel and Pascoe series.

Another great find was The Missing One by Lucy Atkins, a story about secrets, which has also been on my wishlist since its release in January this year and the intriguing The Darkening Hour by Penny Hancock, a psychological story that has viewpoints from  a Moroccan maid Mona, and her employer Dora.

Then I picked up some classics, these are both favourite books which I have read and loved but lost during the twists and turns of life as well as a couple of new reads for me including a couple of new Graham Greene books after loving The End Of The Affair earlier this year.

Rounded off with a cup of tea at a café by the sea I went home before lunch-time with my bag overflowing. What out of my haul, if any, would you recommend I read?

Musing Mondays (April 7)

Hosted by Should Be Reading
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.

• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).

• What book are you currently desperate to get your hands on? Tell us about it!

• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.

• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!

• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books — let’s hear it, then!

My musing this week is about the dreaded TBR list.  Mainly as I have found myself commenting on other bloggers lists while being unsure how many books I have on mine.

This weekend has been spent collating kindle books, wishlists, To Be Read on Goodreads and my bookshelves to try to quantify more than anything, how many books I actually own and still want to read.

So the sums, books given for review purposes total 21, physical books yet to be read equals 22, and books on kindle (my downfall) amount to 40.  This makes a grand total of 83 books (plus the one I’m currently reading)! But readers this doesn’t tell the full story as I do have 141 books I want to read on my Goodreads and this isn’t quite cross-checked against the 80 books on my Amazon Wish List so I estimate the total amount comes close to 170 books.

As interesting as all that is, I decided today’s post would take a look at some of the books I own that I have rediscovered during this exercise.  This is an antidote to my Friday Finds as these are all books I have owned for some time and remembered (or found) during my cataloguing.

The Collaborators by the wonderful Reginald Hill, I’m not sure how I overlooked this one except it is a hardback book and tucked into a corner but I love Reginald Hill’s writing and this has to be read!

Blurb

When Janine Simonian was dragged roughly from her cell to face trial as a collaborator in the days of reckoning that followed the liberation of France, she refused to conceal her shaven skull from the jeering crowds that greeted her.
Before the jury of former Resistance members pledged to extract vengeance on all who had connived in Nazi rule, Janine stood proudly in court – and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Why did so many French men and women collaborate with the Nazi occupation forces whilst others gave their lives in resistance? Were the motives of those who betrayed their country always selfish – and those of the Resistance always noble?
The Collaborators is a superb novel of conscience and betrayal that portrays the human dilemmas brought about by the Nazi occupation of France, and asks uncomfortable questions about the priorities of personal and national loyalty in time of war. Goodreads

Never Coming Back by Tim Weaver which is the fourth in the David Raker series. I gave the third in this series, Vanished, 5 stars so this is one that I must find time to read.

Blurb

It was supposed to be the start of a big night out. But when Emily Kane arrives at her sister Carrie’s house, she finds the front door unlocked and no one inside. Dinner’s cooking, the TV’s on. Carrie, her husband and their two daughters are gone.
When the police draw a blank, Emily asks missing persons investigator David Raker to find them. It’s clear someone doesn’t want the family found.
But as he gets closer to the truth, Raker begins to uncover evidence of a sinister cover-up, spanning decades and costing countless lives. And worse, in trying to find Emily’s missing family, he might just have made himself the next target … Goodreads

The Field of Blood is the first in the in the Paddy Mehan Series by Denise Mina. I watched an episode of this drama on TV and I really enjoyed one of her stand-alone books, The End of The Wasp Season, so this is another one I’m glad I found which has been languishing on my kindle since 2011.

Blurb

In Glasgow, a child goes missing, taken from the front garden of his home – and the investigation leads the police to the doors of two young boys. Paddy Meehan has just started her new job working for a local newspaper, where she dreams of becoming an investigative journalist. She starts looking into the case of the missing child but, unlike everyone else, does not believe the boys acted on their own. Convinced there is more to it than this, she begins to ask some very awkward questions. But Paddy’s investigation has repercussions she never anticipated. Shunned by those closest to her, she finds herself dangerously alone… Amazon

As a child my favourite story of all time was Thursday’s Child by Noel Streatfeild which featured on one of my first Musing Monday’s back on 26 August 2013.  She was one of my favourite authors and I have a copy of The Whicharts by Noel Streatfeild that although not forgotten is still unread although this may be because I don’t want to taint my memories of Ballet Shoes.

Blurb

She never doubted for one moment that once she had the necessary training she would find the work. She knew with her whole being that she was a born mechanic. In what way she would have a chance to prove this she didn’t know, but her prayers always finished: “And oh God, if possible, let me fly”.
1920s London: three adopted sisters train for the stage and support the household.
Maimie, Tania and Daisy Whichart have self-reliance thrust upon them. The Whicharts is the story of their dreams, friendships and loves. The drudgery of stage-work is set against their passion for family ties and realising their dreams.
Out of print since the 1930s, Noel Streatfeild’s rare first novel is an exuberant portrayal of London cultural life in the inter-war years.
Streatfeild used parts of this first novel to develop the classic ‘Ballet Shoes’ Goodreads

Last up is a book that sounds as if it is right up my street, Not Guilty by Christine Gardner

Blurb

In 1910 in Bendigo, three children were found dead in their home, brutally murdered with an axe and a knife.
Their mother, Camellia McCluskey, was a de facto wife at a time when such a position was not socially acceptable. Her partner, George, was considerably older than her. The two lived together happily for a few years before the relationship deteriorated, putting in place a chain of events that finally resulted in the slaying of Dorothy, Eric and Ida.
‘Not Guilty’ tells the story of those events, and the court proceedings that followed them. A storm of newspaper coverage surrounded Camellia as the Australian media struggled to understand the motivations that led her down the path she took.
This story is based on Camellia’s letters, court records, newspaper coverage, and other historical documents. Goodreads

Have you read any of these?
Do you have a strategy for managing your TBR? I can’t commit to not adding new books because that just won’t happen but I do want to enjoy those books I already own too.

Richard and Judy Spring Books 2014

I’m always interested to see what Richard and Judy pick for their reads and here is the spring list

click on the picture above to view the original announcement!

I have already read three of the offerings for this season, Apple Tree Yard made my top 10 choices for 2013

click on the book covers for my review

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty

Contemporary Fiction
5*’s

Happily-married, middle-aged Yvonne has a random encounter with a complete stranger while she is on a formal visit to the Houses of Parliament. Within minutes of meeting him in the cafeteria there, she is having raw, passionate sex in a secluded corner of the ancient building WHSmith

and the other two were very close contenders

A Commonplace Killing by Sian Busby

Historical Crime
5*’s

A Commonplace Killing is exactly that – a grubby, tawdry sex murder committed in immediate post-war London. The author wonderfully re-creates the shabbiness, bombed-out, rationed-to-the-hilt atmosphere of the shattered capital and the grey, pinched lives of those who had survived Hitler’s war WHSmith

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Contemporary Fiction
5*’s

Laugh-out-loud funny, this brilliant, witty, and beguiling story. Don Tillman, a scientist and geneticist, has rampant Asperger’s Syndrome – but he doesn’t know it WHSmith

Two of Richard and Judy’s choices had already made it to my TBR

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Jo Baker writes utterly convincingly about the lives of servants labouring in the Longbourn of Austen’s Pride and Prejudice WHSmith

and Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfield which has received some good reviews from fellow bloggers

It’s an eerie tale of identical twin sisters who share a hidden gift. They are psychic, but one has chosen to bury her powers to lead a normal family life. The other is single and works as a medium. One day she predicts a violent earthquake in Missouri, where they live. Is she right? What does this mean for their lives? WHSmith

I’m off to take a closer look at The Never List by Koethi Zan

Two young women are kidnapped and imprisoned in a cellar for years by a psychopathic psychiatrist who uses them, and his other victims, for sadistic experiments…WHSmith

What are your thoughts on these choices for spring 2014?

Friday Finds (October 4)

  Hosted by Should be Reading

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

So, come on — share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

This looks like a book that loads of people have read and somehow I’d never heard of it, Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.   I was drawn in by the review written by Delectable Reads.  Even better this has a wonderful recipe for you to whip up and eat while you read…. now that’s not going to be a dangerous habit to start is it?

Blurb

Clay Jensen returns home to find a strange package with his name on it. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker – his classmate and first love – who committed suicide.
Hannah’s voice explains there are thirteen reasons why she killed herself and Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out why.
All through the night, Clay keeps listening – and what he discovers changes his life . . .
Forever. Amazon

Is This Tomorrow by Caroline Leavitt

Blurb

In 1956, when divorced, working-mom Ava Lark rents a house with her twelve-year-old son, Lewis, in a Boston suburb, the neighborhood is less than welcoming. Lewis yearns for his absent father, befriending the only other fatherless kids: Jimmy and Rose. One afternoon, Jimmy goes missing. The neighborhood in the era of the Cold War, bomb scares, and paranoia seizes the opportunity to further ostracize Ava and her son. Lewis never recovers from the disappearance of his childhood friend. By the time he reaches his twenties, he’s living a directionless life, a failure in love, estranged from his mother. Rose is now a schoolteacher in another city, watching over children as she was never able to watch over her own brother. Ava is building a new life for herself in a new decade. When the mystery of Jimmy’s disappearance is unexpectedly solved, all three must try to reclaim what they have lost.

To read a cracking review of this book visit Curl Up and Read and see if you can resist this one.

Split Second by Sophie McKenzie

This book came to my attention via Simon and Schuster’s UK newsletter.

Bound together by the devastating consequences of a terrorist attack on a London market, teenagers Charlotte (Charlie) and Nat appear at first to have much in common. But, as Charlie gets closer to Nat and his family, she begins to wonder if perhaps he knows more about the attack than he has let on. Split Second is an action-packed thriller that shifts between the perspectives of its two main characters as their courage and their loyalties are tested to the limit

This is an author who has written a number of books and even though I haven’t got around to reading Sophie McKenzie’s previous book I Close My Eyes, this one has made it to my TBR

A late contender to my Friday Finds (I try to stick to a maximum of 3) is The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure based on the great review by Silver’s Reviews

A story set in World War II that sounds riveting and just up my street.

Happy Friday and Happy Reading.

Books to be published in October 2013

 

 

 

 

Now that September is drawing to a close I have been looking at the books due to be published in October, starting with The Edge of Normal by Carla Norton. This one looks seriously scary perfect for a cold evening in front of the fire.

Publisher: Pan
10 Oct 2013

Blurb

Reeve LeClaire was abducted when she was twelve years old and held in captivity for four years. Now, in her twenties, she has a fragile stability but with the help of her psychiatrist, she has started to build a life of independence. But she will never shake off the terror and memory of the monster she believes is behind bars. When Tilly Cavanaugh is rescued from a basement having suffered a similar experience, her parents call Reeve to ask for her help in helping their daughter rediscover a ‘normal’ life. But it is only when two other girls go missing that the police confirm the link and that there is a serial abductor in their midst. Reeve knows that she alone has the knowledge which will help to find the perpetrator – but can she overcome her demons to discover the truth? Amazon

I really hope Helen Fielding is still able to make me smile with Bridget Jones, Mad About The Boy

Publisher: Jonathan Cape
10 Oct 2013

Blurb

With her hotly anticipated third instalment, Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Fielding introduces us to a whole new enticing phase of Bridget’s life set in contemporary London, including the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by and the nightmare of drunken texting, the skinny jean, the disastrous email cc, total lack of twitter followers, and TVs that need 90 buttons and three remotes to simply turn on. Amazon

Secrets from the past are always intriguing so Postcards From The Past by Marcia Willets looks like a must!

Publisher: Bantam Press
10 Oct 2013

Blurb

Can you ever escape your family ties?
Siblings Billa and Ed share their beautiful, grand old childhood home in rural Cornwall. Their lives are uncomplicated. With family and friends nearby and their free and easy living arrangements, life seems as content as can be.
But when postcards start arriving from a sinister figure they thought belonged well and truly in their pasts, old memories are stirred. Why is he contacting them now? And what has he been hiding all these years?Amazon

I’m looking forward to seeing what Elizabeth Haynes will serve up in her fourth book, Under a Silent Moon but the blurb has meant that this one is on pre-order!

Publisher: Sphere
15 Oct 2013

In the crisp early morning hours, the police are called to a suspected murder at a farm outside a small English village. A beautiful young woman has been found dead, blood all over the cottage she lived in. At the same time, police respond to a reported female suicide, where a car has fallen into a local quarry.

As DCI Louisa Smith and her team gather the evidence, they discover a link between these two women, a link which has sealed their dreadful fate one cold night, under a silent moon.

Told in a unique way, using source documents that allow readers to interpret the evidence alongside DCI Louisa Smith and her team, Under a Silent Moon is an unsettling and compulsively readable novel that will keep you gripped until the very last page. Amazon

I am also buying for the non-fiction Inconvenient People by Sarah Wise in paperback as this will go onto my bookshelf so that I can read all about the Victorian Lunatic Asylums.

3rd October

Gaslight tales of rooftop escapes, men and women snatched in broad daylight, patients shut in coffins, a fanatical cult known as the Abode of Love.
The nineteenth century saw repeated panics about sane individuals being locked away in lunatic asylums. With the rise of the ‘mad-doctor’ profession, English liberty seemed to be threatened by a new generation of medical men willing to incarcerate difficult family members in return for the high fees paid by an unscrupulous spouse or friend.
Sarah Wise uncovers twelve shocking stories, untold for over a century and reveals the darker side of the Victorian upper and middle classes – their sexuality, fears of inherited madness, financial greed and fraudulence – and chillingly evoke the black motives at the heart of the phenomenon of the ‘inconvenient person’.Amazon

To read my review on Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield, click on the book cover.

 Bellman & Black is due to be published on 10 October 2013 by Orion.

Related articles

• Character Comebacks: Helen Fielding Brings Back Bridget Jones (omnivoracious.com)