WWW Wednesday (April 16)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading The Telling Error by Sophie Hannah this is the ninth book in the Culver Valley Series.

Blurb

Stuck in a traffic jam, Nicki Clements sees a face she hoped never to see again. It’s definitely him, the same police officer, stopping each car on Elmhirst Road. Keen to avoid him, Nicki does a U-turn and makes a panicky escape.
Or so she thinks. The next day, Nicki is pulled in for questioning in connection with the murder of Damon Blundy, controversial newspaper columnist and resident of Elmhirst Road.
Nicki can’t answer any of the questions detectives fire at her. She has no idea why the killer used a knife in such a peculiar way, or why ‘HE IS NO LESS DEAD’ was painted on Blundy’s study wall. And she can’t explain why she avoided Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her life.
Because although Nicki is not guilty of murder, she is far from innocent . . . Amazon

I have recently finished The Last Boat Home by Dea Brøvig

Click on the book cover to read my review

 

Next I am going to read Before You Die by Samantha Hayes

Blurb

Oh God, please don’t let me die.
It has taken nearly two years for the Warwickshire village of Radcote to put a spate of teenage suicides behind it.
Then a young man is killed in a freak motorbike accident, and a suicide note is found among his belongings. A second homeless boy takes his own life, this time on the railway tracks.
Is history about to repeat itself?
DI Lorraine Fisher has just arrived for a relaxing summer break with her sister. Soon she finds herself caught up in the resulting police enquiry. And when her nephew disappears she knows she must act quickly.
Are the recent deaths suicide – or murder?
And is the nightmare beginning again? NetGalley

What are you reading this week?

The Last Boat Home – Dea Brøvig

Psychological Thriller
4*’s

Dea Brøvig conjures up a desolate and harsh debut novel which is mirrored by the unforgiving Norwegian winters which is described so vividly that I longed to pass the young Else Dybdahl yet another jumper to keep her warm on her ferry home from the town at the end of each school day.

The story is split a past that covers the time from 1974-1976 and the present day, 2009, where Else is forced to confront those memories she had hoped were safely buried when her boyfriend returns to the island to live in his family home with his young wife and children.

We know that Else is the mother to Marianne, and Grandmother to eleven year old Liv who she lives with in the same town that she grew up in but what we don’t know is how Else came to have a baby which is where the narration begins, at an early age. A shocking event especially considering how important the church is to the inhabitants.

This is a bleak story as we peek behind the door to the realities of the Dybdahl household, one where the family turn up to church no matter how many bruises Else’s mother Dagny has to cover with powder, a household ruled by the ups and downs of an alcoholic father and husband. The descriptions of the hardships that feature in the daily life of the Dybdahl’s along with the cold and wet feet from snow and ice only serve to make this an almost unbearably claustrophobic read.

Brøvig cleverly keeps the pace slow reflecting the long and cold days as Else and Dybdhal struggle to keep life moving forwards with the small relief of a visit from a travelling circus, so that the reveal happens when the tension has been ramped up to the maximum. Else has school to distract her but she is ever mindful of the cow that needs milking as well as the pressures her boyfriend, Lars, heaps on her to sneak out join him. With the fire and brimstone sermons seemingly aimed at the inhabitants by the fearsome Pastor, Brøvig accurately captures the desires and fears that rule Else’s days not least the shame she would heap on her family if caught.

A book which is thought-provoking, rather than enjoyable, this would work well as an interesting, if somewhat harrowing, book club read.

I received a copy of this book from the publishers Random House UK in return for this unbiased review.

WWW Wednesday (April 9)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

Blurb

Nick and her cousin, Helena, have grown up sharing sultry summers at Tiger House, the glorious old family estate on the island of Martha’s Vineyard. As World War II ends they are on the cusp of adulthood, the world seeming to offer itself up to them. Helena is leaving for Hollywood and a new marriage, while Nick is to be reunited with her young husband Hughes, due to return from London and the war. Everything is about to change.
Neither quite finds the life she had imagined, and as the years pass, the trips to Tiger House take on a new complexity. Then, on the brink of the 1960s, Nick’s daughter Daisy and Helena’s son Ed make a sinister discovery. It plunges the island’s bright heat into private shadow and sends a depth-charge to the heart of the family.
Summer seemed to arrive at that moment, with its mysterious mixture of salt, cold flesh and fuel.
Magnificently told from five perspectives, Tigers in Red Weather is an unforgettable debut: a simmering novel of passion, betrayal and secret violence beneath a polished and fragile facade. Amazon

I have just finished The Dead Ground by Claire McGowen, a crime novel featuring Dr Paula McGuire, the second in the series which is set in Ireland where the past intrudes on the present. My review will be posted later this week.

Blurb

A stolen baby. A murdered woman. A decades-old atrocity. Something connects them all…
A month before Christmas, and Ballyterrin on the Irish border lies under a thick pall of snow. When a newborn baby goes missing from hospital, it’s all too close to home for forensic psychologist Paula Maguire, who’s wrestling with the hardest decision of her life.
Then a woman is found in a stone circle with her stomach cut open and it’s clear a brutal killer is on the loose.
As another child is taken and a pregnant woman goes missing, Paula is caught up in the hunt for a killer no one can trace, who will stop at nothing to get what they want.
The Dead Ground will leave you gasping for breath as Paula discovers every decision she makes really is a matter of life and death… NetGalley

Next I am going to read The Last Boat Home by Dea Brovig 

Blurb

On the wind-swept southern coast of Norway, sixteen-year-old Else is out on the icy sea, dragging her oars through the waves while, above her, storm clouds are gathering. Surrounded by mountains, snow and white-capped water, she looks across the fjord and dreams of another life, of escape and faraway lands.
Back on shore, her father sits alone in his boathouse with a jar of homebrew. In the Best Room, her mother covers her bruises and seeks solace in prayer. Each tries to hide the truth from this isolated, God-fearing community they call home.
Until one night changes everything.
More than thirty years later, the return of an old friend forces Else to relive the events that marked the end of her childhood. NetGalley

What are you reading this week?

Friday Finds (April 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!

Well my addiction to NetGalley has returned with a vengeance and I am grateful to have received some great finds this week.

Starting with A Dark and Twisted Tide by Sharon Bolton which is due to be published on 8 May 2014 by Random House UK, I am delighted to have book four in the Lacey Flint series and it sounds so good! The OH saw my face when I read the acceptance email and said ‘Is that another book? It is, isn’t it, I know that smile!’

Blurb

Former detective Lacey Flint quit the force for a safer, quieter life. Or that’s what she thought.
Now living alone on her houseboat, she is trying to get over the man she loves, undercover detective Mark Joesbury. But Mark is missing in action and impossible to forget. And danger won’t leave Lacey alone.
When she finds a body floating in the river near her home, wrapped in burial cloths, she can’t resist asking questions. Who is this woman, and why was she hidden in the fast-flowing depths? And who has been delivering unwanted gifts to Lacey?
Someone is watching Lacey Flint closely.
Someone who knows exactly what makes her tick . NetGalley

After reading an excellent review written by The Writes of Women of The Last Boat Home by Dea Brovig which was published on 13 March 2014 by Random House UK (they are very good to me!)

Blurb

On the wind-swept southern coast of Norway, sixteen-year-old Else is out on the icy sea, dragging her oars through the waves while, above her, storm clouds are gathering. Surrounded by mountains, snow and white-capped water, she looks across the fjord and dreams of another life, of escape and faraway lands.Back on shore, her father sits alone in his boathouse with a jar of homebrew. In the Best Room, her mother covers her bruises and seeks solace in prayer. Each tries to hide the truth from this isolated, God-fearing community they call home.Until one night changes everything.More than thirty years later, the return of an old friend forces Else to relive the events that marked the end of her childhood. NetGalley

So if NetGalley finds weren’t enough this review on I Read Novels of The Perfect Affair by Claire Dyer .  Those of you who visit regularly will know I am fascinated by affairs so I simply had to get a copy, fortunately it was an absolute bargain on kindle so I now own this one too!

Blurb

What happens if you fall in love with the wrong person?
Rose knows only too well the exhilaration and devastation of loving a married man. So she watches with a keen eye as Eve – her closest companion, the granddaughter she never had – meets Myles, the new tenant in her downstairs flat.
Quietly and softly and against the backdrop of their own unsatisfactory marriages, Myles and Eve fall in love and, as they try to have the perfect affair like Rose did before them, they come to learn about the pain of lost opportunities, to decide whether it is ever better to follow your head or your heart, to know what it is to be torn between love and duty. Amazon

From Amazon Vine I have a copy of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle by Kirsty Wark
which was published on 13 March 2014 by Two Roads. The blurb had me intrigued so on the TBR mountain it went!

Blurb

Born just before the First World War, Elizabeth Pringle has been a familiar yet solitary figure on the Scottish island of Arran. A dutiful daughter, an inspirational teacher, a gardener. But did anyone really know her? When Elizabeth dies, her will contains a surprise. She has left her home and her belongings to someone who is all but a stranger, a young mother she watched pushing a pram down the road more than thirty years ago.
Now it falls to Martha, the baby in that pram, to find out how her mother inherited the house in such strange circumstances, and in doing so, perhaps leave her own past behind. But first she has to find the answer to the question: who was Elizabeth Pringle?
A captivating and haunting story of the richness beneath so-called ordinary lives and the secrets and threads that hold women together.
~ ~ ~
Dear Mrs Morrison,

A long time ago, almost thirty-four years past, you wrote to me requesting that I contact you should I ever wish to leave my home. I knew then that I would never live anywhere else, and so there was no point in my replying to you.
I saw you almost every day, pushing your pram along Shore Road. You looked very young. I remember that on one occasion you waved to me, and I think I tilted my head towards you. Perhaps you did not see. There have been times when that scene has come to me vividly, and I have wondered what has become of you both.
I am instructing my solicitor to write to you at the address on your letter. Holmlea is yours if you still wish it.

Elizabeth Pringle Amazon

Finally I have discovered that another favourite author of mine, Heather Gudenkauf fourth book, Little Mercies is out on 4 July 2014.

Blurb

As a veteran social worker, Ellen Moore has seen it all – the vilest acts one person can commit against another. The only thing that gets her through the workday is knowing her job helps children. That, and her family: her husband, Adam, and three beautiful kids, twins Leah and Lucas, and eleven-month-old Avery. But with a blink of an eye – with one small mistake – Ellen is suddenly at the mercy of the system she works for. Avery is ripped from her clutches, and her whole world begins crashing down around her.
Meanwhile, ten-year-old Jenny Briard has been living with her well-meaning but good-for-nothing father since her mother left them. When her father decides to pack their belongings and move to a new state, Jenny thinks she might be on the road to a better life. But soon she finds herself on her own, forced to survive with nothing but a few dollars and her street smarts. Evading police and the social system, Jenny finds refuge with a kind-hearted waitress. The last thing she needs is a social worker, but when Ellen and Jenny’s lives collide unexpectedly, little do they know just how much they can help one another. Amazon

So a little bit of a mixture this week… what have you found?