This Week on the Blog
My first review of the week was for the novella Mother Knows Best by Netta Newbound, part of my Mount TBR 2017 challenge which I’m insanely proud to say is still on track!
My excerpt post was from The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, a murder and a memoir of a woman who confronts both her change in attitude to the death penalty and family secrets. Despite this book not being on the schedule to be read for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t put this one aside and my review will be posted shortly.
This Week in Books post included the authors Fiona Harper, Steve Robinson and Imran Mahmood.
On Thursday I was part of the blog tour with my review for Chris Brookmyre’s Want You Gone. This was my introduction to Jack Parlabane and despite the subject matter, cyber crime, being one that would normally make me switch off, I was completley hooked.
My third review of the week for the much anticipated See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. The writing within this recreation of what might have occurred in the household where Lizzie Borden’s father and step-mother were brutally slain was incredibly evocative.
I have followed Steve Robinson’s creation of the genealogist Jefferson Tayte from the beginning of the series he stars in and yesterday I reviewed his sixth outing Dying Games – the best in the series yet in a book full of genealogical puzzles.
This Time Last Year…
I was reading a non-fiction book based on a Victorian true crime – The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale. This is the story of a crime by a child in West Ham in 1895. The disquiet in the papers covering the trial wasn’t on how boys of twelve and thirteen were treated in court but on the penny bloods that they avidly read. The fear was that by teaching the poor to read, they would feast upon this bloody fiction and in turn act upon it.
You can read my full review here or click on the book cover.
Blurb
Early in the morning of Monday 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his twelve-year-old brother Nattie set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord’s. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbours, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next ten days Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents’ valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate from the building.
When the police were finally called to investigate, the discovery they made sent the press into a frenzy of horror and alarm, and Robert and Nattie were swept up in a criminal trial that echoed the outrageous plots of the ‘penny dreadful’ novels that Robert loved to read.
In The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale has uncovered a fascinating true story of murder and morality – it is not just a meticulous examination of a shocking Victorian case, but also a compelling account of its aftermath, and of man’s capacity to overcome the past. Amazon
Stacking the Shelves
Another week where the book post has been on the light side with no review copies delivered, I’m not panicking yet but luxuriating in a steadily decrease in the TBR pile – yeah right!!
I purchased a copy of Saturday Requiem by Nicci French, the sixth in the Freida Klein series which will be for holiday reading – love this series which deliver brilliant psychological thrillers each time.
Blurb
Thirteen years ago eighteen year old Hannah Docherty was arrested for the brutal murder of her family. It was an open and shut case and Hannah’s been incarcerated in a secure hospital ever since.
When psychotherapist Frieda Klein is asked to meet Hannah and give her assessment of her she reluctantly agrees. What she finds horrifies her. Hannah has become a tragic figure, old before her time. And Frieda is haunted by the thought that Hannah might be as much of a victim as her family; that something wasn’t right all those years ago.
And as Hannah’s case takes hold of her, Frieda soon begins to realise that she’s up against someone who’ll go to any lengths to protect themselves . . . Amazon
And my pre-order of Dead Souls the latest, also the sixth in the series, of the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons was duly delivered to my kindle on 28 April 2017. This series is one of the best of recent years and the early reviews promise great things!
Blurb
When a collection of human bones is unearthed during a routine archaeological dig, a Black Country field suddenly becomes a complex crime scene for Detective Kim Stone.
As the bones are sorted, it becomes clear that the grave contains more than one victim. The bodies hint at unimaginable horror, bearing the markings of bullet holes and animal traps.
Forced to work alongside Detective Travis, with whom she shares a troubled past, Kim begins to uncover a dark secretive relationship between the families who own the land in which the bodies were found.
But while Kim is immersed in one of the most complicated investigations she’s ever led, her team are caught up in a spate of sickening hate crimes. Kim is close to revealing the truth behind the murders, yet soon finds one of her own is in jeopardy – and the clock is ticking. Can she solve the case and save them from grave danger – before it’s too late? Amazon
What have you found to read this week? Do share, I’m always on the lookout for a good book!
Since my last post I’ve read 4 books and gained just 2 which means we now have a sustained decline to 185, Only 1 book more than the first TBR count of 2017!!!
Physical Books – 112
Kindle Books – 59
NetGalley Books – 14
Cleopatra Loves Books 