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Epic

ALL THE COLOURS OF THE DARK BY CHRIS WHITAKER

Wow, I don’t know what to say about this book.  I loved the first book I read by this author ‘We Begin at the End’ and so I was eagerly awaiting his next one.  It is a truly epic novel, over 550 pages.  You need time to immerse yourself in this deep story and to get to know the characters.

Patch (the pirate) and Saint – two young teens living in the small town of Monta Clare, USA.  Best friends, both quirky and don’t make friends easily.  Patch, got the nickname because he only has one eye so wears a patch over it.  Saint lives with her grandma, she met Patch through her bees.  She had this fascination with bees so bought a hive and sells honey.   But the town is shattered when Patch (Joseph McCauley) is abducted.  He was going to help another teen (Misty Meyer) who was on the verge of being abducted until Patch intervened.  He was stabbed then disappeared.  Saint searches day & night with the townspeople looking for him and will not rest until she brings her friend back.

Patch wakes in a pitch black room, he thinks he is alone until he feels a hand in his.  She tells him her name is Grace.  He can’t see her as there is no light in the room.  She tells him about places she has been with such vision that he sees them in his mind.  A man, his captor, comes by to leave a little food occasionally.  During these times Grace warns him he must be quiet other than to pray to God, as this is the only thing that will save him.  The man often takes Grace away for periods of time.

Patch is eventually found and his life saved because of a fire in the place & Grace pulling him outside.  But when the emergency services arrive Grace is nowhere to be seen.  Nobody believes that Grace existed, they think he was hallucinating.  Saint is overjoyed to have Patch back but Patch will never be the same.  He is determined to find Grace, and it fills his waking days & hours.  He begins to paint the places she told him about and her face from what he remembers of her.  He paints in the back of a studio run by a local art dealer, Sammy.  He displays the pictures & paintings in the hope that someone will recognise her or the places.  His paintings become sought after works of art.

Years go by but Patch won’t give up looking for Grace.  He decides to set off & try to find the places & people Grace spoke of especially as the Sherriff won’t do anything.  But what he finds is that the young girls that Grace mentioned were abducted and their bodies never found.  Patches paintings begin to lead the police to burial sites all over states in America.  Saint chooses to become a policewoman as she feels she needs to help find the person who has abducted these girls.  Patch finds himself in trouble and on the wrong side of the law.   Saint finds she has heart wrenching decisions to make.

This is a hard book to categorise crime/love story as it starts with a crime but then it is more of a journey of Saint & Patch and his lifetime quest.  It takes us through from their childhood to their old age.  There are other characters who you get to know and like such as Norma (grandma), Sammy, Nix (the sherrif), Tooms (the doctor), Charlotte and the elusive Grace.  All characters had a substance. The writing style takes a little time to adjust to and the story picks up pace (as at the beginning) but can wane and be a tad drawn out but then it picks up again.  But the journey is unforgettable and becomes part of your life.  You root for Saint & Patch & desperately want them to ‘have a break’ – some good luck.  I definitely recommend this book to readers who have time to give to it and don’t want a fast paced crime page turner.  If you appreciated great writing, meaningful characters, slowly unravelling crime/mystery then you will enjoy this book.

Review by Lindy

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Into the Dark by Fiona Cummins. 

sorry, not for me..... 

I don't really know what I think of this book.  It was confusing and a little all over the place.  I thought the author was trying to establish a new detective on the crime scene but if so it didn't work as there wasn't enough substance for him.  Saul Anguish was his name but he took more of a back seat.  Nothing to endear him to me the reader.

It was a complicated tale of two married women, both of whom had teenage children, who lived in the same coastal town.  They had known each other for a few years.  Piper Holden lived an affluent life in a grand house.  Julianne not so affluent.  Each week they would jog together early morning but this day when Julianne arrives at Pipers house nobody is there.  Cups left out, radio on, mobile phones left behind.  It's like the family have been snatched overnight.

So begins a police investigation especially when traces of blood are found.  This is where we the reader are introduced to Saul Anguish, new to this police team. 

The plot starts to twist with unexpected turns, deceit, greed, revenge & murder but there are way too many plots & coincidences & bits which were unbelievable.

I was going to give up on it as far fetched & too convoluted but I somehow kept going.  Who was the main character, Piper Holden or Saul Anguish?  If it’s Saul he needs to be plumped out more to make him more interesting.  His background story (what little we learned of it), was really confusing.

Sorry but I won’t be recommending it.

review by Lindy

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Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham

recommend this series, for fans of MW Craven, JD Kirk, Steig Larsson.

This is a lot better than the second in the series.  We are still following the story of Cyrus Haven, a forensic psychologist & Evie.  Cyrus's brother Elias is about to be released gradually into society from a psychiatric hospital.  He has served over 20 years and had counselling & is medicated.  His crime - he killed their parents & 2 sisters.  Cyrus survived because he was late getting home from school & then his in the shed.  Elias will be spending a couple of nights a week with Cyrus to start with.  Cyrus is trying to forgive him. Evie, who is now a lodger at Cyrus's and isn't happy about Elias coming to stay. She doesn't trust him nor does she think he has changed.

Cyrus is called in to help police with the murder of an elderly man & the disappearance of his grown up daughter, Maya.  

Another woman is abducted & Maya's body is found by police.  Then a third woman is taken.  All were nurses, all at the same hospital. Maya's injuries prove to be similar to those of another nurse, Laila, who was attacked 8 years previously. But only Cyrus seems to be linking them.

Evie escorted the last abducted woman to a taxi after she became unsteady in the bar Evie was working in.  The taxi turned out to be bogus.

There is a man, Mitch, who was accused of Lailas assault 8 years ago but Evie doesn't think he did it.  Evie has a unique gift, she can tell if someone is lying by looking at them.  Evie wants to prove his innocence but makes it worse for him.

Laila & Evie become friends.  Cyrus now believes that Laila may be in danger from the man who really attacked Laila & in turn this puts Evie in danger.  Can Cyrus & the police get there in time to save them.  I enjoyed this book. Evie is a likeable, gutsy, Lisbet Salander type character and she & Cyrus make a good fictional team.

Review by Lindy

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Body Breaker by MW Craven

one of my favourite crime authors

The second crime thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, acclaimed author of The Puppet Show (Washington Poe series).

Following on from the first in this series we meet up again with DI Fluke & team (Towler, Skelton & Longy).  This time Fluke is sent to investigate a severed hand found on the third green of a Cumbrian golf course.  The golfer who reported it said it dropped from the sky!  They didn't believe him & were about to take him in for questioning when the greenkeeper explained about the birds of prey around the area who had probably fought over it & then dropped it.  As they expand the search around the area the rest of the dismembered body is found.  When they try to identify the dead body they trigger national security.   The case is taken away from them by a secret protection unit from London quoting national security. However, when Fluke discovers the deceased was an old army buddy he and Towler want to be involved in finding his killer.  When a young woman arrives at Flukes isolated lakeside cabin quoting a code known to only a handful of people and claims to be his old buddies wife it forces Fluke back into the investigation he's been barred from. Fluke & his team work secretly encountering New Age travellers, corrupt cops and domestic extremists. But he makes a pact with the devil & alienates himself from his entire team & gets arrested under the Terrorism Act.   But Fluke is just getting started and has a plan but plans don't always turn out the way you think they will....

I found this series growing on me and liking Towler more & more.  It gets a little too plot complex again like the first book.  As for the Choreographer, why was that charge just dropped??  This is a short series, just the two books as he then went on to write the Washington Poe series.  I found this better than the first book but not as good as the Washington Poe series. Prefer Tilly & Poe as a quirky team.

review by Lindy

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BORN IN A BURIAL GOWN BY MW CRAVEN

another good crime series.

The first gritty thriller in the Avison Fluke series by M. W. Craven, the acclaimed author of The Puppet Show (Washington Poe series). 

I love the Washington Poe series of books & characters so I was reluctant to try a new series by the same author. But I did.  It is so similar to the Poe series I wondered why he did it?  Why stop writing the Poe series after only 2 very successful books to write about another very similar character & then go back to Poe???  I mean everything, the location, flawed DI who fights authority, team around him who are quirky, even threat of being turned out of his remote home.  All of this is the Washington Poe series.....

Anyway, did I enjoy it?  Yes but not as much as Poe.  Too clever, intricate/overly complicated.  Do I take one or two tablets out of a paracetamol packet?  I take one (especially 500mg ones) but in this book taking one was unusual and a clue in a murder? What?

My review: So, it begins with a young male making money by selling his body to get drugs.  A Breeder (married man who needs a man to satisfy his needs) has given him a place to stay for a few nights in return for favours.  However he becomes a witness to a body being dumped and has put his life at risk.

DI Avison Fluke is called in when the body is found on a building site.  He gathers his team around him.  DC Towler, lifelong friend & ex para, Jo Skelton, veteran policewoman, manning his HQ and Jiao-long, Longy for short, his computer geek.  

The deceased woman was shot in the head.  It turns out that she had been (falsely it turns out) accusing men of using Rohypnol & rape then blackmailing them for her to not pursue it.  The woman however, was also on the run from someone & had paid a lot of money to change her appearance.  Not a simple murder it turns out.

Fluke is also back at work when he shouldn't be.  He is hiding medical treatment he is still undergoing.

review by Lindy

PS. I have just found out that this book came out years before Washington Poe but his now publisher took them down to re-edit and put new covers in place. This answers my question raised above

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The last lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor

The last lifeboat by Hazel Gaynor (shortlisted for the Irish book awards)

I don't quite know what to say about this book.  I plodded along with it as it is that kind of book, slow and predictable and yet by page 320 it had moved me to tears.

It is set in 1940’s Britain.  World is at war, London is being blitzed and there is a strong believe that Hitler is about to invade Britain.  Worried about the children the government launch an evacuation plan.  It is called CORB.  The plan is to ship children from Liverpool to Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, NZ and even America.  Space is limited, so parents have to sign up if they want their children considered. The ships will be escorted in case of U boat attack.

The story centres on Lily & a couple of other mums torn between deciding if she should risk signing up her two children for this scheme or keep them with her and hope they survive the blitz. 

Alongside this we follow the story of Alice, who signs up as an escort for these children on their journey.  She will be known to the children as Aunty.

It is based on a true story and keeps with you afterwards.  More so because not all the facts were given to the parents by the government when they were making those heartfelt decisions.  We felt COVID lockdown was bad and worrying but the war and obviously subsequent recent wars since have families making these same choices.

review by Lindy

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When she was Good by Michael Robotham

When she was Good by Michael Robotham

This is the second in the Cyrus Haven series.  The first being Good Girl Bad girl, which was nominated for the Edgar award.   In this second book we follow the story of Evie. 

Recap on first book: Evie was found hiding at the scene of a brutal crime weeks after they found the tortured man's body.  She won't talk to anyone so they name her Evie & guess her age.  Even with DNA the can't trace her background. Cyrus (a forensic psychologist) is the only one she connects with, possibly because he too has a damaged past.  He is determined to find out who was behind Evies abduction & incarceration.  Blurb: 'He thinks the truth will set her free - She knows it will kill them'.

18yr old Evie (who is in witness protection) is back at Langford Hall, the secure children's home, after Cyrus's fostering went wrong.  But they will discover it isn't as secure as they think not when Cyrus is followed.  Nobody believes how powerful the people are who are trying to find and eliminate Evie are.    People, police, don't believe Evie they think everything is a lie, there's no proof.  They also think Cyrus isn't thinking clearly that he has been taken in' by Evie.

Evie's story is about kidnapped children who are used as sex slaves by rich, prominent, powerful, people.  However, thankfully, the violence towards the children was alluded to but not graphic. 

We find out Evies real name, her family and how she was taken. 

I didn't find it as good as the first book, it could have been shorter & the 'shoot em car chase at the end' (which are in so many books) I find tedious to read but obviously aimed at being a tv series.  Also it was far-fetched at times.  However, I do like the characters.  Will have a rest before I go to book 3.

review by Lindy

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Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham

WOW, I've just found another good crime series by a, new to me, author.  

Meet forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven who works with the Nottingham police force.  Cyrus is single, lives in a dilapidated old, Victorian type house which was left to him by his grandma.  His parents & sisters are dead, killed, when he was just 14, by his brother who is now serving time. Cyrus, came home from football practice & found his family - he is still living with the fallout/trauma from this.

Meet Evie Cormack (aka Angel Face).  Age unknown as no records can be found for her but around 16.  She is in a secure children's home in Nottingham.  She was found, 6 years ago, dirty & starving locked in a secret room in another room where a tortured decomposing body of a man was found tied to a chair.  She won't talk about what happened.  She is angry & defensive and many professional people & psychologists have tried but failed to reach her.  She does, though, have an uncanny gift of looking into people's faces and knowing if they are lying.

Cyrus has been asked by an old uni mate who works at the childrens home to come and assess Evie.  He is intrigued.  He can also empathize given his own damaged past.

At the same time Cyrus also gets a call from the police to come and help with their investigation into the death of a young teenager, Jodie, a champion figure skater.  Family lies & secrets are about to be uncovered.

Evie & Cyrus begin to form a tentative frail bond and Cyrus takes an unthinkable step of offering to foster Evie.  But it was doomed from the start.

We as readers learn a little of Evie both her past when imprisoned and her thoughts in current time in little chapters but it doesn't detract from the main story.

What a brilliant combination this could be.  Evie reminds me a little of Lisbet Salander, but younger.  Really enjoyed this twisty crime thriller.  Good characterisation, good plot   Looking forward to seeing these two characters build as a team. So now onto next one - When She Was Good.....

Rview by Lindy

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Shari Lapena Everyone Here is Lying

Shari Lapena Everyone Here is Lying

Lapena's books are always readable and generally about dysfunctional families with characters you can relate to.  Not high octane crime but a slowly unfurling psychological thriller.

'Stanhope, a place for families'.  

Nora & William are having an affair.  Both are married with children.  William is a doctor and Nora a volunteer at the same hospital.  They live in the same street. However, today, Nora decides that she can't do this anymore.  As they are leaving the motel she tells William she is ending their affair.  William is devastated and goes home to what should be an empty house, to lick his wounds, instead of back to work.  However Avery, their 9 yr old daughter is there, alone.  She should be at choir practice and should have walked home after practice with her older brother Michael.  Avery has behavioural problems and is getting help.  She was sent out of choir for bad behaviour.  They argue, she goads him & William loses his temper and slaps her, but not for the first time.  However, this was harder.  He is shocked that he lost control.  He apologises then leaves in his car to clear his head.

An hour later he gets a call from his wife.  She and their son are at home, Avery isn't there.  They know she left school over 2 hours before without her brother.  She is missing!  

When the police arrive they are assuming Avery went missing on her way back from school.  William knows different but he can't say anything as he is ashamed of slapping her plus details of his affair might come out.  So he lies & hides his burner phone.  But eventually the lies catch him out & he confesses to the police but not who the woman was.  He loves here.  He becomes a suspect.

Nora is worried too both for the safety of Williams daughter and how devastated her family would be if they found out about her infidelity.  She worries too about William but darent contact him.

As police start questioning neighbours more secrets & lies are revealed false information is given and other people become suspects.

A twisty but easy to read thriller.

Review by Lindy

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Fiona Barton Local Gone Missing

Fiona Barton Local Gone Missing

I needed some thing to read so picked this one up - thought I had read & enjoyed one of hers before but I won’t be recommending this one.  I actually gave up for 15 mins after 80 pages as it wasn’t grabbing me.  It was jumping around all over the place & I found it hard to concentrate & remember who was who.  I started to read another book but then went back to this as I always said I would give a book 100 pages before giving up on it!

They are short chapters, some 2 pages long some 4 pages.  They swing from the now to a date earlier – sometime in August 2019.  Some times it would say ‘x’ days before, sometimes not.  Each chapter would have a characters name (Dee, Elise, Charlie, Kevin, Pauline).

Dee is a cleaner.  She cleans local houses and small business premises.  She sees & hears a lot but doesn’t gossip.  She is married to Liam (bit of a loser & ex junkie) and they have a teenage son Cal.  Her brother Phil has just died.  He kind of raised her when her mother left but had a drink problem & became down & out so she was taken into care.

Elise, was a copper in London but then moved to the small seaside town of Ebbing in the local force.  She is not currently working, she is convalescing after having cancer treatment.  But she can’t help herself getting involved, as a concerned citizen, when a local man goes missing.  Aided and abetted by her bored neighbour Pauline, who reads a lot of crime books.

Charlie is the missing man.  He had money problems & had conned a few people out of savings.  He has a 30yr old daughter who lives in a care home after a bungled burglary leaves her boyfriend dead and she (Birdie) permanently damaged.  Charlie is behind on the fees and they will have to move Birdie somewhere cheaper.  He lives in a caravan with his second wife Pauline, who is very needy & extravagant. The caravan is on the drive/grounds of the old dilapidated house they are doing up, which he can’t afford.   By page 103 the reader learns that Dee’s brother Phil had something to do with Charlies break in/burglary which caused his daughters injury.     

Charlie is found dead in the cellar of his house.  A lot of local & ex business people had a grievance against him but who did it?  It seems everybody has a secret and no-one wants to talk.  Well, it wasn’t one of my memorable reads & by the end I didn’t really care who killed Charlie.  Didn’t get into the characters either.  Not recommended, sorry.

Review by Lindy

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Neil Lancaster Blood Runs Cold

Neil Lancaster Blood Runs Cold

I read his previous book The Blood Tide and really enjoyed it so thought I would give this one a go.

Set in Scotland, present day.  A young Albanian girl, Affi, goes for a run on her 15th birthday.  She has finally settled down with her forster parents and has been picked to run for her county, life is looking good.  She was rescued from a human trafficking gang in London and brought to the Scottish Highlands to a safe house to escape.  But a member of the gang has come looking for her and she is abducted as she is out running.

At first the local police believe it is just a teenager who has run off but her forster parents believe otherwise.  DS Max Craigie (who we met in the previous book) joins the investigation as he & his team have had dealings with trafficking in the past.  But one thing is bothering Max and that is how did the gang find out where Affi was living?

When the gang realise that the police are digging into Affis disappearance the order comes from high that they are to let her go.  They have a picture of her little sister, who is still in Albania, sitting outside the orphanage with one of their heavies standing behind her.  They have sent Affi this picture as a warning that they know where she is and would snatch her & use in a brothel if Affi speaks to the police about her ordeal.  But Max & his team are already on the scent and they have now discovered there are lots of other girls gone missing.  They also realise that there is a mole or several moles leaking information to these gang members.  Moles from within the police.  They are determined to find out who they are.

This wasn’t as good as the first one and I’m not sure why.  The humour for me fell a little flat at times.  One blurb says ‘think Jack Reacher fronting line of duty’  that’s probably a good analogy actually.

review by Lindy

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Atlas the story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker

Atlas the story of Pa Salt by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker

I have put off & put off reading this last book in the seven sisters saga because it is such a massive book, over 700 pages.  Makes reading in bed at night difficult & no I don't like reading on a device.  But being short of something else that took my fancy in the library & knowing it would be another week before a new stick of books came in I decided it was time.   I'm so glad I have.

But first let me set the scene of the first book:  Six adopted sisters all live in the lap of luxury in a mansion named Atlantis, by Lake Geneva.  They are now in their twenties.  They have been raised by billionaire tycoon Pa Salt and his housekeeper who they all call Ma.  They holidayed aboard his super yacht The Titan.  They are all branching out into the world following their chosen careers.  When Pa Salt dies they are each given an envelope in which are coordinates & a clue.  These coordinates will lead each of them to their biological parents roots.  Each of the books in the series is of each sisters journey and they take us around the world from Scotland to Australia.

But why have we got only 6 sisters in Geneva when it is called 7?  Well it seems there is a missing sister whom nobody has seen, which is the penultimate book in this series 'The Missing sister'.  In this book the missing sister is finally located.

But back to this book The Story of Pa Salt.  What is the story of Pa Salt and why did he adopt these particular girls?  That is what this book is all about.  His diary is read gradually by them all as they are aboard his superyacht The Titan, heading off to scatter his ashes at sea.  We switch from present day to the past as they discuss what they have read in the diary.  So we follow Pa’s life from a young lad in Russia during the revolution, to his love for Elle and for music.  How his feud with Zed Eszu started.  How he amassed his fortune and the trials & tribulations he had as he travelled the world and was touched by the kindness of others. Also, how Georg, Ma, Claudia & Christian came into his life to help run his home, Antlantis and helped to raise his adopted family.

I marvel at how clever Lucinda was and how much in advance she carefully plotted all these stories from the very beginning.  Yes, you need to have read all the others before reading this one.  I had forgotten a lot of the previous stories as it has been a couple of years since I last read them but there is enough of a linked reference in this, the last book, to remind me.

Yes they are predictable, yes they are an easy read but they are enjoyable.  I have enjoyed the informative romp through history of each country the characters travelled to and the important people & historical moments referred to over all of the continents.  So 8 books in total in this wonderful series.   I have finally finished this mammoth book, over 750 pages.  Enjoyed it but felt it dwindled towards the end & lost a little sparkle. Although Harry had a mammoth task on his hands finishing a book his mother started and he did a sterling job, it lacked some of her magic.  Ending was very predictable and twee.

But the good news is that I read there are plans to create a seven-season TV series YES!  I hope they cast it well…

Review by Lindy

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Grim Up North by David J Gatward

Grim Up North by David J Gatward

It took me until page 24 until I got into this book & nearly gave up.  I'm so glad I didn't as I have grown to like this character and look forward to the next one.   

Harry Grimm is an ex paratrooper.  During his stint in Afghanistan he suffered horrific burns from an IED (improvised explosive device a “homemade” bomb and/or destructive device).  This left his face badly scarred.  Harry is a DCI in Bristol but he botches a job which was under covert surveillance & hurt a couple of villains.  So he has been sent to Yorkshire to work as a short term replacement.  Quiet, rural, crimeless Yorkshire.  He finds it hard to adjust to the rolling hills and lots of sheep. Everyone knowing everyone & their business. The only crimes seem to be sheep stealing!  They don't even have a police station only the use of a room in the community centre.

But the sleepy town is rocked when a teenage girl, Sophie, goes missing.  Harry fears human traffickers may have made their way up to Yorkshire.  However 2 days later her mother is found murdered.  Then another teenager goes missing.  It's all heating up Up North and Grimm is on it. Mixed in with this we readers are drip fed info about Harry's family.  His dad did something to his mother and his brother and Harry is determined to find his dad & make him pay for what he did.

His brother is currently in prison. 

Harry starts to gel with his new team and he has a growing respect for Jim who is a good PCSO (police community support officer).  I think we have the start of a very good series.

Review by Lindy

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The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain

The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain  ‘you have to read it’ said Clare Mackintosh.  Well if Clare says I have to read it then that is good enough for me!  And it was a good book – not in the league of Kristin Hannahs The Women but good.

It begins in South Caroline in 2010.  Kayla and her husband worked for the same architect firm.  They built & designed their own house and it is the first to be finished in the new lot on the street/road.  It is nestled in between trees at the end of the street.  Kaylas husband died, working on the house, before they had chance to move in.  Kayla has misgivings about the move and is spooked even more when a red haired lady turns up without an appointment and says she is going to kill someone.  She knows all about Kaylas family and where the house is, it is a warning.  Kayla & their 3 yr old daughter, are living currently with her father in the neighbouring town.  Her father Reed, grew up around the area and knew the family who still have their old house on the corner of the street but they don’t speak. 

We jump back to 1965.  Ellie is 20 and lives at home with her family in South Carolina and attends university where she is their campus reporter.  She had been dating Reed for a few years.  He was dependable , a banker & loved her.  Civil unrest is stirring in the South, segregation in the shops & cafes still exist and only white people are allowed to vote.  Protests are starting L B Johnson as talking about changing the laws so that ‘negroes’ have the right to vote.  Several hundred students from North & West colleges are coming down to South Carolina for the summer to help them understand & help them register.  Ellie attends the peaceful protest in her town and becomes fired up when the Northern students arrive about the injustice of it all.  She joins the organisation living & canvassing with the students.  It turns her family and the community against her especially when she starts to form a relationship with a black man.

Unpleasant things start to happen in and around Kaylas new home.  Dead squirrels are hung in the tree, her daughter goes missing, it was the red haired lady who took her.  Ellie who had left SC over 40 years ago comes back to care for her frail mother & terminally ill brother.  The link between people in each era finally comes together and the past is re-ignited.   

Short chapers which jump from 2010 to 1965 but you don’t get lost with timeline as each chapter has the year written on with Ellies name or Kayla.  It is part of history we probably all know about Martin Luther King, the violence of the KKK and the prejudice & small mindedness of communities.  It was a little predictable but a disturbingly good read.

Review by Lindy

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Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

Game of Lies by Clare Mackintosh

This is the second in this series, the first being The Last Party.  I have read all of CM's books and always recommend her.  Her previous books have been stand alones, this is her first series.  She was a police officer before she turned to crime writing.  You don't have to read the first in the series, you can pick up threads in this one, but it would be a shame not to start at the beginning.

As with the first book, the setting is North Wales present day.  We meet up again with DC Ffion Morgan who lives & works in a small town in North Wales in the Welsh mountains.  A town where everyone knows each other and their families.  A reality TV show has come to the mountains, near the town, which has the residents buzzing and sparked media interest.

Seven contestants have arrived and signed up for the new reality show 'Exposure' (think I'm a celebrity & Traitor mixed together).  Causing another ripple is the fact that one of the contestants is the local post woman, Cerys.  They are expecting arduous trials with 'nasties' joining them but they are all in for a nasty shock.  Miles, the producer, shocks everyone, even his staff, when he informs them that the show is all about revealing their previously hidden secrets...  If a player/contestant can guess a fellow contestants secret then not only would they be eliminated they would be exposed publicly on air! 

The pressure and possible shame of this is too much for one contestant, Ryan.  He goes missing and the local police have to be called in.  Part of the border of a lake near the area is in England, Cheshire, so their local police are also involved.  This brings together again DC Ffion Morgan and DS Leo Brady.

However, the stakes are raised when a few days later, with Ryan still missing, Miles the producer is killed in his office.  Ffion & Leo were on site at the time of the murder and heard his shout.  With a few people as suspects and good motive they have to work out who done it.  Which is hard for Ffion as she knows these people she is interviewing & treating as suspect, even her sisters boyfriend.    

They say the camera never lies, but does it!?   

The novel is peppered with humour and good earthy characters.  Ffion is strong, determined but has a self destruct button.  She spends a lot of time at her mams, where her sister also lives.  Leo is a likeable single dad who still thinks about Ffion and their one night stand (first book) but Ffion is frightened of being hurt. It is a series which is definitely growing on me.  I always picture 'Faith' for the character of Ffion.  It has good earthy humour, life humour.  It is more about the characters than the crime.  Clever.  The author sets the scene really well.

Review by Lindy

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The women by Kristin Hannah

The women by Kristin Hannah – a powerful read by one of my favourite authors.  All her books are stand alone and set in different places from Texas in the early 1900’s to Alaska in the 1970’s to France during WW”.  There have been a couple I haven’t cared too much for but this is a powerful read and up there with the best.

It’s 1966.  We meet Frankie (Frances) McGrath and her brother Finley.  There is a party of sorts being held for her brother at her parents Tudor style home set in private grounds.  Her brother has signed up and is going off to war in Vietnam with his friend Rye Walsh.  Frankies father has a ‘heroes wall’ in his study where photos of generations in uniform who had served their country were pinned.  They were all men.  Women didn’t become heroes or go off to fight according to Frankies dad.  Frankie had been to a good school and was expected to marry, have children & keep a home.  However, as Rye Walsh had just told her, it’s 1966 and the world is changing.

Frankie wants to join her brother in Vietnam.  She has been doing nursing training and wants to sign up as a nurse but is told by the airforce & the navy that she needs more experience before going ‘in country’.  The army accept her & she signs up.  She thought her parents would be delighted but they aren’t – they are distraught and more so when her brother is killed. 

Frankie soon realises the horrors of war, deals with the dying holding their hand as they take their last breath, helping with major surgery & amputation in the most harshest and basic of medical facilities.  Works the longest hours until she is nearly asleep on her feet but learns to party with the team to help erase the horrors all around them.  She meets Barb & Ethel, nursing friends for life, and finds love with Jamie & Rye and knows heartbreak as they are missing presumed dead.

Her return from war after a couple of years isn’t the hero welcome she imagined.  The country has turned against the war and the serving men in Vietnam.  They are spat at and treated with disgust.  There is no hero welcome for them.  Frankie has nightmares and turns to pills and drink.  She has her friends Barb & Ethel who rally round but they can’t ease the pain & anger.  She needs help but can’t get it.  She goes to therapy clinics for Vietnam Vets but she isn’t allowed in because it is only for men who fought - there were no women in Vietnam! 

We follow Frankies journey and how she eventually heals and how the country finally recognise the men who had fought especially when the POW come home.  This is a powerful book which teaches us about the women who were out there and their fight to get recognition along with the serving men. 

Recommended read with compelling characters.  A book which will stay with me.

Review by Lindy

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LJ Ross Hysteria 

LJ Ross Hysteria 

I'm not sure what to say about this book. Number 2 in the Alex Gregory series.  I read no.1 first then no.3 which I was disappointed in.  Unusual for a series to get worse not better...  This was better than no.3 

This time forensic psychiatrist Dr Alexander Gregory is contacted by the French police.  It is Paris fashion week and one of the beautiful models have been brutally attacked with a sharp object, her face disfigured.  

The reason they have contacted Gregory is that she was so traumatised she can't remember anything.  They don't know who she is and no-one has come forward to identify her.

Whilst working on unlocking her mind another model is attacked in a similar way but this time she is killed.  

Gregory finds himself physically drawn to a beautiful singer in a bar.  They arrange a date but the singer turns out to be one of the fashion models.  He knows that professionally he needs to stop any contact as she is part of the investigation but the attraction is strong.

Will Gregory risk his career?  Will he manage to unlock the victims memory?  Well it was an easy readable book but such a surprise ending.  The clues were kept hidden from the reader, except maybe one now I think of it (le cochon) biut what a quick, bewildering finale.  I am also getting fed up with the constant chapters describing his nightmares.  Stop, we get it that he had a traumatic childhood.

Review by Lindy