Category: reviews

The raven cawed at him, craning its neck unnaturally. As it dug its hooked beak into the mess of dried grass and twigs that made up its nest, a shiny glimmer reflected off a low-hanging bulb. Kjeld edged closer to get a better look. It was a human tooth.

Detective Kjeld Nygaard wants nothing more than to forget his family and Varsund, the small mining town he once called home, even exist. But while on suspension after his last case went disastrously wrong, his estranged father Stenar leaves a message on Kjeld’s phone claiming he’s seen a murder.

But with no evidence and Stenar suffering from Alzheimer’s, the local police think he must have imagined it. Kjeld can’t stop himself from investigating what actually happened, and soon discovers a body. But when the police start to suspect Stenar, it’s a race against time to discover the truth before it’s lost forever.

But will uncovering the truth expose family secrets that are best left buried?

My thoughts:

A slow beginning turns into a gripping, complex thriller, revolving around Kjeld’s family and the secrets locked in his father’s memory, secrets that are slowly coming out as Stenar’s Alzheimer’s has him living half in the past.

The author deals with dementia sensitively and depicts the struggle of Stenar’s family, especially daughter Sara, well. It’s very hard to watch someone slowly lose their memories and forget who you are.

The crime scene in the barn, with its audience of watchful ravens is creepy and sinister. Even though corvids are clever birds, I felt a bit sorry for them, stuck away in the dark, unable to fly off.

Kjeld is an interesting protagonist, he’s dealing with the break up of his relationship as well as professional concerns following his last case in Gothenburg. Adding his troubled family situation – an estranged father, a resentful sister, to his plate could have sent him spinning but he focuses on the case in hand and manages to unravel a much larger mess than first appears.

A really good, solid crime thriller with well developed characters and a smart, knotty plot.

There’s a serial killer on the loose.

When bodies start washing up along the banks of the River Thames, DI Henley fears it is the work of Peter Olivier, the notorious Jigsaw Killer. But it can’t be him; Olivier is already behind bars, and Henley was the one who put him there.

The race is on before more bodies are found.

She’d hoped she’d never have to see his face again, but Henley knows Olivier might be the best chance they have at stopping the copycat killer. But when Olivier learns of the new murders, helping Henley is the last thing on his mind . . .

Will it take a killer to catch the killer?

Now all bets are off, and the race is on to catch the killer before the body count rises. But who will get there first – Henley, or the Jigsaw Killer?

My thoughts:

This was really good, dark and twisted. I was hooked, it felt like a book by a very accomplished crime writer, so I was surprised that it was a debut.

Smart and gripping, the characters were well written and the South London locations were recognisable but unsettling as I could imagine finding the remains in them.

Genuinely excellent book, I can’t wait to see what the author does next.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

When only the dead have the answers, who can tell you the truth?

Retired PSNI cop Tom ‘Tucker’ Rodgers has a cracked ballpoint pen, one second class stamp and no time left. The best he can do is try to get a message to DI Owen Sheen, the only man he knows he can trust.

Sheen and DC Aoife McCusker are struggling with political agendas fed to them from the Chief Constable and now the single note from the missing Tucker is preying on Sheen’s mind. A list of four dates, decades old, and a cryptic message. Tucker says that they killed his friend, and now they’re coming for him. Sheen and Aoife’s search places them on the path of the most highly placed IRA double agent of the Troubles as well as another man with an old score to settle…

About the Author
Gary Donnelly is a writer and teacher who was born and raised in west Belfast. After attending a state comprehensive school, he read History at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and has lived and worked in London since the late 1990s.

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My thoughts:

This was really good, the detectives are part of a historic crime unit, mostly dealing with the Troubles, which brings them into contact with some very dangerous people. But they’re determined to do their jobs and solve the cases that have been left untouched for some time.

A letter addressed directly to DI Sheen, with a mysterious key word and a set of dates, spark a complex and deadly investigation into the role of a tout or grass, one who may have been responsible for an awful lot of death.

As they attempt to find the mysterious person, criss crossing Belfast, seeking out survivors who might have a clue, they’re unaware someone is out to stop them.

Edge of your sear gripping stuff, a smart thriller with a political element and the weight of the Troubles echoing through the places and people.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

Tim, Rose, Will and Belle led a charmed childhood growing up together on idyllic Bluebell Farm, but
everything changed when their mother died. Sixteen years on, they’re practically strangers.

An unexpected invitation from their estranged father brings them back together giving them an opportunity to heal past wounds and start afresh.
But when Frank is found dead on the morning of his wedding, suspicion turns to the four siblings’ motivations, and the bad blood of the past resurfaces.

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Lily Hayden writes chick lit with a kick. Modern day women want modern day heroines and Lily’s characters want sizzling romance, rewarding careers and equal partnerships, but like all of us, they face many challenges and it isn’t always easy.

A mother to four children, Lily graduated with a degree in Business in her hometown in South Wales
and enjoyed a successful career in Financial Services before fulfilling a lifelong ambition to write books.

Her debut novel Butterflies, a heartwarming alternative to the traditional boy-meets-girl story, was
released in 2018, reaching readers all over the world and she is the author of seven books, including a Young Adult Dystopian novel Project Terra under the alias SJ Woods (because who doesn’t love a bit of action and defeating bad guys every now and again).

Follow Lily on social media for the latest releases, promotions and occasional photos of her dogs.

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My thoughts:

Families are complicated, messy things, and I totally understood the complex relationship between the four siblings and their father in this story. It reminded me of my dad, his siblings and my grandfather, a not particularly pleasant man.

The four here haven’t been back to the family farm in a long time, but an unexpected invitation to their dad’s wedding, to a woman they’ve never heard of, draws them back.

Their own relationships with each other aren’t great and the tensions stretch as they spend more time together. They’re all suspicious of Linda, and slightly worried about their remote father.

Frank’s sudden death draws suspicion down on them and they have to bond in a way none of them expected as they’re accused of murder.

A clever, knotty thriller, revolving around the ties that bind and the people you can never entirely escape – your family.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.

On a cold blustery November night, Detective Sergeant Mike Brugge and his partner Detective Constable Mel Bailey come across a girl, age unknown, in the parkland in Gordon Square. She was frail, malnourished, dirty and covered in excrement.
What had happened to this girl? Why was she covering down, shielding her eyes from the light, with a look of horror on her face?

She appeared to be non-coherent, totally unengaged and would not speak to anyone. Nothing could penetrate the world where her soul had taken solace.

Mike and Mel set out to find out where she had come from and what had been per plight. Revealing hypnosis sessions allow them to glimpse some of her pain suffering. Follow their story deep into the
horrors that unfold, causing chaos and turmoil among their own lives.

The detectives are about to discover a horrific, gut-wrenching story, that spanned over four decades. But will it end?

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Tracy was born in Harrow Weald, Middlesex in 1964, growing up in a loving family home. She married her first husband in 1990, has two grown up children and a granddaughter.

She studied a variety of topics via module learning, embarking on City and Guilds and NVQ courses, ranging from a brief spell in hairdressing to administration and now works for a utility company in North West London.

Tracy has numerous hobbies consisting of landscape painting to landscape gardening and always likes to paint the scene, even if it’s changing the colour scheme, yet again, within her home.

Tracy has always enjoyed writing and used to write short stories for her own children’s amusement but it has only been in the last few years that she has taken this more seriously and has gone on to write her first debut crime detective Novel called Gordon Square.

Tracy Married her second husband in 2014 and now lives in Bedfordshire in a sleepy hamlet where she writes whenever she gets a spare moment.

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My thoughts:

This was a dark and twisted thriller, both the case of the girl found in Gordon Square and what happens to the detectives investigating her sudden appearance.

The writing was compelling and gripping, the crimes truly awful and I felt for Mike and Mel as they worked to solve the case. They had to deal with some terrible things and their determination to get justice was at the heart of the story, as was their bond. Their long partnership and the connection they share was an important part of the story and added to the need to solve their cases.

Random fact: the author and I come from the same place, my first home was in Harrow Weald.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.