Category: reviews

Zoe just wanted to help. Now she may have a killer in her home.

Zoe is happily married to Ethan until the day a 13-year-old boy shows up on their doorstep. He says his name is Micah and that Ethan is his father. Distressed because his mother is missing, Micah has come to them for help.

Ethan is wary – he didn’t know anything about Micah – but kind-hearted Zoe feels she can’t possibly turn her back on the boy. She welcomes him into their home and does her best to make him part of the family.

But there’s something off about Micah.

He lies constantly, creeps silently around the house and towers over Zoe, observing her every move. And his growing bond with Anna, Zoe’s young daughter, feels all wrong.

So when his mother’s body is found and the police start looking for the murderer, Zoe realizes something terrible…

He might already be in her home.

The Better Mother – the stunning psychological thriller from the best-selling author of Her Husband’s Secret.

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Emily Shiner always dreamed of becoming an author but first served her time as a banker and a teacher. After a lifetime of devouring stacks of thrillers, she decided to try her hand at writing them herself. Now she gets to live out her dream of writing novels and sharing her stories with people around the world. She lives in the Appalachian Mountains and loves hiking with her husband, daughter, and their two dogs.

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My thoughts: file this under; children are creepy. When Zoe opens the door to a young teenage boy who claims to be her husband’s son – conceived before they met, and whose mother never admitted his existence, she welcomes him in. His mum is missing and he has nowhere else to turn. He quickly bonds with his half sister, Zoe’s daughter Anna, but Zoe is convinced something isn’t quite right about Micah.

His story doesn’t quite add up, then his mother’s body is found, and after snooping on his laptop, it looks like he’s been stalking his dad’s family, and particularly her, for a while. Did he kill his mum?

Unfortunately Zoe’s husband, Ethan, doesn’t seem to be listening to her. And then he admits his ex, Micah’s mum, had been hassling him for money. Did he know he had a son?

Zoe knows she needs to protect Anna at all costs, but who from – Ethan or Micah? With shocking twists and turns, this is a sinister tale of family and fear.

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

Lincoln 1997. Veteran customs investigator Frank McBride has been targeting gangs of drugs smugglers for decades. Taking out John Pyke’s team of Lincoln-based criminals is just another operation until suddenly things become interesting.
Why has Pyke’s team suddenly become so professional? How has it become so adept at evading surveillance? And who is the mysterious figure who is pulling the strings? McBride relishes having found a worthy opponent. But who is he? And what game is he playing?
Michael Butcher wants to know why his grandfather, a retired brigadier living in a tiny Rutland village, has decided to become an international trafficker in narcotics. Involving him in an elaborate
game where the price of losing is life in prison.
McBride and the Brigadier become enmeshed in a private duel, but only one of them knows the rules of the game.

The Rutland Connection | The Book Guild Ltd
The Rutland Connection: Amazon.co.uk: Dane, Michael: 9781915853462: Books
The Rutland Connection by Michael Dane | Waterstones
The Rutland Connection by Michael Dane | WHSmith
The Rutland Connection: Michael Dane: 9781915853462: hive.co.uk
The Rutland Connection – Google Books
The Rutland Connection : Michael Dane : 9781915853462 : Blackwell’s (blackwells.co.uk)
The Rutland Connection by Michael Dane | Foyles

Michael Dane spent over ten years as an officer in the Customs and Excise National Investigation Service investigating drug trafficking, VAT fraud and smuggling of all kinds. He later retrained as a lawyer and joined the private sector where he investigated fraud and corruption all over the world.
He is retired and lives in the Vale of Belvoir.

My thoughts: I’d never really thought of Customs and Excise being involved in and running investigations like this, but it does make sense, as without a national police force, you do need an organisation able to join the dots from point of entry onwards.

The investigation is clever and gripping, with the team following their suspects around the country, wanting to catch them in the act and make arrests, but also follow the links in the chain to the people at the top – take the whole organisation down once and for all.

But an elderly brigadier interferes with their straightforward operation, by getting involved in a bit of old fashioned espionage and helping the drug dealers evade their shadows. Or is he? He might be retired and a little odd, but he might also be playing a completely different game. I felt a bit sorry for Michael, running risks but not knowing exactly what’s going on. I hope we come back to him and see how he gets on in future.

Meanwhile Frank McBride, who does work out what’s going on, because he knows everyone, and his team are closing in on the gang, but not on the mysterious “Peter”, who McBride decides to ignore in favour of busting the dealers, not hard to do when without help, they’re relying on sheer luck to stay out of jail.

A clever, tense and really enjoyable crime thriller featuring interesting characters and a different angle on the genre.

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

Maria always wanted a family. Now she’s found one.

Imogen has never been so busy – she’s juggling two jobs, has a young family and now she’s pregnant again.

Enter Maria, the perfect housekeeper. Hard working and capable, she seems like the ideal solution to Imogen’s chaotic life. But Maria isn’t at all what she seems – she has a sinister agenda of her own.

Little by little, she installs herself at the heart of Imogen’s family – doing the school run, cooking meals, caring for Imogen’s little girl.

But once she has won the family’s trust, Maria starts to do some digging. And discovers that Imogen has been keeping a terrible secret, a secret which Maria threatens to reveal unless Imogen starts to run this home the way Maria sees fit.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Imogen has no choice but to comply.

A terrible mistake. Because as the full scale of Maria’s horrifying plan becomes apparent, Imogen realises that everything she holds dear – her marriage, her family, her friends – all may fall victim to The Homemaker.

The Homemaker – the chilling psychological thriller from the best-selling author of The Visitors and What She Knew.

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Miranda Rijks is a writer of psychological thrillers and suspense novels. She has an eclectic background ranging from law to running a garden centre. 

She’s been writing all of her life and has a Masters in writing. A couple of years ago she decided to ditch the business plans and press releases and now she’s living the dream, writing suspense novels full time. 

She lives in Sussex, England with her Dutch husband, musician daughter and black Labrador.

This is her twentieth psychological thriller with Inkubator Books.

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My thoughts: this turned creepy really fast and all Imogen wanted was an extra pair of hands. Instead she got Maria – a dream of a housekeeper at first, then a steadily worsening nightmare.

Imogen runs a B & B out of her home, 2 nicely decorated bedrooms with ensuites, a freshly cooked breakfast in the morning. Allowing her to raise daughter Ava, and still offer a hotel consultancy service from home. Despite her husband telling her they don’t need the money, she wants to be independent. But the workload is increasing and she needs some help.

Hiring Maria, who can’t seem to do enough, should be great, but Maria forces her way further into their home and lives. And then Imogen’s friend Tom is killed in a hit and run, and events get worse and worse. Could Maria be behind it all?

Exploiting Imogen’s desire to find her biological parents, isolating her, harming Ava. There seems to be no extreme Maria won’t go to to get what she wants. With shocking results. Imogen needs to stop her, to save her family, but can she?

Twists and turns and shocking moments abound, and it turns the home into a terrifying place, the family might be sharing it with a killer.

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

She’ll do anything to protect her family…
Libby Curtis never wanted children, until she met Nathan, a gorgeous widower with two young children. Now ten years later she can’t imagine her life without Sam and Sienna – she’d do anything for her precious kids. Anything….
So when a missing teenager is found lying on the side of the road, Libby’s first thoughts are for her own kids. Are they safe? Are they home?
What Libby doesn’t expect is for her children to be involved in the girl’s disappearance. But when she discovers an item in her stepson’s car linked to the victim Libby’s fears increase.
She can’t believe that the sweet boy she’s raised could do something like that. But if not Sam….who?
Libby must discover the truth before her family is ripped apart. But someone is determined to make sure their secrets stay hidden – even if the consequences are deadly…
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Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby are a crime writing partnership. Both authors live in New Zealand, have been friends for eighteen years and agree about everything (except musicals). They decided to collaborate on a psychological thriller which they then entered into a competition, run by Boldwood, and which they won!

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My thoughts: I knew from the authors that this would be good, full of twists and turns, with characters you want to trust but aren’t sure of. And boy, does this deliver.

Libby is a paramedic and step-mum to teenage twins Sam and Sienna. Her marriage to Nathan seems solid but recently she thinks he’s been hiding things. Then a young woman is attacked, and Libby is first on the scene – the victim is a friend of her children and she can’t help but see her own kids in the same situation.

Being secretive is part of being a teenager, but Libby’s worried. Is Sam involved with what happened to Heather? Is Sienna up to something, having been spotted hanging around Heather’s house.

Then there’s Gemma, arrived in town investigating a serial killer from years ago, that might have links to Libby’s family. Can Libby keep it together and protect her family if one of them is a criminal?

The plot gets intense, twists and turns abound, I was totally hooked, utterly gripped and there were a few “no” gasps, especially towards the end as all the secrets came to light.

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