The chase is on in this utterly suspenseful and unputdownable mystery from New York Times bestselling author Mary Burton.
After being on the run for the last nine months, Kristen Rodale has finally settled in a small town in Virginia, where she hopes her dangerous and deadly brother Benito can never find her.
But former FBI agent, Dane Cambia, has other ideas: after his sister died at the hands of Kristen’s brother, he wants to hunt Kristen down and use her as bait to get his final revenge on Benito.
Cambia manages to locate Kristen, setting his plan in motion. But playing into the killer’s hands is just the beginning of Kristen and Cambia’s new nightmare…
My thoughts: I felt a bit sorry for Kristen, none of this is her fault and she’s been used as a pawn by her brother and then by Dane and Lucien. All she wants is the quiet life, keeping her head down, in a place where she finally feels safe.
Yes, she should have testified but how many people might have died protecting her on the way to court. Dane manipulates her and uses her, rather than just being honest and asking for her help.
I got a bit frustrated reading this because I don’t agree that falling for Dane was the right storyline, Kristen should have kicked him out when she learnt the truth and stayed with Sheridan and Crystal, running the yoga studio. Though I am glad her awful thug of a brother got his comeuppance in the end.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Before, my sisters and I were close. Now, a year after our father’s funeral, we barely speak to each other. Molly won’t accept the truth. Rachel can’t forgive him. And I spend all my time digging through his life, trying to understand.
Then we hear the news. A woman has been found by the docks, her wedding ring stolen. The reporter says it appears the local serial killer has returned…
But I know that can’t be right, because I know who the killer was.
Henry Martin. Our father.
Someone is sending us a message. Someone knows we lied.
Now my sisters and I must work together to find out who is targeting us. How do they know what we’ve hidden? What do they want? And what other secrets lie buried in the past, putting us all in danger?
A brilliantly twisty suspense thriller that will have you flying through the pages and gasping at the twist. Fans of Lisa Jewell, Gillian Flynn and Ruth Ware will love The Killer’s Family.
Miranda Smith writes psychological and domestic suspense. She is drawn to stories about ordinary people in extraordinary situations. Before completing her first novel, she worked as a newspaper staff writer and a secondary English teacher. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and three young children.
My thoughts: this was very clever, full of twists and turns and kept me guessing all along. Three sisters, united in grief are divided when they find out their father’s darkest secret – he was a serial killer. Dying suddenly his hidden cache of trophies and sinister photos weren’t destroyed, and when his grown up daughters find them hidden beneath the floor in his shed, they’re devastated. One of them, Cara is a crime writer married to a detective. Can they keep their dad’s secret? And what happens when a series of copycat killings begin, targeting people close to them?
Grief is a horrible thing and it can make us react in all sorts of ways, as it does here. Each of the sisters react in different ways and their discovery drives a deep wedge between them, they all want to do something with the knowledge, whether it’s destroy it or tell the police. And that pushes them apart.
The writing is tense and compelling, the new killings place the sisters right in the centre but not in ways they’re willing to point out too closely to Cara’s husband Tate, who happens to be on the investigative team. There’s a couple of huge twists towards the end, no spoilers, that you won’t see coming, they’re so cleverly done. But everything gets cast in a new light and honestly, the ending leaves you with questions, in the best way. Really enjoyable stuff.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
A drowned man. A missing teenager. A deadly secret. When Emmy Leach discovers the body of a drug addict, wrapped in a tent and submerged in the icy waters of a Cumbrian tarn, she causes more than one problem for investigating officer DCI Jude Satterthwaite. Not only does the discovery revive his first, unsolved, case, but the case reveals Emmy’s complicated past and opens old wounds on the personal front, regarding Jude’s relationship with his colleague and former partner, Ashleigh O’Halloran. As Jude and his team unpick an old story, it becomes increasingly clear that Emmy is in danger. What secrets are she and her controlling, coercive husband hiding, from the police and from each other? What connection does the dead man have with a recently-busted network of drug dealers? And, as the net closes in on the killer, can Jude and Ashleigh solve a murder — and prevent another? A traditional British detective novel set in Cumbria.
Jo Allen was born in Wolverhampton and is a graduate of Edinburgh, Strathclyde and the Open University, with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in geography and Earth science. She’s been writing for pleasure and publication for as long as she can remember. After a career in economic consultancy she took up writing and was first published under the name Jennifer Young, in genres of short stories, romance and romantic suspense. She wrote online articles on travel and on her favourite academic subject, Earth science. In 2017 she took the plunge and began writing the genre she most likes to read — crime. Jo lives in the English Lakes, where the DCI Satterthwaite series is set. In common with all her favourite characters, she loves football (she’s a season ticket holder with her beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers) and cats.
My thoughts: this was very clever, when you find out who the body is and then as the case unfolds, there’s so much more going on than just an accident or misadventure. Family secrets will be revealed and relationships changed forever.
Jude and Ashleigh have their own complicated relationship to work out while investigating the family at the centre of this terrible crime. It adds extra layers, looking at others makes them look at themselves too. No one wants to admit to their dysfunction after all.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
An edge-of-your seat murder mystery set in a forgotten, ocean-facing town on Vancouver Island!
A body washes up on the shores of Lake Templeton, a small town on the coast of Vancouver Island. Sharon Reese, the victim, was a dedicated government employee. Everyone liked her, but no one knew much about her. Was she hiding something? Maybe a questionable past riddled with scandal. And did it lead to her plunge to death, in a drunken stupor, off the dock outside her secluded lakefront lodge?
Was it an accident? A suicide? Or cold-blooded murder? Private Investigator, Fati Rizvi, is determined to find out.
Fati arrives in Lake Templeton to find secrets that run as deep as the City’s sewers. Everyone is hiding something and nothing is as it seems. A cult escapee. A corrupt politician. A struggling airline. A multi-million dollar public-private project to revitalize the Lake Templeton waterfront. How are they all connected?
As Fati valiantly unravels the knots, another body is found on the shore. Is it the same killer? And can Fati stop them before they strike again?
HS Burney writes fast-moving, action-packed mysteries set against the backdrop of majestic mountains and crystalline ocean in West Coast Canada. She loves creating characters that keep you on your toes. A corporate executive by day and a novelist by night, HS Burney received her Bachelors’ in Creative Writing from Lafayette College. A proud Canadian immigrant, she takes her readers into worlds populated by diverse characters with unique cultural backgrounds. When not writing, she is out hiking, waiting for the next story idea to strike, and pull her into a new world.
My thoughts: I really liked Fati, the PI in this book, she’s smart and funny and never lets anything stop her including rude mayors and potentially corrupt politicians. She seems to have a sense for when she’s being lied to and spots things the police seem to miss. She might not be popular in the small town of Lake Templeton after exposing crooked goings on and catching a killer but she’s not bothered. Justice must be served, and she’s the one to do it.
The case looks pretty straightforward but Fati isn’t persuaded it’s as open and shut as the local cops would like it to be and the mire she digs the more it seems that there’s a lot going on. Clever and gripping, funny and enjoyable.
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*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Worn down by a job he hates, and a stressful family life, middle-aged, middleclass Bradley picks up a teenage escort and commits an unspeakable crime. Now she’s tied up in his warehouse, and he doesn’t know what to do. Max is homeless, eating from rubbish bins, sleeping rough and barely existing – known for cadging a cigarette from anyone passing, and occasionally even the footpath. Nobody really sees Max, but he has one friend, and she’s gone missing. In order to find her, Max is going to have to call on some people from his past, and reopen wounds that have remained unhealed for a very long time – and the clock is ticking…
Publication coincides with International Women’s Month and Homeless Women’s Day, with a percentage of profits to SHELTER
Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series, which includes Overkill, The Ringmaster, Containment and Bound, hit number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award. Overkill was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. Twitter @vandasymon, Instagram @vanda-symon, Facebook, @vandasymonauthor, www.vandasymon.com.
My thoughts: It’s easy to imagine that violent criminals are different from ordinary people, that no one with a 9 to 5 job, a family, a suburban life could do anything terrible. But that’s just not true. Behind that Pleasantville facade can be some really twisted people.
Billy is a street kid, doing what she has to in order to survive after being kicked out by her parents. Max is also homeless. They look out for each other, and when she goes missing, he’s the only one who cares. And he will do anything to find her.
Max is a fascinating character, there’s something sad and lost about him, and as his story is revealed, you understand why he’s so broken. But he’s also kind and loyal and he cares so much for Billy, she reminds him of someone he lost. Billy is street tough, brave, resourceful and terrified. I rooted for them both the whole time, hoping their story would end well. Bradley however, can get in the bin. What an awful creep. A very angry, disturbed man. I felt sorry for his family.
What follows is a clever, twisted tale of a good man using whatever resources he can, including turning to people he never thought he’d see again, to save an innocent life. Although he doesn’t know it, there is a deadline as Bradley’s rage and desperation to avoid being caught build. It’s also the story of a brave and rather incredible young woman who won’t be a victim and is channelling her grandmother’s love to stay alive and find a way to fight back.
I do sometimes wonder where crime writers get their ideas and characters from, especially the awful ones. Plumbing the depths of human depravity needs to be offset by the Maxs and Billys of this world. Good people in bad places. A hope of redemption and a fresh start.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own
Keep your enemies close But keep your friends closer…
Six women:
Each receive a copy of an old school group photo, in which their own face has been savagely scratched out. Within a week, two of the women are dead.
Detective Sergeant Tina Bassett:
Known to colleagues as the Hound, she believes both women were murdered by the same person and that someone is intent on killing off the class of 98 one by one ..
As the death toll rises , DS Bassett finds herself in a desperate race against time, as she delves deeper into the past to help uncover the catalyst to the unfolding rampage in the present.
Will she succeed in stopping a killer hell bent on having their revenge ?
Or will the class of 98 finally pay their price ..
Bad Sweet Things is the new gripping Irish Crime thriller from Maria Hoey, perfect for fans of Jane Casey , Claire McGowan and Claire Allan.
Maria is an author and poet from Dublin, Ireland. Her poetry has appeared in Ireland’s foremost poetry publication, Poetry Ireland. Her short stories have featured in various publications and been shortlisted for a number of awards.
In 2017, Maria’s debut novel, The Last Lost Girl was published by Poolbeg Press, and went on to be shortlisted for the Kate O’Brien Debut Award 2018.
Maria’s second novel, On Bone Bridge was published by Poolbeg in 2018. She has also had a book for children published by Poolbeg in 2019, The Little Book of Irish Saints.
Bad Sweet Things was published in 2021 and listed in the Amazon Kindle Bestseller chart (Irish Crime).
Maria has one daughter, Rebecca, and lives in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, with her husband, Garrett, and their moustachioed cat, Midge.
My thoughts: teenage girls are monsters and what these women did back when they were teenagers was pretty awful, it went beyond the usual bullying and became something far nastier. It’s finally come back to haunt them, someone wants them to pay for their crimes. Or these are just unfortunate accidents – as DS Bassett’s boss, known as Colonel Mustard (he’s called Coleman) would prefer. But Tina knows there’s something a bit off about these things, something isn’t right and she’s determined to prove it.
Clever, twisting and gripping this really makes you rethink the way you might have behaved and whether someone might be coming for you! Tina is a great character, tenacious and smart, she follows her gut and chases the tiniest scraps of evidence to try to prevent more deaths before it’s too late.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Three sisters…One terrible secret Ashleigh: A creative, free spirit and loyal. But Ash is tormented by her demons and a past that refuses to be laid to rest. Jessica: Perfect wife and loving mother. But although Jessica might seem to have it all, she lives a secret life built on lies. Grace: An outsider, always looking in, Grace has never known the love of her sisters and her resentment can make her do bad things. When Ashleigh goes missing, Jessica and Grace do all they can to find their eldest sister. But the longer Ashleigh is missing, the more secrets and lies these women are hiding threaten to tear this family apart. Can they find Ashleigh before it’s too late or is it sometimes safer to stay hidden? Purchase
Amanda Rigby is the nom de plume of the writing partnership between Amanda Ashby and Sally Rigby. 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, which they won!
My thoughts: sisters, who’d have ’em? (I have one younger sister), relationships between siblings are very often complicated and messy, and the sisters in this book have secrets which add to their complex history. When Ashleigh goes on the run, her sisters are looking for her, and also the ones she turns to for help. But is that a mistake?
Tense and with a twist I did not see coming at the end, I couldn’t tell who to trust – everyone had so many secrets and were suspicious at different points. Grace seemed to be hiding who her unborn baby’s father was, Jessica had a whole secret life she kept from her family, and Ashleigh was losing her memories when she was drinking, she could have killed her friend and not remembered. Another excellent thriller from Amanda Rigby.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
Nobody can get into the mind of an erratic killer—except an unpredictable detective.
When a young man is found lying on a station platform with a hole in his head, DI Kate Young is called in to investigate the grisly murder. But the killing is no one-off. As bodies start to pile up, she is faced with what might be an impossible task—to hunt down a ruthless killer on a seemingly random rampage.
Meanwhile, Kate has her own demons to battle as she struggles to come to terms with her husband’s death. And she is hell-bent on exposing corruption within the force and bringing Superintendent John Dickson to justice. But with the trail of deception running deeper—and closer to home—than she could ever have imagined, she no longer knows who she can trust.
With her grip on reality slipping, Kate realises that maybe she and the killer are not so different after all. But time is running out and Kate is low on options. Can she catch the killer before she loses everything?
USA Today bestselling author and winner of The People’s Book Prize Award, Carol Wyer’s crime novels have sold over one million copies and been translated into nine languages.
A move from humour to the ‘dark side’ in 2017, saw the introduction of popular DI Robyn Carter in Little Girl Lost and proved that Carol had found her true niche.
February 2021 saw the release of the first in the much-anticipated new series, featuring DI Kate Young. An Eye For An Eye was chosen as a Kindle First Reads and became the #1 bestselling book on Amazon UK and Amazon Australia.
Carol has had articles published in national magazines ‘Woman’s Weekly’, featured in ‘Take A Break’, ‘Choice’, ‘Yours’ and ‘Woman’s Own’ magazines and the Huffington Post. She’s also been interviewed on numerous radio shows discussing ”Irritable Male Syndrome’ and ‘Ageing Disgracefully’ and on BBC Breakfast television.
She currently lives on a windy hill in rural Staffordshire with her husband Mr. Grumpy… who is very, very grumpy. When she is not plotting devious murders, she can be found performing her comedy routine, Smile While You Still Have Teeth.
To learn more, go to http://www.carolwyer.co.uk, subscribe to her YouTube channel, or follow her on Twitter: @carolewyer
My thoughts: as Kate continues her secret investigation into Superintendent Dickson (Book Two – A Cut for a Cut) a series of shocking and unexplainable murders. Starting with a body at the train station, shot with a bolt gun, no witnesses, no suspects. Kate and her team are racing against time to find the killer and stop more people from dying.
This was really clever, the way the case flips between the killer and Kate’s viewpoints and the lack of evidence makes her situation more complicated as the evil Superintendent won’t give her more resources or support. I really like this series and I want Kate to succeed and bring him down, despite the odds stacked against her.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
In New Haven, Connecticut, a decades-old cold case resurfaces. As charges are brought, the details grow stranger and stranger…
An antiquities dealer and amateur children’s magician named Edward Fox is charged with three murders, dating back to the 1980’s, when he should have been only a child. Fox is a wanderer and a fall-down drunk. The case’s unnatural timeline combined with one alleged victim’s status as a teen beauty queen set the stage for the State of Connecticut v. Fox to become the trial of the century.
Maggie Stowe -insomniac, Private Investigator, dream thief- has been following Fox for months. She is a crusader for women and girls and can still hear them screaming in Fox’s dreams every night. But reality has begun to blur for the exhausted Maggie. Soon she is unsure of anything except for the fact that she’s a pawn in a perilous game.
Defender Ben Cartwright -the son of a murdered civil rights activist- knows to never take justice for granted. To him, the case reeks of prosecutorial overreach. All three counts are alleged murders without cadavers, linked to his client by circumstantial evidence rooted out by an obsessive PI with a direct line to her girlfriend at the State’s Attorney’s Office. Edward insists that Ben is the man to defend him. Never mind that he’s young, or only just passed the Bar, or that he speaks a bit slowly because his mind works differently than most people’s.
The trial becomes a battle of wills. A jury and a nation are asked to consider -as the evidence strongly suggests- that Fox has been around and interfering with the lives of humans for a very long time; back to the Depression-era streets of Chicago, through decades with a traveling circus, and during the Selma to Montgomery marches that took place in Alabama, 1965…
Lumen Reese is a an author of diverse fantasy, sci-fi, historical and speculative fiction from Michigan.
My thoughts: this is a strange book, the plot is far from simple and explaining it might be a bit tricky. Women are turned into birds, several men live far longer lifespans than normal and might be some sort of vampire, teenage girls keep disappearing, and a PI can experience other people’s dreams.
Edward Fox is a magician – as in has literal magic powers and not just performs sleight of hand illusions. He’s also at least 100 years old. He’s lived enough life for many people and has tried to help others whenever he can. But now it’s come back on him as he’s arrested for kidnap and possible murder of three young women over several decades. It gets stranger from there as he goes on trial.
There are layers of story, slowly peeled back by both Fox and the witnesses on the stand. His life and theirs are revealed to an increasingly astonished jury and judge. His own lawyer is also entangled in Fox’s history and that was just confusing. I don’t really know how Fox does some of the things he’s claimed to do and I finished the book with many questions. A really brain twister.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for a review but all opinions remain my own.
In a grand townhouse rented specially for the evening, Hannah beams at her guests under the sparkling chandelier. Her sisters, her mother and aunt, her best friends… although she’ll miss them all so much when she moves away, tonight is about celebrating the happy times and raising a toast to the future.
But the next morning, one of the guests is found cold and lifeless in their pristine white bed.
Hannah is desperate to call the police. After all, it must have been an accident. Perhaps too much wine, on a night where emotions were running high. But it soon becomes clear that every single person at the party has something to hide.
A mother who’ll do anything for her daughters. Best friends with dark secrets between them. A sister with a jealous streak.
What if one of them is a killer?
And what if this is just the first victim?
An absolutely unputdownable thriller that won’t let you sleep until you’ve reached the final page! Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, The Hunting Party and Shari Lapena.
Kerry Wilkinson is from the English county of Somerset but has spent far too long living in the north. It’s there that he’s picked up possibly made-up regional words like ‘barm’ and ‘ginnel’. He pretends to know what they mean.
He’s also been busy since turning thirty: his Jessica Daniel crime series has sold more than a million copies in the UK; he has written a fantasy-adventure trilogy for young adults; a second crime series featuring private investigator Andrew Hunter and the standalone thriller, Down Among The Dead Men.
My thoughts: this could have gone so differently, had people made different choices. But in deciding to cover things up, Hannah and her family make things a whole lot worse for themselves. Now the police have questions and Hannah’s big travel plans are on hold, everyone’s panicking and making themselves look more suspicious than ever. Hannah takes it upon herself to launch her own investigation as the police circle and is joined by Zach, her friend’s equally determined boyfriend.
There is an absolutely shocking twist right at the end that flips the whole thing on its head that you won’t see coming, I certainly didn’t. Not giving you any clues though. Just know you’ll be stunned.
Clever, gripping and with several surprises along the way, this is an excellent read.
*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour but all opinions remain my own.
ramblingmads 