Tag: reviews

Connie Maguire has always lived in the shadows. Battling low self-esteem, she has spent her life prioritising her only child — and he has flourished, becoming Ireland’s newest rugby star. On the day of her milestone birthday, with Liam’s career about to soar, Connie finally believes she might achieve some happiness.
Then tragedy strikes in the dark of night, changing everything.

On Ireland’s rugged west coast, the past refuses to stay buried, and Connie must finally confront the devastating truth of what happened on the night that destroyed so many lives. This powerful exploration of motherhood, guilt and redemption questions whether we can truly be free from the mistakes of our past.

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Hailing from Navan, Co. Meath, Domhnall works as a travel journalist, columnist and author. He writes extensively for the Irish and British media, with work regularly appearing in the Belfast Telegraph, Woman’s Way, The Sunday Times and the Irish Examiner. Domhnall has received many prestigious honours for his writing, including the 2025 Travel Extra Travel Journalist of the Year award.
Mercier Press published his novels Crazy for You and Colin and the Concubine. His début novel, Sister Agatha: the World’s Oldest Serial Killer, was released in 2016.
As an actor, he appeared in the award-winning series Ros na Rún for nine seasons.

Instagram: domhnall82
Facebook: Domhnall.o.donoghue

My thoughts: This was really interesting and gripping. Connie has just been released from prison and needs to find somewhere safe to stay, she can’t go back to the village she’s lived in her whole life, her son’s in Portugal, her best friend’s in Spain and there isn’t anyone else.

As she travels across Ireland to find safety, she is forced to reckon with the events that lead to her imprisonment. At her fortieth birthday party, after a night of drinking and dancing, tragedy struck. And she paid the price. But some think she should still be locked up and the truth is not quite as straightforward as the one she told in court.

This is intelligent, engaging and fascinating. Connie raised her son alone, and his success means everything to her, even at the expense of her own freedom. Can she reach a place of safety or have her actions poisoned everything?

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

How many times would you let your child get away with murder?

When you look down at your newborn baby, you realise they were right, those smug parents you’ve always rolled your eyes at: you’d do literally anything for your child. To make them happy, keep them safe.

So when Joseph Carver wakes one night to find his teenage son Max scrubbing the kitchen, hands wet with blood and panic flooding his voice as he promises it was an accident, he didn’t mean to do it, Joseph does the only thing he can. He helps Max bury the body.

Joseph thinks that’s the end of the nightmare. Until he finds Max with stricken eyes and bloody hands once again . . .

You’d do anything for your child – even cover up a murder.

But how many times?

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SAM LLOYD grew up in Hampshire, where he learned his love of storytelling. These days he lives in Surrey with his wife, three young sons and a dog that likes to howl. His first three thrillers, The Memory Wood, The Rising Tide and The People Watcher were published to great
critical acclaim.

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My thoughts: There are a lot of dead bodies in this book, and lots of clever twists too. Joseph helps his son Max cover up what Max says is a terrible accident, but not reporting it is a serious crime. Especially when the brother of your victim is a psychopath who won’t stop till he finds out what happened.

Then Max, oops, kills someone else. But this isn’t a stranger, and it’s a little too close to home. Joseph is taking bigger risks and his wife’s getting suspicious. If he can just get Max through the summer and off to med school then it’ll be fine. It’s not fine.

Things get crazier and crazier, the whole family get drawn into the chaos, and then more twists turn everything you think you know upside down. I was absolutely hooked and lost count of the corpses. There’s also a strain of pitch black humour or possibly hysteria running through this very dark, very bloody book. Highly recommend.

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

The twistiest murder mystery you are ever likely to read?

A story about a family that does the unthinkable in order to save the life of one of its beloved members?

Both?

Or something else altogether?

You’ll have to read until the very last word in order to find out…

You think it will never happen to you: the ring of the bell, the policeman on the doorstep. What he says traps you in a nightmare that starts with the words, ‘I’m afraid…’

Sally Lambert is also afraid, and desperate enough to consider the unthinkable. Is it really, definitely, impossible to escape from this horror? Maybe not. There’s always something you can do, right?

Of course, no one would ever do this particular something – except the Lamberts, who might have to. No one has ever gone this far. Until Sally decides that the Lamberts will…

Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling author and her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. She writes contemporary psychological thrillers and, at the request of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, the new series of Hercule Poirot novels. She lives in Cambridge with her family.

My thoughts: Sophie Hannah is one of my very favourite writers, so getting to read this and be on the blog tour is very exciting.

Without spoiling the story, I actually think I would go further than the Lamberts if I was in their position. I would actually kill and get away with it (I have read so much crime fiction, watched CSI in every US city and so many other crime shows, I am pretty sure I could leave no trace).

The Lamberts, are a pretty ordinary family, Sally’s a bit quirky certainly, but other than that pretty normal. The document that purports to reveal what really happened is a mishmash of things, in some semblance of order, but the narrator is a question mark. Who is telling the story of the Lamberts and what happened?

When a member of their family is accused of a crime, Sally springs into action, rounding up her children and husband and going in search of allies. She knows that no one in her family committed this crime, but is at a loss as to how to prove it, and how to keep them all safe.

The story that unfolds will tell us everything we need to know about the Lamberts, their village, its residents, the Gaveys (boo! hiss!), the so-called crime, the truth about that incident, some history, and what happened next. Or will it? You will have to decide what you can believe.

Funny, very clever and a little confusing in a “huh? What?” way, this is a very different sort of crime novel but hugely enjoyable and entertaining.

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