Tag: thrillers

Two’s company in a marriage. How do you cope when there’s three?

Ed and Kerry Huntington-Barnes have an idyllic life, with their five-year-old twins, successful careers, a luxurious house and an affluent lifestyle. Yet the secrets they’re harbouring force their separation. Kerry is fighting her own demons, amongst which is the knowledge that she is the wrong gender for her husband to ever truly love her.

Parallel to this is the death of a local man, Russell Lawson, which affects both Ed and Kerry in different ways. Will his widow Davina, and the other shadows that surround their separation and Russell’s death, destroy their lives, and their sons’ lives even further?

This is a story that portrays the darkness that can exist inside marriage and the hatred that can linger amongst families that are supposed to love each other.

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Maria Frankland’s life began at 40 when she escaped an unhappy marriage and began making a living from her own writing and becoming a teacher of creative writing.

The rich tapestry of life with all its turbulent times has enabled her to pour experience, angst and lessons learned into the writing of her novels and poetry.
She recognises that the darkest places can exist within family relationships and this is reflected in the domestic thrillers she writes.
She is a ‘born ‘n’ bred’ Yorkshirewoman, a mother of two and has recently found her own ‘happy ever after’ after marrying again.
Still in her forties, she is now going to dedicate the rest of her working life to writing books and inspiring other writers to also achieve their dreams too!

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My thoughts:

This unravels in a very satisfactory manner, beginning with a suspected suicide that leaves Ed reeling, and determined to end his sham of a marriage.

His wife, Kerry’s, fury knows no bounds and as things start to spiral, Ed’s malignant estranged father returns, angry at Ed and after revenge.

What seems to be a domestic drama suddenly becomes a shocking thriller and goes in a totally different and utterly unexpected direction.

Very clever, gripping and full of darkness, under a thin veneer of respectability.

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

“I DON’T WANT YOU TO FEEL PARANOID ABOUT ME LYING TO YOU.” An inexplicable suicide… A devastating car wreck… A secret Ministry of Defence facility… Told with pace and tension, STATION HELIX is an exciting and modern novel rooted in the tradition of British thrillers. Alex Hannay makes a shocking discovery which draws him into a perilous world of conspiracy and murder. As operatives from the CIA pursue their own operation on the streets of London, Alex is torn between protecting those who share his secret and seeking retribution for a terrible crime.

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Ash Greenslade is a former police officer and trainer who became hooked on thrillers after reading David Morrell’s THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE ROSE. Despite dabbling with numerous writing projects since his schooldays, it took over two decades from reading Morrell’s landmark book for Ash to finally take writing seriously. Determined to accomplish an original novel, he embarked on STATION HELIX, a conspiracy thriller inspired by a visit to Orford Ness. Originally intended as a standalone novel, STATION HELIX prompted another two books, THE ELZEVIR COLLECTIVE and TORUS, plus the RYAN KERREK spin-off series (SINISTER BETRAYAL, DEADLY ACQUISITION, BLACK SCARAB and HUNTING CARACAL).

Ash credits his love of words to weekly spelling tests from the age of four, an incredibly enthusiastic English teacher who wrote children’s stories in the 1960s, and his collection of Enid Blyton, CS Lewis and Willard Price books. Captivated by the escapism of stories, the young Ash wanted to become a children’s author, and he still has a few early projects hidden away which might resurface one day. But it was the thriller genre which grabbed him as an adult. Although Morrell remains his favourite author, he’s a fan of the old-school British stalwarts such as Buchan, Ambler, MacLean, Bagley and Higgins.

Despite his working background, Ash doesn’t write crime thrillers, preferring the more secretive and enthralling world of espionage for his stories. Betrayal and conspiracy are recurring themes. And while he avoids revealing too much of his own character through his pages, some aspects of Ash’s books are very personal, such as the scuba diving scenes in BLACK SCARAB. (Ash worked as a divemaster in the Red Sea before qualifying as an instructor in Grand Cayman.)

When time permits, Ash researches his family tree and takes photographs. Several family surnames feature in his books, and he took the cover shots for the STATION HELIX series. And while he enjoys the occasional trip to London to meet friends, visit the theatre or conduct some research for his books, he’s more at home exploring the solitude of rural Essex in search of wildlife. He can be found online at www.ashgreenslade.net.

My thoughts:

This was insanely good, I love a good scientific/political thriller and this was so gripping and clever, I was completely hooked.

At first I thought it was going to be a bit more of a basic whodunnit and why but it just explodes outwards to take in spies, the MOD, CIA, MI5, government, assassins, secret science, hidden labs, hair raising drives through nighttime Scottish wilderness and a shootout on a Greenland glacier.

There’s a lot going on but it’s kept tight and to the point, everything coming together in a race to protect highly classified intelligence and the people involved, most of whom have no idea whats going on.

I am already planning to get a copy of the second book ASAP as I can’t wait to see what happens 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.

One woman’s quest for revenge unearths a fatal secret from her past.

Astrid Jensen holds one man responsible for her mother’s suicide, and she’ll do whatever’s necessary to get close to Daniel Holst and destroy his life – even if it means sleeping with him to gain his trust. Astrid knows he’s not who he pretends to be. But before she can reveal his dark secret, people from her mother’s past start turning up dead, and it looks like she and Daniel are next. In order to survive, she might have to put her trust in the man she has hated for so long.

Daniel Holst has worked hard to climb into Norway’s most elite and glamorous circles, and he’s not about to let any woman bring him down. But when a psychopathic killer starts murdering people from his shadowy past, he discovers that the only person who might be able to save him is the woman who wants to destroy him.

As Astrid digs deeper into her past, she uncovers secrets long buried and realizes everything she once believed is based on lies. What began as a quest to avenge her mother’s death becomes a desperate struggle for survival and leads to the truth about what happened one fatal night ten years ago—and the surprising mastermind behind the most recent murders.

If you’re a fan of Gillian Flynn, Liane Moriarty, and Debbie Howells, you’ll love this character driven thriller with a noir edge.

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Hélene is an Anglo-Swedish fiction author currently residing in her home town of Malmo, Sweden, after relocating back from London after 20 years.

Her thrilling character-driven psychological fiction novels are known for their explosive, pacy narrative and storylines.

Hélene is the proud author of four novels – One Fatal Night, Because of You, We Never Said Goodbye and His Guilty Secret.

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My thoughts:

A lot happens very quickly in this novel as everything Astrid believes to be true unravels and the race to find the real killer of her mother kicks into high gear.

The body count increases and more secrets are revealed as both Astrid and the police desperately search for a killer with no remorse.

Fast-paced and full of twists, the plot unfolds in snowy woods outside Oslo as the killer goes to ground.

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

My thoughts:

This was an ingenious take on the kidnap plot, a mother must exchange herself for her children or risk losing them.

As the tension builds, the plot flashes back over Matt and Annabelle’s relationship, from meeting at uni, their wedding and the birth of their first child. Cleverly suggesting other people who might be behind the terrible scheme to take Annabelle away from her family.

When the kidnapper is revealed and the delusional reasonings behind it, I genuinely was stunned. Talk about completely twisted.

Sidenote: I also really liked the way the author handled the covid-19 situation, setting the story in early March when not a lot was known by the public and before lockdown. It added some realism but without turning the novel into a coronavirus focused one or pretending it wasn’t happening, I thought it was very nicely done.

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

Sisterhood binds them. Trauma defines them. Will secrets tear them apart?

Leah’s perfect marriage isn’t what it seems but the biggest lie of all is that she’s learned to live with what happened all those years ago. Marie drinks a bit too much to help her forget. And Carly has never forgiven herself for not keeping them safe.

Twenty years ago The Sinclair Sisters were taken. But what came after their return was far worse. Can a family ever recover, especially when not everyone is telling the truth…?

My thoughts:

I thought this was really interesting, focusing not on the investigation into the missing sisters but on their survival and lives twenty years on.

Leah has crippling OCD, anxiety and other mental health issues, Marie has a drinking problem and a habit of disappearing, Carly can barely leave the house and can’t trust anyone.

As the build up to the anniversary counts down more details start to come to life around the kidnapping and why the three women are so damaged by it.

The ending was absolutely shocking, as the sisters return to abandoned army base where they were held, and it all comes out.

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