Tag: thrillers

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Altered Helix – Stephanie Hansen*

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“I didn’t want to take the traditional path. First, I wasn’t ready for college. Second, I was going to live with my best friend, Tiff, and work at the Haunted House. Third, did I mention the hot guy Josh that works there too?“

The most exciting thing about Austria’s new job, at a local haunted house, was the fact that the toughest looking people screamed the loudest. But when she meets the boy without a home, Josh, Austria’s life takes intriguing and eventful turns. Up until now, Josh has managed to hang with his Street crowd, but they’re in danger, and so is Austria, the girl Josh recently fell for. The group finds themselves joining forces with previously considered enemies who also now find themselves in danger.

Deeply compassionate and full of twists, Altered Helix captures the struggle of polarized people that must work together for the greater

Goodreads

Win a copy here

Stephanie Hansen’s short story, Break Time, and poetry has been featured in Mind’s Eye literary magazine. The Kansas Writers Association published her short story, Existing Forces, appointing her as a noted author. She has held a deep passion for writing since early childhood, but a brush with death caused her to allow it to grow. She’s part of an SCBWI critique group in Lawrence, KS and two local book clubs. She attends many writers’ conferences including the Writing Day Workshops, New York Pitch, Penned Con, New Letters, All Write Now, Show Me Writers Master Class, BEA, and Nebraska Writers Guild conference as well as Book Fairs and Comic-Cons. She is a member of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

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My thoughts:

This novella is set in a slightly dystopian future where the national government has collapsed and things seem uncertain.

Austria and her friends meet as they all become employees of a local haunted house, prepping for Halloween.

But they also become enbroiled in a far more sinister plot – human trafficking to order. Austria’s DNA holds unusual properties and someone is willing to pay a high price for it.

Lots of twists, some romance and the beginning of what I imagine will be an intense series of thrillers as Austria and her friends seek to put a stop to the people kidnapping innocents and find out what happened to her long missing father.

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

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Ransomed – M.A. Hunter*

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Investigative journalist Emma Hunter never thought she’d be a bestselling author. Especially not for
a blistering exposé of the brutal horrors committed at a children’s home.
Some secrets breed in the dark…

All she wants is to return home to the anchoring salt air and solitude of Weymouth where questions
still fester unanswered and a twenty-year-old secret binds her to the beach.
And some of them always escape…

But then she finds herself sucked into the chaos of another cold case and soon realises the search for
the missing girl will not only unearth the rot ravaging the safety of children across the south of England, but could even solve the mystery that has tortured her since she was seven years old…

Ransomed marks the beginning of a nerve-shredding new crime series of feral reckonings and found
family in the face of harrowing inhumanity, perfect for fans of Angela Marsons and Ann Cleeves.

Amazon UK

Amazon US

About the Author

Hi, I’m M.A. Hunter and have been a huge fan of crime fiction since a young age, and always fancied
the idea of trying to write some myself. That dream became a reality when One More Chapter
signed The Missing Children Case Files series.

Born in Darlington in the north-east of England, I grew up in West London, and moved to Southampton to study law at university. It’s here I fell in love and have been married for fifteen
years. We are now raising our two children, on the border of The New Forest where we enjoy going for walks amongst the wildlife. We regularly holiday across England, but have a particular affinity for
the south coast, which formed the setting for the series, spanning from Devon to Brighton, and with
a particular focus on Weymouth, one of our favourite towns.

When not writing, I regularly binge-watch the latest shows from streaming services, or have my head
buried in the latest story from Angela Marsons, Simon Kernick, or Ann Cleeves.

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My thoughts:

This was a really good read, with Emma investigating a missing child case even though she starts off not keen at all.

She wants to write about her own sister’s disappearance, but her publisher isn’t interested. So she reluctantly agrees to meet the girl’s grandfather.

As she and copper Jack delve deeper into the case, convinced it’s not as open and shut as the police believe, uncovering secrets and lies.

This was a knotty thriller, with plenty of twists and some characters who inspire strong feelings, I was suspicious of some of the family members from the 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Heights – Parker Bilal*

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What starts with the gruesome discovery of a severed head on the Tube soon becomes personal for former DI Cal Drake.

After one betrayal too many, Drake has abandoned the police force to become a private detective.He’s teamed up with enigmatic forensic pathologist Dr Rayhgana Crane and it’s not long before the case leads them to the darkest corners of the nation’s capital and in dangerously close contact with an international crime circuit, a brutal local rivalry and a very personal quest for retribution. With the murder victim tied to Drake’s past, his new future is about to come under threat.

Parker Bilal is the pseudonym of Jamal Mahjoub, the critically acclgaimed literary novelist. He is the author of the Makana Investigations series, the third of which, The Ghost Runner, was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The Divinities, the first in his Crane and Drake London crime series, was published in 2019. Born in London, he has lived in a number of places, including the UK, Denmark, Spain and, currently, the Netherlands.

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My thoughts:

A gruesome discovery on the Tube, of a woman’s head in an IKEA bag, kicks off several investigations. Who was she? Is she connected with the case that derailed former DI Drake’s career?

Meanwhile Crane and Drake have been hired to find a missing young woman, but all is not as it seems. Did she really get abducted by her uncle and taken back to the Middle East or is her aristocratic author boyfriend hiding something?

As the pair hurtle around London following various clues and red herrings, they deal with suspicious coppers and dodgy gangsters, uncovering more than they planned.

This was a really fast paced, gripping thriller, complete with untrustworthy and unsavoury figures, both criminals and police. A few innocent people get entangled along the way, but justice is served as the former police detective and criminal psychologist run the guilty parties 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.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Truth Be Told – Kia Abdullah*

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ARE YOU READY TO START THIS CONVERSATION?

Kamran Hadid feels invincible. He attends Hampton school, an elite all-boys boarding school in London, he comes from a wealthy family, and he has a place at Oxford next year. The world is at his feet. And then a night of revelry leads to a drunken encounter and he must ask himself a horrific question.

With the help of assault counsellor, Zara Kaleel, Kamran reports the incident in the hopes that will be the end of it. But it’s only the beginning…

Powerful, explosive and important, Truth Be Told is a contemporary courtroom drama that vividly captures today’s society. You will not stop thinking about it for a long time to come.

My thoughts:

This author seems to specialise in plots where secular society and the criminal justice system butt the Muslim community. She examines not only the crime and its impact, but the shame and anger that accompany it, the sometimes toxic masculinity that families see as traditional.

Her previous book, Take It Back, was shocking and this one is too.

Following lawyer turned ISVA Zara Kaleel as she supports vulnerable victims of horrific crimes, in this case a teenage boy assaulted at school, you see the process of reporting and then the secondary trauma of a court case through both Zara and the victim’s eyes.

Dealing with sex crimes is heavy stuff (I used to work for a victims support service) and Zara has to battle her own demons to stay strong enough to support her clients. It makes her a more interesting, rounded character.

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

books, reviews

Book Review: The Boy in the Woods – Harlen Coben

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I was sent a copy by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

A man with a mysterious past must find a missing teenage girl in this shocking thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away.

Thirty years ago, Wilde was found as a boy living feral in the woods, with no memory of his past. Now an adult, he still doesn’t know where he comes from, and another child has gone missing.

No one seems to take Naomi Pine’s disappearance seriously, not even her father — with one exception. Hester Crimstein, a television criminal attorney, knows through her grandson that Naomi was relentlessly bullied at school. Hester asks Wilde — with whom she shares a tragic connection — to use his unique skills to help find Naomi.

Wilde can’t ignore an outcast in trouble, but in order to find Naomi he must venture back into the community where he has never fit in, a place where the powerful are protected even when they harbor secrets that could destroy the lives of millions . . . secrets that Wilde must uncover before it’s too late.

My thoughts:

The title is a little misleading, you only learn tiny snippets about the titular ‘boy’, now a man called Wilde, it’s actually mostly about the hunt for two missing teenagers, one a probable runaway, the other’s disappearance a bit more sinister.

I liked Hester a lot, I can imagine her as an elderly wise cracking femme fatale, a bit Lauren Bacall. Wilde was interesting – I would have liked more of a focus on him and his past, perhaps in another book.

I knew that the plot would be less straightforward than the blurb suggests, having read a few of the author’s other books (and watched The Stranger on Netflix during lockdown like everyone else).

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: Gilding the Lily – Justine John*

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A gripping mystery of jealousy, murder and lies.

An invitation to her estranged, wealthy father’s surprise 75th birthday party in New York sees Amelia and her husband, Jack, set off across the pond to meet a whole new world of family politics.

Amelia, now a successful businesswoman, feels guilty about never liking her father’s women, so does her upmost to give his new socialite partner, Evelyn, the benefit of the doubt. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could just all get along? But there’s something very dark, determined and dangerous about her…

When Amelia’s father, Roger, becomes ill, Jack grows suspicious that there is more to it. Amelia understands why, but no one else will believe them. They travel back to America to piece together the puzzle, but when Roger goes missing, the couple are driven to their wits’ end. It takes a DEA officer and a secret assassin to bring them answers, but the ruthless truth is something no one expected…

Amazon

After thirty years in corporate life in London, half of which was running a successful events company, I decided to take a chance to write the novel that was ‘in me’ since I was a child. Gilding the Lily is the result of this and is a domestic noir story which I hope will keep you on the edge of your chair/sofa/bed/train/plane-seat…

Website

My thoughts:

This was a clever, twisted thriller about family and gaslighting and getting even.

Evelyn is a monstrous creation, gold digging (although she owns about 8 homes), probably murdered her last 2 husbands, possibly poisoning Roger, definitely twisting the truth and manipulating the situation.

Luckily Amelia and Jack see right through her lies and deceptions, and eith the help of a few friends determine to sort her out.

I did not see the twist at the end coming at all, it was very well played. An enjoyable read, and seeing the villain get her comeuppance is always satisfying.

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

books, reviews

Book Review: One Love Chigusa – Soji Shimada

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I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A love story that explores the mechanics of the heart and humankind’s inevitable evolution.

The year is 2091 AD. A horrendous motorcycle accident leaves Xie Hoyu coming to terms with his new cybernetic body. Reconstructed from the latest biomechanical prosthetics, he is discharged from hospital and tries to return to his life as an illustrator after many weeks in recovery.

But something isn’t quite right. Xie is plagued with inexplicable auditory and visual hallucinations and feelings of despair. He fears he is losing his mind and the desire for life itself until he notices a beautiful woman on the street – his sole reprieve from the madness.

Possessed by her beauty and desperate to understand what is happening to him, Xie follows her in the hope of finding answers that only she appears to offer. But not all is as it seems.

An homage to the great artist and creator of Astro Boy, Osamu Tezuka, One Love Chigusa by Soji Shimada, one of Japan’s most famous authors, is a tale of obsessive love in a world where technology has crept into the very heart of humanity.

Translated by David Warren, it offers a glimpse into a possible future and questions the purpose of humanity in a manner that only Japan’s master of the postmodern whodunnit can do.

The Author

Soji Shimada’s debut novel, The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, is ranked among the ‘top five best locked-room mysteries published worldwide’ (Adrian McKinty, The Guardian).

An instant classic, it transformed him into ‘Japan’s Man of Mystery’ and one of the country’s bestselling authors. His novel Murder in the Crooked House was a Sunday Times Best Book of the Year.

He is also known for his Detective Mitarai series (published by Pushkin Vertigo) and the Detective Yoshiki series.

Shimada is the recipient of the Japan Mystery Literature Award and the founder of three literary awards: Amateur Mystery Novel contests, The City of Roses Fukuyama Mystery Award and the Soji Shimada Mystery Award.

The Translator

Sir David Warren was British ambassador to Japan from 2008 to 2012, having served twice before in the British Embassy in Tokyo during his career as a British diplomat.

He is now honorary professor at Sheffield University, a member of the Board of the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures at the University of East Anglia, and was Chair of the Council of the University of Kent until July 2020. From 2013 to 2019, he was chairman of the Japan Society, the leading independent body in the United Kingdom dedicated to UK-Japanese cultural, educational and business contacts.

One Love Chigusa is part of Red Circle Minis, a series of short captivating books by Japan’s finest contemporary writers that brings the narratives and voices of Japan together as never before. Each book is a first edition written specifically for the series and is being published in English first.

My thoughts:

This was an interesting short story about love, Hoyu is recovering from a terrible accident that meant his body and brain were repaired using cybernetics. His memories are fractured and the people he sees all look like terrible monsters.

Traumatised and struggling to recover, he wanders the city, taking refuge in a coffee shop where he sees a beautiful woman, who doesn’t turn into a monster.

He starts following her, desperate to connect and learn about her. His loneliness and despair lead him all over the city on her trail.

When he finally finds her and tries to form a connection, she seems confused and struggles to understand him.

The ending is tragic and leaves poor Hoyu with more trauma.

The suggestion that humanity’s evolution does not lead to happiness is a dark, morbid one.

A strange, unsettling story of love that ends without redemption. Incredibly well written, you follow Hoyu, desperate to find out more about Chigusa and who she is, winding through the city, trying not to look at the monstrous faces of humanity as he does.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: A Ruined Girl – Kate Simants*

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TWO BOYS LOVED HER.
BUT WHICH ONE KILLED HER?

On a dark night two years ago, teenagers Rob and Paige broke into a house. They beat and traumatised the occupants, then left, taking only a bracelet. No one knows why, not even Luke, Rob’s younger brother and Paige’s confidant. Paige disappeared after that night. And having spent her life in children’s homes and the foster system, no one cared enough to look for her.
Now Rob is out of prison, and probation officer Wren Reynolds has been tasked with his rehabilitation. But Wren has her own reasons for taking on Rob as a client. Convinced that Rob knows what happened to Paige, and hiding a lifetime of secrets from her heavily pregnant wife, Wren’s obsession with finding a missing girl may tear her family apart…

My thoughts:

This was a tense thriller, full of secrets and twists. As Wren tries to unravel the mystery of what happened to Paige and keep everything from her wife, she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

The writing is concise and compelling, the mystery of what happened to Paige and why she and Rob conducted their burglary are revealed slowly and add to the mystery, leaving more questions than answers as the plot unrolls.

Clever, gripping and with an ending you won’t see coming, this is a smart, modern thriller.

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

books, reviews

Book Review: Titanborn – Brian Schutter

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I was gifted a copy of this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

“No more death.”

In Titanborn, Schutter weaves the vivid world of Shangri-La — a colony living in isolation on Saturn’s moon, Titan — and the genetically-engineered humans known as Titanborn, whose task is simply to prove they can survive.

Meera is just one cog in the wheel of Shangri-La. Assigned to fulfill a role, Meera struggles to find a place for herself and overcome the trauma of loss as Titan casually takes the lives of her fellow colonists.

When a friend goes missing, Meera must choose to face her fears to save not just him, but all of the Titanborn, as the colony begins to unravel.

Can Meera and her people overcome the dangers of the inhospitable moon, or will the Titanborn fall to an enemy closer to home?

My thoughts:

This was really interesting, an action packed thriller set on Saturn’s moon, Titan, where AIs are so commonly used that those without implants and augmentations are seen as backward and a bit weird.

After her friend goes missing, Meera joins a mission to rescue him and uncovers a rogue AI system that is slowly taking over all the robots the Titanborn use, including the ones in their implants.

The five rescue team members have to learn to work together, and without relying solely on technology to defeat this threat and find their missing friend. The motto is No More Death, and they’re running out of time.

Despite being set in space, this story is more about human relationships and determination than aliens or space ships. It is the very human desire to stay alive and help one another that enables the five Titanborn to survive the inhospitable environment and take the fight right to the heart of the destructive AI.

Gripping, engaging and fast paced, an excellent addition to the new sci-fi thrillers of recent years.

blog tour, books, reviews

Blog Tour: The Man I Married – Elena Wilkes*

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You love him. You’ll do anything for him. But do you really know him?This is the story of Lucy and Paul.

They met. They fell deeply in love. They got married.

Lucy thought that she had everything she wanted.

Until she found the photograph from Paul’s past life, read the text messages he’s so desperately trying to hide. Until she uncovered Paul’s darkest secrets.

Now Lucy realises she doesn’t really know her husband. She doesn’t know if she can trust her own mind. She doesn’t know the lengths Paul would go to keep his perfect life.

And worst of all, she doesn’t know that she’s in danger…

A gripping, dark psychological thriller with an absolutely nail-biting ending that will keep you hooked – the perfect read for fans of Behind Closed Doors, Mark Edwards and Lisa Jewell.

Elena Wilkes grew up in Walsall in the West Midlands. After eighteen years of working in H.M Prisons, she emigrated to New Zealand. She now lives in Shropshire. ‘The Man I Married’ is the author’s debut novel and will be published by Hera Books in August 2020.

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My thoughts:

What seems like a whirlwind romance deteriorates into a gaslighting nightmare, with a dangerous and controlling man manipulating everything.

Paul is a psychiatrist and knows exactly how to pull the strings and cause Lucy to doubt herself and her grip on reality. He plays games with her, lies, tells her best friend conflicting stories, slowly breaking down her resilience.

As Lucy’s mental state grows more fragile and she can’t trust the people around her, Paul claims more power, sending her to the mental health unit and making sure no one will believe her.

This was gripping, shocking and frustrating (I really hate men like Paul and he just seemed to keep getting away with it) and the ending was a twist I did not see coming.

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