Everything is Lies – Helen Callaghan

No-one is who you think they are  –  Sophia’s parents lead quiet, unremarkable lives. At least that is what she’s always believed.

Everyone has secrets  –  Until the day she arrives at her childhood home to find a house ringing with silence. Her mother is hanging from a tree. Her father is lying in a pool of his own blood, near to death.

Especially those closest to you  –  The police are convinced it is an attempted murder-suicide. But Sophia is sure that the woman who brought her up isn’t a killer. As her father is too ill to talk it is up to Sophia to clear her mother’s name.

And to do this she needs to delve deep into her family’s past – a past full of dark secrets she never suspected were there . . .

What if your parents had been lying to you since the day you were born?

*********

I really enjoyed her debut novel Dear Amy, and Everything is Lies is another cracking story from Helen Callaghan.  It’s well written, tense, and with some good twists.  (You can find my review of Dear Amy here).

Right from the first chapter I felt myself being drawn into something dark, a feeling that something bad was going to happen to Sophia.

Sophia is an architect in her late 20s.  Her parents run a garden centre and coffee shop in rural Suffolk.  They live a quiet, unremarkable life.  Sophia has ‘escaped’ and lives in London and has just started a new job.  Her mother calls her one night when Sophia is out with colleagues and Sophia brushes her off.

The next morning, feeling rather guilty, she drives down to Suffolk and comes across the horrific sight of her mother’s body hanging from a tree and her father lying in blood and near to death. The Police suspect it is an attempted murder-suicide; that Sofia’s mum had tried to kill herself and when Sofia’s father had tried to stop her, she had stabbed him.

Sophia is sure her mother isn’t a killer and wants to clear her mother’s name.  After her mother’s funeral, an elderly couple appear who turn out to be Sofia’s maternal grandparents.  She didn’t know them and they don’t seem very nice.

As she tries to find out more about her parents she discovers she didn’t really know them at all.  She learns from Rowan who works for her father that they had been burgled several times in recent months.  From a letter she also found out that her mother had written a memoir and had been been in touch with a publisher who had seen part of the handwritten manuscript and was keen to publish once they had the final part.  Sophia knew nothing of this.  After a fruitless search of the house she finds two of the notebooks hidden in her father’s shed but no sign of the third and final part of the manuscript.  However during her search she comes across a recent receipt for the purchase of a gun and cartridges and a shotgun licence in her mother’s name but no sign of the actual gun.

Everything is Lies is really two books in one.  Much of it is her mother’s memoir.  Her mother’s manuscript starts with a message for Sophia but ominously, the first line is “Everything is lies and nobody is who they seem”.  Then she starts reading the memoir and learns of some shocking things. Could the revelations in the book have contributed to her mother’s death?

Having read the two notebooks Sophia wants to try and track down the people her mother had been involved with to fill in some gaps but is she about to put herself in danger?

There’s a lot going on in this book and the tension mounts as doubts creep in.  Who can Sophia trust?  She’s dealing with her mother’s death, her father in hospital in a coma, the fact that Rowan seems to know more about her parents than she does.  Her mother has written a book (a memoir) revealing a completely different life before Sophia was born.  Meanwhile Sophia is trying to hold on to her job and also trying to keep her parents’ business afloat; there’s even an attempt on her life; and she’s also trying to trace people who may or may not have had something to do with her mother’s death.

There are enough twists and sub-plots to keep the book interesting.  An excellent psychological/crime thriller.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing a digital ARC]

Anything You Do Say – Gillian McAllister

WOULD YOU RUN, OR STAY AND CALL AN AMBULANCE, IF IT WAS YOU THAT PUSHED HIM?

It’s the end of the night. You’re walking home on your own.

Then you hear the sound every woman dreads. Footsteps. Behind you. Getting faster.

You’re sure it’s him – the man from the bar who wouldn’t leave you alone.

You make a snap decision. You turn. You push. Your pursuer tumbles down the steps. He lies motionless, face-down on the floor.

Now what?

Call 999
Wait for the police to arrive. For judgement, for justice, whatever that may be. You just hope your husband, family and friends, everyone you love, will stand by you.

OR:

Run
Stay silent. You didn’t mean to do it. You were scared, you panicked. And no one saw. No one will ever know. If you leave now. If you keep quiet. For ever.
Which will it be?

*********

Anything You Do Say is the second novel from Gillian McAllister and is another excellent read.  (You can find my review of her debut Everything But The Truth here) …….

I suppose it could happen to anyone. Well maybe not anyone but it happened to Joanna.

It all started on a night out with her friend Laura; a few drinks; a random guy trying to be friendly and taking a selfie with them on his phone. He stands a bit too close, buys them drinks. The girls move away, he follows. He persists, tries to introduce himself. Laura ignores him, Joanna takes the business card he presses into her hand not wanting to offend him. Laura tells him straight they don’t want his company. He’s not put off. They move away to continue their conversation. Sadiq however just won’t take a hint and when they move again he follows, grabbing Joanna as she moves away then grabbing her hand as she turns to leave with Laura. Then he lets go.

The girls part company agreeing to text when they get home. Joanna sets off towards the canal and as she crosses the bridge she hears footsteps behind her. She varies her route and the footsteps follow. She calls Reuben, her husband, and tells him she’s being followed but then the signal disappears. She’s sure it’s the guy from the bar but is too scared to turn round. She tries to call her husband again but the calls fails. Joanna’s imagination is running riot, and as he comes up on her right she pushes him hard and he falls down the stairs and lies motionless on the towpath.

What should she do? Help him? Call for an ambulance? He’s not moving. Or should she run home and pretend nothing has happened? It’s all very tense.

Joanna is good at not facing up to things. She’s an avoider. She’s bright but has no idea what she wants to do. Her head is in the sand and she never finishes anything. She also has a fertile imagination, pondering the what-ifs, making up lives/background for random people she meets.

What would Reuben do? He’s loving and supportive but would always do the right thing even if that was the harder thing to do. She ponders what will happen if she calls 999.

This is where the story gets quite clever. It splits into two with chapters headed Reveal and Conceal. Reveal is the story of what happens when she calls for help and the ambulance and police arrive. Conceal is what happens when she panics, doesn’t help him, doesn’t call for help. She turns and walks away assuming someone will find him.

Each action has consequences and there are no easy answers. Doing the right thing means she ends up having to face the British justice system with potentially devastating consequences. Walking away means she has to live with the guilt and the lies. She can’t tell the truth, she is increasingly anxious, relationships start to unravel, there is increasing paranoia. Is doing the right thing always the best decision?

I really enjoyed the book. I liked the characters and the storytelling. I found both strands of the story gripping and had to stay up till the early hours to finish it.

What would I do? Like Joanna I hate making decisions so I really don’t know.

This title has been available on kindle for a few months but it’s now available in paperback.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with a review copy}.

Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell

She was fifteen, her mother’s golden girl. 

She had her whole life ahead of her. 
And then, in the blink of an eye, Ellie was gone.

Ten years on, Laurel has never given up hope of finding Ellie. And then she meets a charming and charismatic stranger who sweeps her off her feet.

But what really takes her breath away is when she meets his nine-year-old daughter.

Because his daughter is the image of Ellie.

Now all those unanswered questions that have haunted Laurel come flooding back.

What really happened to Ellie? And who still has secrets to hide?

*********

Then She Was Gone is the first Lisa Jewell book I have read – and it was rather good.

Laurel’s 15 year old daughter Ellie had disappeared between her home and the library some 10 years earlier. Laurel’s perfect life was never the same after that. She never believed that Ellie had simply run away just before her exams. Ellie was a good student, seemed happy.

Laurel now lives alone, her grown up children living their own lives and her husband now with a new partner. Ellie’s disappearance had a devastating effect on the whole family and Laurel’s relationships with her husband and remaining children.

However one day a man enters a cafe where Laurel is having lunch. They exchange a few words and eventually Laurel goes on a date with Floyd. He’s polite, clever and charming and Laurel finds herself swept off her feet by him. He seems just perfect and Laurel is starting to enjoy life again. However when she eventually meets his young, rather precocious and unusual daughter Poppy she is struck by how much Poppy resembles Ellie at that age and she starts to question her daughter’s disappearance again.

But is the charming Floyd just too perfect? Is he hiding something? Laurel’s son’s girlfriend thinks he is. She says she gets bad vibes from him and that there is something dark and hidden beneath the surface. But Laurel doesn’t really approve of Jake’s girlfriend.

The story is told by several characters, including Ellie at the time she disappeared, and the person who was involved in that disappearance (who is revealed quite early on in the book).

It’s a pretty good psychological thriller/ family drama. It got quite ‘dark’ in parts and there are some very good twists. Although it jumps from past to present and between characters, it is well written and isn’t difficult to follow. The characters are good although you might not like all of them. Although the reader knows who was involved in Ellie’s disappearance from quite early in the book, there is a good build up of tension over time, and some quite disturbing and sinister twists making for a gripping story.  I  got very engrossed and really enjoyed it. It’s one of those that are hard to put down.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a digital review copy]

Here and Gone by Haylen Beck

DESCRIPTION

Audra has finally left her abusive husband. She’s taken the family car and her young children, Sean and Louise, are buckled up in the back. This is their chance for a fresh start.

Audra keeps to the country roads to avoid attention and finds herself on an empty road in Arizona, far from home. She’s looking for a safe place to stay for the night when she spots something in her rear-view mirror. A police car is following her and the lights are flickering. Blue and red.
As Audra pulls over she is intensely aware of how isolated they are. Her perfect escape is about to turn into a nightmare beyond her imagining…
Dark secrets and a heart-pounding race to reveal the truth lie at the heart of this page-turning thriller.

*********

Wow. I loved this book. I was there – right from the first page of Here and Gone. You feel the hot, dry Arizona heat, the dust, Audra’s exhaustion, her aching muscles.

She is travelling through Arizona on her way to California, trying to keep to country roads, with her two children aged 11 and 6 in the back of the station wagon, hoping to make a fresh start, having fled New York and an abusive husband. She’s looking out for a safe place for them to stay for the night.

When a police cruiser appears behind her and gets her to pull over in an isolated area a few miles from where there is a place to stay, she’s fearful that the authorities have found her and will have her charged with parental abduction. The officer tells her the car is overloaded and that it’s not safe to drive and offers to move some of her stuff from the back of her car into his cruiser and to take Audra and the children to the guesthouse in town and arrange for her car to be towed there later. However while moving some of her stuff, the officer finds a bag of marijuana. Audra swears the drugs are not hers but she is arrested, handcuffed and searched, despite no female officer being present. You quickly realise Officer Whiteside is not a nice character. He radios for his deputy to come and get the children and take them to a safe place.

As she sees her children being taken from her in a police car, her thoughts turn to the past 18 months and we get some insight as to why she left her husband and also the fact that in the past she had a history of substance abuse.

I don’t want to give too much away here but when Audra is taken to town the Deputy’s car isn’t there. Aura keeps asking for them but after she is processed and taken to a cell on asking again where her children are, the officer’s reply is “What children?”

Now the real nightmare begins. Audra is totally alone. When she is allowed to phone, she phones the ‘friend’ in California she is told not to contact her again. It gets worse, the authorities suspect she has harmed the children and hidden their bodies. The investigation gets very serious. The FBI’s Child Abduction response deployment team arrive. Someone leaks details of her medical history. The press get hold of the story and it’s all over the television. However someone called Danny sees the news reports and realises he has a similar story to tell: missing child, wife blamed, wife committed. No one had really listened to his thoughts on what had happened. He becomes part of the story too.

The story switches between what is happening to Audra and what is happening to the children. There is also a conversation happening in an internet private members forum and you just know something very bad is being planned. The pace is very good. There is a good balance of the different threads, a race against time, some twists. We get enough back story to make sense of the present. There are some strong characters, both good and bad. Audra’s past has made her stronger and a survivor, but there are a few moments when you feel it would be so easy for her to give in. There is also a wonderful sense of location. Heat and dust, a dying town, closed mine, dry riverbed, empty properties. You get the picture. It’s a well written story.

The story really grabbed me. It’s tense and the pace doesn’t really let up. I read it mostly in one sitting. I didn’t want to put it down. I managed to finish it around 1.30 am. The best kind of book  



[My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance digital copy in exchange for an honest review]

Blink by K L Slater

What if the person you love most in the world was in terrible danger … because of you?
Three years ago, Toni’s five-year-old daughter Evie disappeared after leaving school. The police have never been able to find her. There were no witnesses, no CCTV, no trace. 
But Toni believes her daughter is alive. And as she begins to silently piece together her memories, the full story of the past begins to reveal itself, and a devastating truth.
Toni’s mind is trapped in a world of silence, her only chance to save herself is to manage the impossible. She must find a way to make herself heard. She must find her daughter. 

*********

I couldn’t put this psychological thriller down. There was no slow build up. Blink grabbed my attention right from the opening lines – the words of an unknown person, “You don’t know this, but I watch you. I watch you a lot ...”  I couldn’t quite make up my mind if these were the words of the person who abducted 5 year old Evie or possibly her mother or even someone else.

It’s one of these stories that switches between the present and three years earlier. I’ve read a few of these time shift stories and I usually enjoy them. I think the gradual revelation of past events really adds something to the story if written well.

The present is set in a room in the Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham, where a patient lies unresponsive and hooked up to machines that are keeping her alive, apparently having suffered a massive stroke.  The medical staff consider her to be in a vegetative state however the patient can hear and think and inside she is screaming for attention. She just can’t respond in any way. But she can remember some things like Evie’s face and her laughter. She also can hear doctors discussing the possibility of switching off the machines that are keeping her alive.

Three years earlier Toni and her 5 year old daughter Evie had moved to Nottingham to be nearer to Toni’s mother. Toni is a single parent (not by choice) who had suffered a devastating loss and who was not coping well. The move has been difficult for both of them.

Nothing seems to go right for her. She is obviously suffering from depression and anxiety and uses pills that were not prescribed for her to help her calm down and sleep. Toni and her mum, although close, don’t always agree especially where Evie is concerned. You feel as if Toni is starting to lose the plot and on the brink of a breakdown. She is so desperate you feel she’ll believe what she wants to believe and not question other people’s motives too much. When she takes a pill she can’t be roused even when Evie tries to waken her. There are various incidents and mix ups especially in relation to Evie’s attendance at her new school. Is Toni guilty of neglecting her 5 year old daughter? I found Harriet Watson, the domineering teaching assistant who tries to pass herself off as Evie’s teacher, particularly sinister.

Toni manages to find a part time job in an estate agency, despite her mother’s objections that Evie needs her mum at the moment, but that is not without complications either. Her boss seems like a nasty, vindictive person but who can turn on the charm when clients are around, and was perfectly charming to Evie when she and her mum called in at the office one morning.

The tension builds up as Toni’s mental state deteriorates. There are several characters in the book who are frankly a bit strange and any one of them could be involved in the subsequent disappearance of Evie.

There are a few shocking twists in the story and although I felt the ending perhaps came a bit too quickly, I really enjoyed this book.  Nothing was done around my house until I finished it.

You can find my thoughts on Kim’s debut novel Safe With Me here.  I think Blink is just as good, maybe even better.

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Bookouture, for providing an advance copy]

Author’s website here

Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

Annie’s mother is a serial killer. The only way she can make it stop is to hand her in to the police. But out of sight is not out of mind. As her mother’s trial looms, the secrets of her past won’t let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and name – Milly. A fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be. But Milly’s mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water. Good me, bad me. She is, after all, her mother’s daughter… Translated into over 20 languages, Good Me Bad Me is a tour de force. In its narrator, Milly Barnes, we have a voice to be reckoned with, and in its author, Ali Land, an extraordinary new talent.

*********

Good Me, Bad Me is one tense thriller.  Oh yes.  The tension is there from the start  The writing style demonstrates that – short sentences, fast paced.   At one point I stopped to make a coffee and realised I was so physically tense I was going to have to try and breathe properly and release some of that tension.

Milly knows her mother has done terrible things. Milly’s mother is a serial killer.  Milly is the one who reported her to the Police and her mother is now in jail awaiting trial.  But Milly misses her mum.  She is with a new foster family, has a new name, and has started a new school.  She tries, but finds it hard to fit in.  She thinks about her mum all the time and can’t sleep.  It’s as if her mum is still with her.

Milly’s foster dad is Mike, a psychologist who is an expert in trauma.  And Milly has experienced terrible things throughout her life at the hands of her mother.  Mike is married to Saskia and they have a daughter Phoebe.  It’s clear from early on Phoebe has a problem with Milly.  She also doesn’t get on that well with her own mother. She is bitter and angry that her parents are fostering yet again.

Mike has regular counselling sessions with Milly to try and help her cope with what has happened and the forthcoming Trial.  But does Mike have his own agenda?

The tension just builds and builds.

The story is told from Milly’s point of view but you soon realise that what Milly says to others is not necessarily what she is really thinking.

Although it gets quite dark at times, I really enjoyed this debut novel.  Despite her problems I liked Milly.  I wanted a good outcome for her.  I got a good ending but …… ?

[My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advance copy]

Blood Lines (D.I. Kim Stone Book Five) by Angela Marsons

How do you catch a killer who leaves no trace?

A victim killed with a single, precise stab to the heart appears at first glance to be a robbery gone wrong. A caring, upstanding social worker lost to a senseless act of violence. But for Detective Kim Stone, something doesn’t add up.

When a local drug addict is found murdered with an identical wound, Kim knows instinctively that she is dealing with the same killer. But with nothing to link the two victims except the cold, calculated nature of their death, this could be her most difficult case yet.

Desperate to catch the twisted individual, Kim’s focus on the case is threatened when she receives a chilling letter from Dr Alex Thorne, the sociopath who Kim put behind bars. And this time, Alex is determined to hit where it hurts most, bringing Kim face-to-face with the woman responsible for the death of Kim’s little brother – her own mother.

As the body count increases, Kim and her team unravel a web of dark secrets, bringing them closer to the killer. But one of their own could be in mortal danger. Only this time, Kim might not be strong enough to save them…

*********

Blood Lines is book five in the D I Kim Stone series.

I have to confess I hadn’t read any of Angela Marsons’ books and this would have been the first but a friend advised me to read her earlier books in the series, or at least book 2, Evil Games.  So I took her advice and read Evil Games first – another cracking thriller.

Dr Alexandra Thorne (who appeared in Evil Games) is now in prison, put there mainly by the persistence of D I Stone and her team. Alex Thorne is beautiful, enigmatic, charming, but she is also manipulative, controlling and taunting. She is an evil sociopath. She blames Kim Stone for the way her life has turned out and is obsessed with destroying her.

There are several threads in Blood Lines: the arrest of a serial rapist; the deaths of two females, one a middle-aged, well dressed professional woman with a responsible job, found in a car with a single stab wound, the other a 22 year old drug addict and a known shoplifter, found in the woods with a single stab wound…. and more.

Meanwhile the evil Alex Thorne is in prison, manipulating other prisoners and plotting to mess with Kim Stone’s mind. She knows of Kim Stone’s traumatic past and knows all the right buttons to press to push Kim over the edge. Kim has to carry out her duties as a detective as well as deal with terrifying personal issues.

It’s a real thriller of a book. Angela Marsons is a good storyteller. The plot is fairly complex and there are several sub-plots but it isn’t too difficult to follow them as the writing is good. The book is quite fast paced with the right amount of dialogue. I like how some of the threads come together leading to a thrilling and terrifying climax.

I think Blood Lines could stand alone but I’m glad I was advised to read Evil Games as that explains a lot of Dr Alex Thorne’s obsession with destroying Kim Stone. It also helps when you know some of Kim’s background and her personal issues.  I suspect I’ll catch up with the rest of the books in the series soon.

There is so much more to this book. I found it a thrilling, entertaining read and one of those books where chores are set aside and you also keep on reading into the wee small hours (the best kind).

[My thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for providing a digital review copy].

Safe With Me – K L Slater

Thirteen years ago someone did something very bad to Anna. Now it’s her turn to get even …

Anna lives a solitary existence, taking solace in order and routine. Her only friend is the lonely old lady next door. She doesn’t like to let people to get too close – she knows how much damage they can do.

Then one ordinary day Anna witnesses a devastating road accident and recognises the driver as Carla, the woman who ruined her life all those years ago. Now it’s Anna’s chance to set things straight but her revenge needs to be executed carefully …

First she needs to get to know Liam, the man injured in the accident. She needs to follow the police investigation. She needs to watch Carla from the shadows…

But as Anna’s obsession with Carla escalates, her own secrets start to unravel. Is Carla really dangerous or does Anna need to worry about someone far closer to home?

*********

Pychological thriller?  Very much so. The tension is relentless right from the start and you feel compelled to keep reading.

The prologue describes a chilling scene where an unknown arsonist starts a fire and then the story switches to the present day and the scene of a road accident ….

When Anna witnesses a road accident she recognises the driver as Carla, someone from her past. You realise she has been obsessed with finding Carla for many years who she considers ruined her life. Anna realises this could be her chance to set things straight and extract her revenge. She also sits with the injured motorcyclist, Liam, until the ambulance arrives.

She then visits Liam in hospital and ‘invites’ herself into his life, desperately wanting to to become part of it even although he lives with his grandmother.

I felt Anna was quite a sad character. You know right from the start she has some issues/problems. She has a job but doesn’t seem to socialise with her colleagues. Her only ‘friend’ is the old lady next door, Joan Peat. Anna seems to have a need to be needed. She must have order and routine just to keep functioning but as the story progresses you sense her obsessions escalating and things spiralling out of control.

Much of the story is told in Anna’s voice and her thoughts are very chilling at times but some of it is told from Joan Peat’s point of view. She has known Anna since she was a little girl and through her we learn a bit about Anna’s past.

The writing is good. It’s not a difficult read although sometimes I felt I would have liked a little bit of relief from the escalating tension. (That’s not really a criticism; in a thriller tension is good. Yes?) There are a few twists in the story which make it a very satisfying read.

It’s a really good debut novel and I would love to read more.

The publisher is Bookouture and Safe With Me is due out on 3 November 2016.  The author’s webpage can be found here.

(My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy).

Local Girl Missing – Claire Douglas

 

 

Twenty years ago
21-year-old Sophie Collier vanishes one night.  She leaves nothing behind but a trainer on the old pier – and a hole in the heart of her best friend Francesca.

Now
A body’s been found.  And Francesca’s drawn back to the seaside town she’s tried to forget. Perhaps the truth of what happened to Sophie will finally come out. Yet Francesca is beginning to wish she hadn’t returned.

Everywhere she turns are ghosts from her past.  The same old faces and familiar haunts of her youth.  But if someone knows what really happened to Sophie that night then now’s the time to find out – isn’t it?

Except sometimes discovering the truth can cost you everything you hold dear – your family, your sanity and even your life . . .

*********

I enjoyed reading Local Girl Missing, Claire Douglas’ second book.  It’s a psychological/mystery full of twists and turns and a very good read.

Francesca is 39 years old, living in London and a successful businesswoman involved in the running of her father’s hotel business.

Out of the blue she receives a call from the brother of her best friend Sophie who, years earlier, had disappeared late one night from a club in the seaside town where they had grown up.  It was assumed she had fallen off the town’s deserted pier and had been swept away by the tide but no body had ever been recovered.

Daniel tells her that remains have been washed up, that it might be Sophie and he persuades Francesca to return to the town to await the official identification and help him find out what had happened to his sister.

Francesca takes a few days off and reluctantly returns to Oldcliffe-on-Sea, despite having sworn never to go back. We learn that there was an incident in the past, when the the friends were 16, involving a young boy, Jason. It appears Francesca and Sophie knew what really happened but swore never to tell anyone.

Daniel arranges for Francesca to stay in a friend’s holiday apartment in a Victorian apartment block, high on a cliff top and overlooking the old pier. As it is out of season most of the flats are unoccupied. There is a sense of foreboding and uneasiness.  It was easy to imagine the bleakness of a seaside town in winter.

Memories soon start flooding back, not always welcome memories. In fact it soon appears that Francesca is not welcome either and someone is sending her poison pen messages. There are various incidents that can’t be explained. She’s terrified someone else knows what happened to Jason. There are people from the past still living in the town. She doesn’t know who’s telling the truth, who she can trust.

The author tells the story from both Francesca’s and Sophie’s point of view. Frankie’s story is set in 2016, Sophie’s story is in the form of her journal from 1997. Because of the two time frames you get to know the characters both as teenagers and as adults. There is one character from the past who is really despicable. Who has access to these diary entries? Are they sending the poison pen messages?

I liked this book – it was a well written, satisfying read – quite chilling in parts and full of twists and turns and secrets. The ending was good and not quite what I expected.

Read an extract from Local Girl Missing here.

[My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin UK – Michael Joseph for providing a review copy of this book]

Black Widow

Description:  There is no perfect marriage.  There is no perfect murder.  

From Scottish crime master Christopher Brookmyre, Black Widow tells the potent story of a woman who thought she was too late for love, the man who falls for her ambition, and the secret selves that are poised, at any moment, to end everything.

Diana Jager is clever, strong, and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism in medicine. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing. Then she meets Peter. He is kind, generous, and knows nothing about her past—the second chance she’s been waiting for. Within six months, they are married. Within six more, Peter is dead in a road accident, a nightmare end to their fairy-tale romance. But Peter’s sister Lucy doesn’t believe in fairy tales, and tasks rogue reporter Jack Parlabane with discovering the dark truth behind the woman the media is calling the Black Widow.

Still on the mend from his own relationship wounds after a turbulent divorce, Jack’s investigation into matters of the heart takes him to hidden places no one should ever have to go.

I loved this one. Although it is #7 in the Jack Parlabane series it is the first one I have read – in fact it’s the first Chris Brookmyre book I have ever read, despite several people telling me his books are very, very good and I should read them. The story starts and ends in a court room. In between is a great plot, full of twists and turns, that keeps you gripped right to the end.

It starts with the court listening to a recording of a telephone call reporting a possible accident. “I think I’ve just seen an accident….” says a faceless voice.

Dr Diana Jager stands accused of her husband’s murder – her husband of only a few months. She is a brilliant, career driven, surgeon but apparently not a well liked person.

The story that unfolds is told in various voices: the accused herself, witnesses in the court room, two local police officers who had attended the scene of the road accident and Jack Parlabane, an out of favour investigative journalist, hired by the victim’s sister, all providing background to what happened prior to the case coming to Court.

Some time earlier Dr Jager had been the anonymous author of a blog on the subject of Sexism in Surgery which caused a fair amount of controversy and lively comment. However after writing about hospital IT techs in a very unflattering way, and getting on the wrong side of them, her real name and place of work was leaked and worse, from that, some of the colleagues she had been writing about were also identified and their lives picked apart online. She was forced to resign from a prestigious post and take up employment in a smaller hospital in Inverness.

With this background in mind, it was very surprising that she encountered Peter Elphinstone, an IT tech at work, found they had lots in common, immediately fell in love, and within a very short time the embittered and career driven surgeon was married.

It soon becomes apparent that the honeymoon period is at an end, or perhaps never even got started.

There is an accident, a car is found in the river and is identified as belonging to Peter Elphinstone the husband of Dr Diana Jager. There was no body in the car but there are signs that the driver managed to get out but presumably got caught up in the strong current.

Peter’s sister, Lucy, asks Jack Parlabane for help shortly after the car is found. She is distressed and is looking for closure. He is having his own problems but decides to investigate.

The author cleverly feeds us little bits of information throughout, creating doubt. Is Diana Jager a psychopath? Is Peter hiding something? Who is the real victim? The two police officers who attended the scene feel something isn’t quite right but can’t quite get their superiors to listen. Lucy, the sister, has doubts about her brother’s marriage and thought he was unhappy and in trouble. Parlabane is sufficiently interested to take on the investigation.

The twists and turns in the story lead to family secrets, lies, hidden pasts, shady dealings with gangsters, online services, etc

I was kept guessing right to the end and it was one of these books that keep you reading into the ‘wee small hours’.

Great characters and a complex but never confusing plot. I loved it.

[Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for providing me with a digital copy of this book]

Black Widow is available now in the UK.

Authors website:  www.brookmyre.co.uk

While My Eyes Were Closed

Description:       One, two, three . . . Lisa Dale shuts her eyes and counts to one hundred during a game of hide-and-seek. When she opens them, her four-year-old daughter Ella is gone. Disappeared without a trace. The police, the media and Lisa’s family all think they know who snatched Ella. But what if the person who took her isn’t a stranger? What if they are convinced they are doing the right thing? And what if Lisa’s little girl is in danger of disappearing forever?

Wow. While My Eyes Were Closed is a seriously good read. The label “#1 Bestseller” is well deserved.

It all starts so ordinary. Lisa is wife to Alex and mother to Otis and Ella, and their older sister Chloe. Young Ella is excited about starting school in a few days time and she is also excited that she can climb up to the big slide at the park and wants her mum to come and watch, so when her mother finishes work early she picks Ella up from her gran’s so they can go to the park before going to Otis’ school to see him get a football medal. Older sister Chloe is on holiday in France with her friend.

At the park Ella is bubbling with confidence as she shows her mother how she can now negotiate the slide all by herself. Mindful of the time, eventually Lisa shouts “one more go” but Ella wants to play hide and seek before they leave the park. Ella makes her mum shut her eyes and count but Lisa then hears a scream and opens her eyes to see that Ella has fallen and grazed her hands and knees. But she still wants to hide and wants her mum go go over to the tree, close her eyes and count to 100. Still all quite ordinary and normal. As Lisa heads over, her phone rings and she answers it, talks to a client for a couple of minutes then puts her phone back and then closes her eyes. When she opens them there is no sign of Ella. She carries on looking, all part of the game.

She looks for her in all her usual hiding places and you can feel her concern. She goes round all the places again calling out Ella’s name. She then realises she’ll have to call her mum to pick up Otis from school.

Lisa becomes more and more concerned and you can sense her feeling of panic building. No one seems to have seen Ella and soon other people are looking for her. She can’t get her husband on the phone. He’s in a meeting, so she leaves a voicemail.

Eventually she dials 999 and calls the Police.

Then the nightmare begins. Police, Press, family members being interviewed, the waiting for any news, the revelation that someone on the sex offenders register lives near the park, a possible sighting, police divers searching Ogden Water. How do you face the world when your daughter is missing, knowing people are talking? How would you or I cope?

What makes the story really chilling is that we know early on that Ella has been abducted. We also know who the abductor is, their thoughts, and how they interact with Ella.  The abductor seems to see the situation very differently from other people.  The abductor knows they are doing the right thing.  The tension builds and builds throughout. The story is told in three voices: Lisa, the abductor and a teenage boy called Matthew.

I thought it was great storytelling. Although I knew who the abductor was, I didn’t have any idea how the story would end.

It was so good I kept reading until 2 am just to finish the book. That is the kind of story I like!  More please.

Link to Amazon:  While My Eyes Were Closed

Author’s website:   www.linda-green.com

IN SEARCH OF JESSICA - Declan Conner

I like all kinds of books.  I like to be entertained.  Sometimes it's romantic fiction; sometimes it's an engrossing family saga - historical or contemporary; sometimes it's just a good story.  Recently I find myself reading more and more psychological and/or crime thrillers.

This one seems to tick the boxes for crime/psychological/thriller.        

I enjoyed reading this book. It was hard to put it down once I started it. I liked the main characters and the pace of the story is just about right.

Jessica has been released from a secure mental hospital 15 years after her father was brutally murdered. There were several suspects at the time but no one went on trial for the murder although the lead detective in the investigation believed 12 year old Jessica, who had been found at the scene, holding a kitchen knife and with blood on her nightdress, was the culprit and that she may have been abused by her father.

On her release she is taken to a halfway house by her social worker who may or may not have ulterior motives. There she is befriended by another resident, Debbie, who may not be entirely honest. We also know from the start of the book there is a brother Jesse who was taken away at the time of his father's murder and subsequently adopted. He hasn't had any contact with his sister Jessica during her long stay in hospital and desperately wants to meet her and have her come to stay with him so he can protect her. The authorities want to delay any meeting to allow Jessica time to assimilate into the community.

Shortly after Jessica is released there is another murder with a similar MO. Jason Stone is the young LAPD detective assigned to the case. He's not shy about breaking the rules in his search for the killer and ends up getting taken off the case. However he continues to investigate the case unofficially.

The suspect list keeps getting longer and there are a few red herrings along the way (and a few more deaths).  
I had my suspicions as to the identity of the killer but was never really be sure and was kept guessing until the end.

An enjoyable book. Although it's not the author's first book, I believe this is the first of the Jason Stone books. I hope there will be more. 

Author's website:     www.declanconner.com