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Then She Vanishes by Claire Douglas #BookReview

Then she vanishesAbout the book…

Everything changed the night Flora disappeared.

Heather and Jess were best friends – until the night Heather’s sister vanished.

Jess has never forgiven herself for the lie she told that night. Nor has Heather.

But now Heather is accused of an awful crime.

And Jess is forced to return to the sleepy seaside town where they grew up, to ask the question she’s avoided for so long:

What really happened the night Flora disappeared?

 

My thoughts on Then She Vanishes…

It’s been three years (give or take) since I read my first Claire Douglas book (The Sisters), a book I liked rather than loved. At the time, I don’t think I’d have believed anyone who told me she would go on to become one of my favourite authors, one who wrote books I find impossible to put down and happy to pass on to friends and family. Yet, here I am, so happy to have read Then She Vanishes, which I devoured over the course of a couple of days on a recent holiday.

It starts with Jess, a newspaper reporter with a past she’s trying to hide. She’s left a job at a national newspaper in London and now finds herself in Bristol writing an article on a double murder, one supposedly committed by her childhood best friend. It’s been years since they’ve spoken (another secret that needs to come out), but Jess can’t believe Heather is guilty. And it’s hard to know the truth as long as Heather is in a coma.

Sent to write a story on Heather’s family, Jess once again finds herself wrapped up in their lives, with memories of just what happened to break her friendship apart rearing their ugly head. Now she has to work out where the truth lies, without turning herself into a potential victim.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a book so quickly but, here, I really couldn’t put it down. Douglas deserves huge credit here for making the end of every chapter a cliffhanger without making it feel cliched or predictable given how many of this genre of books are out there. For me, the characters helped too. I liked Jess a lot, and the little I was learning about Heather meant I had a lot of sympathy for her.

I wasn’t so keen on Heather’s husband – but what would a psychological thriller be without a dodgy man in the wings? I do love a good villain and, here, I got one. I also got an ending I didn’t see coming, something which always makes me happy.

Was there anything I didn’t like about the book? No, not really. This was a five-star read for me and I would highly recommend it.

Enjoy!

Emma x

Note: I received this book in return for a fair and honest review. All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.

 

 

 

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A Beautiful Corpse by Christi Daugherty #bookreview

About the book…

It’s a thin line between love and murder…

A murder that shocks a city… 
Shots ring out on one of Savannah’s most famous streets. A beautiful law student lies dead.

A case full of secrets and lies…
Three men close to the victim are questioned. All of them claim to love her. All of them say they are innocent of her murder.

An investigation that could prove deadly…
As crime reporter Harper McClain unravels a tangled story of obsession and jealousy, the killer focuses on her. He’s already killed one woman. Will he kill another?

My thoughts on the book…

Another day, another book where someone gets murdered – will I ever be able to resist? Probably not.  This time, it’s a young law student who leaves her part-time job in a bar in downtown Savannah in a hurry, only to end up dead a few hours later.  One of the first people on the scene (outside of the police) is Harper McClain, the local paper’s crime reporter.  She’s used to seeing dead bodies, just not those of people she knows…it turns out the bar the young law student worked at was Harper’s local.

Almost immediately, police have a prime suspect, one that doesn’t quite fit with Harper’s view of the crime or the reasons the victim might have ended up dead.  Like an itch she has to scratch, she ignores the police when they tell her there’s nothing to see and keeps looking into the murder, putting herself in danger in the process.  At the same time, she’s dealing with a potential stalker, someone who may or may not want her dead.

Between the plot and sub-plot (which I think must link back to an earlier novel I haven’t read) the pace with A Beautiful Corpse doesn’t let up from the moment you pick up the book till the last few pages, making it a great read.  Unfortunately, for me, the sub-plot was a bit of a distraction because I felt I was missing something.  That aside, however, I really enjoyed the story and liked Harper as a character and definitely want to get to know her more in the future.

Enjoy!

Emma

Note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts, feelings, and opinions are my own.

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Someone You Know by Olivia Isaac-Henry #bookreview

About the book…

You can trust your family, can’t you…?

Tess Piper was fourteen when her adored twin sister Edie disappeared.

She has spent the last twenty years building a life away from her fractured family, desperate to escape the shadow of the past.

Only now she needs to confront the huge hole her sister’s disappearance left in her life, because a body has been found. The police are shining a spotlight on the Piper family. And secrets are about to surface.

After all, it’s common knowledge that more often than not, these crimes are committed by someone close to the victim. Someone they trust. Someone they know…

What really happened to Edie Piper?

My thoughts on Someone You Know…

I love a good psychological thriller and Someone You Know is definitely one of those, even though – in many ways – it fits into the formula of so many books I’ve read over recent years.  Tess is a young(ish) woman who can’t move on with her life because of what happened in her past.  She drinks too much, parties too much and won’t commit to a relationship with a man she thinks she loves.  Then, the very thing she can’t get over in her past comes crashing into her future, this time in the form of her sister’s remains, found after she went missing twenty years earlier.

The news brings Tess back home, to a father who never got over her sister’s disappearance either and an aunt and uncle whose marriage seems strained to breaking.  They all seem to be hiding some, as do old school friends and boyfriends.  Unable to live without knowing the truth, Tess digs deeper and deeper.  Unfortunately, what she finds out is worse than anything she could possibly have imagined.

So, a story that so many of us have read so many times.  Here, though, the writing is so good and the story is so well written I forgot that. Instead, I got carried along and carried away with the story.  I loved every minute of it, reading it in just two sittings, and can’t wait to read another book by Issac-Henry.

Enjoy!

Emma x

Note: I received this book in return for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.  

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The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson (Book Review)

In the remote Swedish wetlands lies Mossmarken: the village on the edge of the mire where, once upon a time, people came to leave offerings to the gods.

Biologist Nathalie came in order to study the peat bogs. But she has a secret: Mossmarken was once her home, a place where terrible things happened. She has returned at last, determined to confront her childhood trauma and find out the truth.

Soon after her arrival, she finds an unconscious man out on the marsh, his pockets filled with gold – just like the ancient human sacrifices. A grave is dug in the mire, which vanishes a day after. And as the police investigate, the bodies start to surface…

Is the mire calling out for sacrifices, as the superstitious locals claim? Or is it an all-too-human evil?

My Thoughts…

I love a little bit of Scandi Noir, stories that are dark, foreboding, and just a little bit bleak, all of which can be used to describe The Forbidden Place.  It starts with Nathalie returning to her childhood home, or at least close to it, determined to face her demons and – finally – move on with her life. What those demons are isn’t exactly clear, though her story slowly gets told as the book progresses.  That it has to do with the marsh she is staying next to, however, isn’t in any doubt.

To Nathalie, it seems to take on a life of her own, filling her full of dread, never more so than when she finds the body of Johannes, a young man she recently went on a date with, unconscious and close to death in the peat bog. Perhaps she wouldn’t feel so scared if this was the first time a body had been found in the marsh. But it isn’t.  Instead, over the years, more than one person has gone missing…while others who live in the area have ended up dead.

It all makes for a great premise for a book, and just up my street, which it was – at first.  Unfortunately, about halfway through, it ran out of steam because, while I liked Nathalie, she was the only real character in the book and – interesting as she was and intriguing as her secrets were – I needed a bit more variety to keep me going.  Instead, I found myself dragging, losing interest during the final third especially.  IT’s a shame really, given how strong it started, but – in the end – this wasn’t for me.

Sorry!

Emma

Source: Netgalley
Genre: Thriller, Suspense
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Rating: 3 out of 5
Find on: Goodreads / Amazon UK / Amazon US

Rakuten Kobo UK

 

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The Death Knock by Elodie Harper

The Death Knock.pngThe idea of being trapped in a confined space terrifies me.  It’s one of my worst fears.  And it’s one of the things I like to read about least.  Which made me wonder when I read the opening to The Death Knock just what I was letting myself in for.

Ava is a young woman, alone, scared and confused.  She has no idea how she got into the wooden box she now fines herself trapped in and, when her captor finally lets her out, how she will escape the small room he keeps her locked in, especially when he tells her about the other women who have already been in her shoes.  

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Weekly Update: 8th July 2018

Hi there and Happy Sunday.  Welcome to my first weekly update in what seems like forever, but in reality has been about a month.  Life just seems to keep getting away from me and – if I’m honest – I’ve been in a bit of a book blogging slump.  It’s been happening on and off since the Spring and I’m not sure I’m over it yet.

I thought it was because I felt swamped with review copies but they are all done now and I’m completely caught up so I’m actually reading books I’ve bought again – and it’s still made no difference.  With the school holidays almost upon us, I’ll see if the change of pace makes a difference.  If not, I may just take a break.  Oh the woes of being a book blogger 😉

Anyhow, on with my week and what I wrote / reviewed…

Murder in Slow Motion Rebecca Muddiman  image her watchful eye julie corbin

On Monday, I wrote a review of Her Watchful Eye by Julie Corbin, which I really enjoyed because it was full of unreliable characters and twists and turns.

On Tuesday, I introduced my latest read, Do Not Disturb by Claire Douglas, which is due out in August so not long to go for my review.

On Wednesday, I recapped on the books I’d read in June, the majority of which were 4+ star reviews so made me very happy.

On Friday, I reviewed Murder in Slow Motion by Rebecca Muddiman, a book set in / around my home town with great plot twists.

And that’s it for me – a short and sweet post. How was your week, reading and otherwise?

Emma x

This week, I’m linking in with Kimba at the Caffeinated Book Reviewer and her Sunday Post and with Katherine at Book Date for It’s Monday, What Are you Reading? Head over by clicking on their badges below to see what other bloggers have read, written about or just added to their shelves.

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My Month in Reviews: June 2018

Month in review

I might have to start calling this post my month in three-monthly reviews as I haven’t posted an update on what I’ve been reading since April but life keeps getting in the way.  I am – hopefully – back now though, with life being a bit calmer and a bit more sorted so, here goes, back in monthly update posts – and what a month.  I got a new contract for work – making me feel like an official freelancer – and I got to read some great books, mostly review books I was behind on. Plus the sun has shone and England has been doing well in the football – could life get much better?

Anyway, without further review, here’s what I read….

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Cloak & Dagger – June Update

CDChallengebadge2016.jpgI have been very lax this year in doing regular updates on my challenges (and I didn’t even do that many of them), even though I have been taking part in the background.  With the end of June fast approaching, I thought it would be a good time to revisit them and see where I was, starting with the Cloak & Dagger challenge, run by one of my favourite bloggers, Stormi at books, movies, reviews oh my!, along with Barb at Booker Ts Farm.

To take part, you can read any book from the mystery, suspense, thriller or crime genres (or sub-genres).  They need to be books or novellas over 100 pages so no short stories.  You don’t have to be a blogger as long as you post your reviews somewhere (so Goodreads is fine).   Any sub-genres are welcome as long as they incorporate one of these genres.  Then you pick the level you want to read for:

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The Death of Mrs Westaway by Ruth Ware

 

The Death of Mrs Westaway Ruth Ware

When Harriet, or Hal as she’s known, receives a letter from a solicitor to let her know that her grandmother has died and left her an inheritance she doesn’t know what to think – mainly because her mother’s parents, the only grandparents she knew, died years before, leaving her and her mother with nothing.

On any other day, Hal would have called the solicitor and told him he was mistaken.  But this isn’t any other day.  It’s the day the loan shark she borrowed money from to pay the bills breaks into her flat and threatens her.  It’s the day she feels broken and beaten down by life. So, it becomes the day she decides to pretend to be someone else.  

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This is What Happened by Mick Herron

 

This is what happened mick herron

When twenty-something Maggie Barnes moved to London, it was for a fresh start, to get away from a bad relationship and make something of herself – just like her oh-so-perfect sister.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go quite as she planned.  Instead, she found herself in a small, grotty, flat with a minimum-wage job and no friends (bar seven twitter followers she doesn’t even know).

It’s no wonder then, that she jumps at the chance of doing something just a bit different – working with the security services to spy on her employer.  She has, they say, the perfect cover – no one will look at her twice.

If it all sounds a bit far-fetched, it just might be.  It’s hard for me to say more, however, without spoilers – making it a hard review to write too.  What I can say is what’s in the blurb – after what is described as a life-or-death mission, Maggie goes missing…and no one seems to notice.

The problem with the blurb is it doesn’t really describe the book, and I have a feeling from some of the reviews on Goodreads, that people haven’t – therefore – gotten what they expected, especially his fans.  Which is a shame.  Because this is a highly enjoyable novel.  You don’t have to waste much brain power on it, I will admit, but that’s not always the type of book I want to read.

I’ve never read any books by Herron before and I think he has a good writing style and, in This is What Happened, he’s created three interesting and somewhat baffling characters, all of whom are just a little bit lost – which explains how what seems like a simple situation at the beginning, can get so messy so quickly. Apparently it’s based on a true situation and is an apology of sorts to the real Maggie.  I hope she has forgiven him.

Emma x

About the book…

Twenty-six-year-old Maggie Barnes is someone you would never look at twice. Living alone in a month-to-month sublet in the huge city of London, with no family but an estranged sister, no boyfriend or partner, and not much in the way of friends, Maggie is just the kind of person who could vanish from the face of the earth without anyone taking notice

Or just the kind of person MI5 needs to infiltrate the establishment and thwart an international plot that puts all of Britain at risk

Now one young woman has the chance to be a hero—if she can think quickly enough to stay alive.

Publisher: John Murray Press
Publication Date: 7th June, 2018
Genre: Crime fiction, suspense, thriller
Number of pages: 256
Rating: 4 out of 5

Find on: Goodreads / Amazon UK / Amazon US

Note: I received a copy of this book in return for a fair and honest review.  All thoughts, feelings and opinions are my own.

 BIRCHBOX UK