Shiver

Book Review: Shiver by Allie Reynolds

This debut by Reynolds created quite the stir on the Australian book scene when it was released and, for the most, it lives up to the hype.

Our narrator, Milla, accepts an invitation to meet at a resort in the French Alps for a reunion of sorts with friends she trained with ten years ago when she had ambitions of making the English Olympic snowboarding team. Milla is surprised at the invitation – the group did not part on the best of terms after one snowboarder fell and broke their neck and another presumably perished on the mountain, perhaps due to foul play. And her fears are founded when, almost as soon as the group meets, some mysterious and threatening incidents occur.

The book is told in dual timelines: present day at the reunion, and ten years previous showing the lead up to the English snowboarding trials and the events which shaped the lives of the group and their present situation.

The setting is fantastic. Reynolds knows her stuff when it comes to snow and avalanches and crevasses. She uses the natural terrain to its fullest. She also uses the isolation of the location really well. The reunion is being held in the off season, meaning the group are the only guests at the resort and this gives the book an added sense of eerie that I really enjoyed. She also had the chance to add in a lot of other creepy things like mounted deers seemingly watching everyone and ice pick memorabilia that goes missing.

Reynolds builds the tension nicely. In the ‘ten years ago’ section, you are waiting for the climactic scenes to explain what happened and in the present day the problems at the resort start off small and escalate gradually. She does a good job with finding reasons for the group to separate (and, therefore, become vulnerable as they’re alone). She also finds realistic reasons the group can’t easily escape from the resort to the relative safety of a more populated area.

Reynolds is an ex snowboarder in real life so her knowledge of the sport is obvious. I did find myself googling later to watch some of the tricks she mentioned frequently in the book (with foreshadowing names like ‘cripplers’) but that was more for interest sake as I was never confused by her descriptive prose. (I’ve no idea, living in tropical Queensland, I’ve never even seen snow falling, but I never had any issues with imagining the conditions and/or following what was going on.) It also showed good examples of the adrenaline rush the characters would be chasing and just how many risks they might be willing to take to win competitions (or, as most of us would say, how completely crazy the characters are!). This might have, perversely, been the one weakness of the book too. I found there was a *lot* about snowboarding so if you became bored with it and the discussions surrounding it, you might not be impressed with the book.

Overall I’d recommend the book, especially to anyone looking to read a contemporary thriller and I’ll definitely be looking to read Reynolds next offering. 4 out of 5

Nine Elms

Book Review: Nine Elms by Robert Bryndza (Kate Marshall #1)

This book was… just okay.

15 years ago Kate was the police officer who caught the ‘Nine Elms Cannibal’ serial killer. Now working as a university lecturer, the parents of a missing girl ask her to privately investigate whether or not there is a connection between their daughter’s disappearance and the previous crimes. At the same time, Kate becomes aware that there also might be a copycat killer on the loose and, if he follows the same pattern as the original Nine Elms murderer, he’ll soon have Kate in his sights.

The graphic nature of the crimes in this novel got to be a bit too much for me at times. I’m old and tough and don’t usually get squeamish but I thought Bryndza added a lot of the more horrific scenes in an attempt to be edgy and contemporary which was unnecessary. And although he borrowed heavily from Hannibal Lecter, Bryndza’s killers were totally without any of Lecter’s charm.

I had to suspend belief frequently. So many plot points seemed utterly ridiculous such as the pathologist sharing details of the new murders with Kate; Kate’s employer (the university) tolerating her working a second job as a private investigator; Kate’s employer also okay with her engaging another university employee (Tristan) in this on-the-side gig; the way that Tristan and Kate so easily stumble across major clues; and, conversely, the easy way the killer/s pull off some of their crimes.

The characterisation seemed weak. Most of the story is told from Kate’s point of view and yet I didn’t feel as intimately connected with her as I should. (We do hear a lot about Kate’s alcoholism and, let me just add a huge eye roll at that old cliche.) Kate’s son was supposed to be 14 but acted half that age and was so annoying I would have probably not minded if the killers had their merry way with him. And I don’t think Bryndza could decide whether he wanted Tristan to be an awkward foppish academic IT guru type sidekick, or a muscular strong and capable tattooed younger love interest sidekick, so he ended up becoming a bit of a confusing hot mess.

The setting was only mildly interesting and, maybe also a little confusing (where is this beach you can swim in all year round in England and – huh? – was Kate swimming there in the nude as the editing intimated?).

The editing could have been tighter all round actually. There’s a lot of word repetition and general repeating of inner thoughts which drove me a little crazy. Some of the end scenes too evoked some eye rolling from me; it was so obviously all staged for a sequel. I was, actually, quite surprised I made it through to the end as I nearly abandoned the book a couple of times.

I did listen to the audio version and maybe some of the narrator’s choices might have unduly influenced my enjoyment but, overall, I was pretty disappointed. A generous 2 ½ out of 5

The Wreckage

Book Review: The Wreckage by Michael Robotham (Joe O’Loughlin #5)

During the first parts of The Wreckage Robotham juggles several plotlines, all seemingly unrelated. In post war Iraq we get the story of Luca, a reporter, and Daniela, a UN financial auditor, investigating a series of bank robberies. In London we meet Holly, a thief, who is in serious trouble after robbing the wrong person. There’s also Elizabeth, the heavily pregnant wife of a missing banker. And in the middle of the action is my favourite sidekick police detective ever, Vincent Ruiz (okay, he’s an ex police detective now but that’s a technicality).

Of course, as these things go, the reader realises that Robotham will tie all the threads together but he does take a long time. A lot of reviewers, like me, found the beginning of the book slow. It was almost like reading three separate books for a while and things didn’t speed up until everything linked together.

I don’t pretend to understand politics in the Middle East and it all got quite complicated a few times. Of course Robotham has done his homework when it comes to researching Iraq and the depressingly dangerous way of life in the country. But perhaps the beginning of the book got a little bogged down with explaining it all.

Another issue I had is the book is more of an action/espionage thriller. There’s terrorists and extremists and spies. It’s a subgenre which is not really my thing.

Joe’s role in the book is almost a cameo. He does feature but only from about the three quarter mark onwards and only in a minor supporting role. This also could be why I disliked this book more than the others; I think Joe should have been used more. He seemed to brighten the book immediately with his entrance. Vincent too was much more appealing when teamed with Joe. They make the perfect Odd Couple-like duo and their comedy lightened the book’s otherwise heavy content.

Robotham’s writing is, as usual, sublime. His descriptive passages make the settings and action come to life on the page. Characterisation is never an issue though I did get the sense that Good Girl Bad Girl’s Evie was formed from Holly and, at times, had trouble separating them in my mind.

Unfortunately The Wreckage is my least favourite of the Joe O’Loughlin books to date. But, to be fair, Robotham’s worst is still far superior to the best of most other authors.

4 out of 5

The Night Hawks

Book Review: The Night Hawks by Elly Griffiths (Ruth Galloway #13)

I have loved this series from book one and was super excited to get my hands on number 13 (thanks Quercus and NetGalley for my copy). But… Unfortunately I found The Night Hawks to be a bit underwhelming.

The Night Hawks is a group of metal detectorists who stumble upon a body on the beach. Soon after DCI Nelson has his hands full with two more bodies, the crime being an apparent murder/suicide. The two cases, although seemingly unrelated, have the same witnesses and anyone familiar with these books would know Nelson doesn’t believe in coincidences and, therefore, he and his team set out to investigate the cases and their connection.

The mystery plots to these books usually take a backseat to the soap opera lives of the characters but I felt Griffiths tried to switch the focus this time – with mixed results. There was a much larger body count and a slight twist at the end but there were so many plot holes and parts where Nelson and Co seemed so completely oblivious that it grated on my nerves.

Griffiths always adds a mythical spin to her mysteries and this time she used the Black Shuck. Legend says those that see this big black dog will know death. It was an interesting inclusion but I felt the dog could have been much more scary. I never truly felt any tension. Griffiths also tried to weave a bit of Gothic eeriness into the story with the house where the murder victims’ bodies were discovered. Again, it didn’t work for me much. (*shrug* at my Mood.)

I even felt the characters’ personal lives played out weakly this time around. Nelson and Ruth’s on again/off again romance usually has me mesmerised but I admit in The Night Hawks their relationship seemed a little tawdry and cheap. My patience, I think, is starting to run thin.

I am sounding rather negative but there was still plenty to like about the book – a plethora of red herrings, the setting is always a winner and I kind of liked the sound of the metal detectorists, tbh (Ruth would not be impressed with me). Also, Griffiths’s pacing always makes the books quick and easy reads and this book was no exception in this respect.

But as I finished The Night Hawks, I felt like the series might have run its course and Griffiths might be best to move on to a new one.

3 ½ out of 5

PS I’ve just seen on Goodreads that Griffiths has listed book 14 already – The Locked Room. You know I’ll probably snap it up when its released and hope that The Night Hawks was just a one-off miss for me

My Brother Michael

Book Review: My Brother Michael by Mary Stewart

Continuing with my Mary Stewart binge and continuing to wonder why only Moonspinners was ever turned into a movie. My Brother Michael, out of all the ones I’ve read so far, was by far the easiest to imagine being played out on screen, with perhaps a young Fox brother and a young Jane Birkin in the lead roles.

The start of the book is great. Our heroine, Camilla, has not long broken up with Phillip (I thought she had divorced, but I just read some other reviews which said it wasn’t specified, so I might have just assumed it was a divorce). She’s gone on a holiday to Greece where she finds herself complaining, via a letter she is writing to a friend whilst sitting in an Athens cafe, that nothing exciting ever happens to her. Thus, when a man hands her the keys to a sleek black car which has been hired for a ‘Simon in Delphi’ as a ‘matter of life and death’, she actually decides to deliver the vehicle, regardless of the obvious mistaken identity.

There is, of course, a Simon in Delphi. Simon has travelled to Greece to visit the site where his brother Michael died. He hasn’t arranged for a car though, so the pair set out to solve the mystery.

This book probably has the biggest body count of any of the Stewart books so far. It also gets the award for the most cigarettes smoked. LOL It does have the usual Stewart moments though — the dramatic car chase, the endlessly beautiful descriptions of a European country (this time, Greece and Delphi in particular) and its peoples, the heroine getting instantly and deeply involved in the complicated life of the hero and, thankfully, that strong feminist undertone with the plucky heroine finding a way to save herself instead of waiting for the man to sort her out.

Actually, the parts which turned Camilla into a weak female (her driving, her inability to keep track of her money) were played strictly for laughs and perhaps a bit of an up yours to the aforementioned Phillip. Even the rivalry between Camilla and the conniving other woman didn’t set back feminism as much as one expects when these types of storylines are thrown in.

Stewart’s romantic subplots are always so well done. This one was as understated as you can get while still being considered a romantic suspense.

I probably didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as Stewart’s other books though. I can’t really put my finger on why. It was still a great read, however, and hasn’t dampened my enthusiasm for Stewart.

4 out of 5

Five Dates with the Billionaire

Book Review: Five Dates with the Billionaire by Alyssa J Montgomery

I was pretty excited with this book at first. It showed great promise for the first couple of chapters. But…

The original premise is that Connor’s grandmother, Violet, is great friends with Mia and, after she has a heart turn, refuses to have corrective surgery until Connor and Mia go on five dates together. Violet is certain Connor and Mia are a perfect match and they’ll realise as soon as they start dating.

Sounded okay. But… It all went downhill rather quickly.

Mia is, of course, a 26 year old virgin. *eye roll* And even if I could get past that point we get cliche/trope number 2, which is that they agree on a brief affair so that she can lose her virginity to Connor, an expert at loving and leaving them. *eye roll*

Then there is cliche number 3. Mia works for Connor and, up until this point, he hadn’t looked at her twice because of her dowdy appearance. Suddenly, after a makeover from Violet, apparently Connor ‘sees’ the real Mia. Yeah, really? There’s too much botox and false eyelashes in the world now, so do we really have to perpetuate the idea that the only way a woman can still get noticed by a man in 2021 is from her appearance (and I mean noticed in a ‘you’re great at your job’ way as well as in a ‘let’s date’ way). Oh, Montgomery tries to explain away some of this plot point but it still comes down to the idea that a rich intelligent billionaire could only find worth in a hot woman, regardless of her intelligence or competence in her chosen career or sparkling personality. Blah.

There is a mystery plot thrown in too. Overall though, it’s completely unbelievable. The most interesting aspect of it was Violet and her old friend’s spy life but this wasn’t explored. Instead, we got just more about how Mia wearing dowdy clothes and unflattering glasses should never be an option for her again… (Do you sense how mad this storyline made me at all?)

There’s also the ‘other woman/ex wife is such a conniving bitch’ cliche, the ‘must kiss to avoid the baddie’ cliche, and the ‘you must be trying to get my grandmother’s money’ cliche. They are all tolerable but I don’t really understand why Montgomery didn’t just go with the original premise. If we had the book without the virgin and ugly duckling idiocy at least, it might have worked. Such a shame.

2 out of 5

Other People’s Houses

Book Review: Other People’s Houses by Kelli Hawkins

Hawkins’s debut is, on the blurb, compared to Woman in the Window and Girl on the Train and, for once, I must agree. There are a lot of similarities between the leads of those two books and Kate, the [perhaps unreliable] narrator of Other People’s Houses.

Kate is more than a bit of a mess. She’s an alcoholic. She works in a mind numbing job. She spends her spare time going to open houses where she fantasises not just about living in these houses but being part of the families of the current inhabitants. While attending one of the open houses, however, Kate witnesses something that makes her get far too involved in the personal lives of the house’s owners. And while Kate thinks it’s her duty to assist the family, the reader realises Kate is setting herself up to become the police’s prime suspect for a murder, or the killer’s next victim.

As the story progresses, we get to learn about Kate’s past in a series of ‘before’ chapters which, obviously, explains why Kate has spiralled into self loathing mode. I did like this part but, I will admit, at times I wanted more details and a bit more build up to the event which broke Kate.

I find a lot of books in this genre, especially those written in the first person, are pretty lacking when it comes to descriptive passages. Hawkins, however, shines here. I was viewing the palatial North Shore Sydney homes along with Kate, driving in her brothel of a car, waking up disoriented and hungover. Actually, overall, the writing is much better than the aforementioned Woman in the Window (which gets the award for most overhyped book ever). Her dialogue isn’t clunky and she never relied on the dreaded info dumps.

I still wanted more though. I felt that the climactic scenes were too short and I never felt quite as tense as I should. I also thought the twist was pretty obvious and kept waiting for something else which never eventuated. There were also a few plot holes. Why would a police officer called in to settle a pub fight be the same police officer investigating a murder, for example? Only the one copper in Sydney apparently…

Overall though, it was a pretty strong debut and a good fast paced read. If you’re a fan of domestic thrillers, I recommend giving it a go.

4 out of 5

Bleed For Me

Book Review: Bleed For Me by Michael Robotham (Joe O’Loughlin #4)

After enjoying Shatter so much, I picked up the next Joe O’Loughlin series book, Bleed For Me, immediately. I’m happy to report that Robotham has continued with the fenetic pace he set in Shatter and Bleed For Me is another winner.

Although, on reflection, I will admit that pace nearly shattered me in Shatter, so perhaps I might have appreciated a breather. Another one who wanted a breather is Julieanne, Joe’s wife. The sore point in their marriage is that Joe becomes too involved in his cases, and boy, is he guilty as charged in Bleed For Me.

Yes, without actively pursuing it, psychologist Joe gets extremely personally tangled up with a case once again. It starts with his teenage daughter’s best friend, Sienna, arriving at their cottage, covered in blood.  Soon the police find her father’s body and Joe is forced to investigate to ensure Sienna does not go to gaol or get committed to a psychiatric hospital for the crime.

Other than Sienna’s dad’s homicide, there is a lot of action with bombings, white supremists, paedaphilia, prostituion rings, jury tampering, self harm, stabbings, blackmail, poisioning… Yes, there are a lot of threads to the mystery plot but Robotham ties them all together and shows how they’re all linked in the end to give the reader a true resolution and satisfying conclusion.

I didn’t think the antagonist could get worse than the one Robotham gave us in Shatter but Bleed For Me’s main one is up there when it comes to disturbing characters. (I know these things go on in the world, but I would prefer to live in my little bubble sometimes.)

Although there is supposed to be two years passed, the book really seemed to follow on closely to Shatter. My favourite copper sidekick ever, Vincent Ruiz, is front and centre again (I laugh so hard at his lines). Other police characters introduced in Shatter also feature again including Veronica Cray. And, as I mentioned, Joe and Julieanne’s marital problems are still a major plot point.

Again Robotham sets Joe up for a fall and again, Joe obliges — spectacularly. I still adore Joe and I continue to cheer him on even when he’s not making the right choices. The poor guy does get tortured relentlessly by Robotham (There’s one part where I admit to blubbering like a baby and calling Robotham all sorts of names for the distress he puts Joe, and the reader, through.)

Easily a 5 out of 5 star read and highly recommended (but, as I’ve mentioned, definitely do not start the series with this book; it’s one I truly don’t see as standalone).