Book Review: A Wedding at Sandy Cove by Bella Osborne
Another book which started out okay but…
The wedding of the title only plays a small part of the plot. There were some funny moments but the romantic relationships bored me a little.
The book was originally released as 4 x novellas, so make sure you don’t buy it twice. Maybe the plot was more suited for these shorter form installments.
I’m afraid I skimmed a fair bit.
2 out of 5
Book Review: Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths (Harbinder Kaur #3)
I’m really enjoying this new series from Griffiths featuring the female police detective Harbinder Kaur.
In this, the third book of the series, Harbinder has moved to London to accept a promotion to DI. Her first case is that of the murder of a politician at his school reunion. His school year has more than its fair share of celebrity and eminent classmates, including a famous actress, an equally famous singer, the school’s current principal, another politician and, coincidentally, one of Harbinder’s subordinates from her new station.
The mystery part of the plot was quite satisfying. Sometimes, I will admit, the soap opera of the characters’ lives in Griffiths’s books overshadow the mystery plots but I didn’t think this was the case with Bleeding Heart Yard. The action moved along at a nice pace and the conflict and resolution all made sense.
There were enough clues for the reader to ‘play along’ and I thought I had it all worked out, but Griffiths still caught me unawares with the final resolution and reveal. There’s a couple of topical themes Griffiths addresses in the book too, including date rape and gaslighting.
Harbinder continues to be a great lead character. She really slipped into the DI role in this book with ease and the authoritative position suits her personality. I hope she gets to lead her team for a few more books at least.
As with the other two books in this series, Griffiths also tells the story from the point of view of a couple of the supporting characters. This time it’s two of the school friends – Cassie, the other police officer, and Anna who I suppose you would describe as the least successful and underachieving member of their group.
I’m not sure why I left it so long to catch up on this series. I should have known that Griffiths always delivers.
5 out of 5
Book Review: Beneath the Shadows by Sara Foster
I did have a few issues with this book but somehow I still found myself rushing to finish and enjoying it.
The premise is great. Grace and her hubby, Adam, move from London to a remote cottage in the Yorkshire moors. One morning, Adam goes out for walk with their baby daughter and completely disappears. Grace only finds the baby, having been left alone in her pram, at their front door. Jump ahead one year and Grace returns to clean out the cottage with aspirations of hopefully finding some sort of clue as to Adam’s whereabouts.
Issue 1 – The bland supporting characters. Apart from Ben, a neighbour Grace employs to do some renovations at the cottage, they’re all rather boring. Especially Grace’s old male friend who wants to be more than a friend. *yawn* And (despite Foster trying hard to make her stand out) Grace’s boring whiney sister.
Issue 2 – The obviousness of some of the plot. You can see most of the ‘twists’ coming a mile off.
Issue 3 – ‘Why didn’t they think of that earlier?’ This sort of links to issue 2. Adam’s fate is revealed in the end and I’m flabbergasted that no one would have thought of it sooner. More of a plot hole than a plot twist.
The book does have some Gothic touches but, really, I’d call it a romantic suspense. I’ve been reading lots of Mary Stewart books and I thought there were glimpses of Foster trying to emulate her style.
As I said, despite the issues, I still liked this book and would read more by Foster in the future.
3 1/2 stars
Book Review: Lying Beside You by Michael Robotham (Cyrus Haven #3)
This is the third book featuring Cyrus Haven, a forensic psychologist, and his boarder, Evie Cormac, who comes with a pretty distressing personal history which was revealed in book two. I would personally not recommend anyone read the series out of order as there is a lot of back story for the two leads.
The main mystery plot this time revolves around the kidnapping of two women. It was good but it was the subplot of Cyrus’s schizophrenic brother, Elias, which had me hooked.
Robotham’s writing is, as always, superior to most other thriller writers out there. His plots don’t get convoluted and there’s always enough tension to have you flicking pages like crazy to reach the resolution. But… I’m just not a huge fan of Cyrus and Evie’s. Actually, it’s Evie, in particular, whom I find underwhelming.
I will admit to not being sure where Robotham is going with Cyrus and Evie. I’m not even sure where I want him to go with them myself.
I do know, however, that I love Joe O’Loughlin and Vincent Ruiz and they have probably ruined me a bit when it comes to this new series.
4 out of 5
Book Review: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
I had to read this for school and I remember I enjoyed it (rare, I think I hated 90% of the books they made us read). But, as this many many years ago, that’s about all I could remember. I didn’t even recall any of the plotline apart from knowing triffids were plants that eat people (and, let’s face it, everyone knows that whether they’ve read the book or watched the adaptations or not).
I would say this must be one of the first books which depicted end of civilisation and post-apocalyptic situations. Wyndham uses blindness as the ‘virus’ which wipes out most of the population after people go out and watch a meteor shower. Our hero, Bill, wakes up in hospital, where he was getting treatment on his eyes, to find chaos already reigning (in a scene very reminiscent to the first eppy of The Walking Dead). Afterwards, the deadly triffid plants, which had been until this time farmed and confined, are able to approach their victims without detection. This too has been done many times since, with most writers now just replacing the triffids with zombies.
As this was released in the 50s, there’s lots of communism paranoia metaphors you have to ignore. You also have to ignore the misogynism but I didn’t actually find it that bad and have read much worse. The triffids are a result of biological warfare, so Wyndham did predict this charming development correctly.
The triffids were quite creepy throughout, especially when they’re surrounding houses etc, waiting for the blind occupants to come out in search of food. The ending was well done and, again, has been copied quite a few times since.
I’m definitely going to give Wyndham’s other books a go.
4 out of 5
Book Review: The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman (Thursday Murder Club #2)
After reading Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders, I decided to pick up the sequel to The Thursday Murder Club, the book of which Horowitz’s reminded me. Yes, they have similarities, but Osman’s books are pretty much written strictly for laughs.
I actually preferred the mystery plot in this sequel. It’s more of a spy thriller with a comic twist than any type of tense thriller. There’s quite a bit going on including stolen diamonds, drug dealers, spies, a couple of murders and the mafia, all involved in a series of double crosses and heist-like storylines. Think the movie Sneakers, or even Ocean’s Eleven, with a group of oldies from a retirement village in the leads.
The humour in this book is what sets it apart though. I read it in public a couple of times and people really must have thought I was quite mad. I could barely get through a page without laughing like an idiot.
I don’t think you should pick this one up before reading The Thursday Murder Club. Osman didn’t really bother explaining who everyone was and how they were connected. I can’t see why you wouldn’t want to read both anyway.
Strong 5 out of 5 and officially my favourite read of the year.
Book Review: Moonflower Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Susan Ryeland #2)
I started reading this pretty much straight after book one, Magpie Murders, and I’m happy to report I enjoyed it just as much, maybe more.
I was wondering how Horowitz was going to pull off another mystery for Susan to solve, considering the way the two in Magpie Murders were presented and resolved. This time, our heroine Susan is hired by the Trehearnes, the parents of a missing woman. The Trehearnes own the Moonflower Motel where a brutal murder occurred about eight years previous. A man was arrested for the crime but, right before she went missing, Cecily Trehearne read an Atticus Pund novel and realised the authorities had arrested the wrong man. So Susan agrees to assist the family by using her inner knowledge of the Atticus Pund novel, which she had edited, to hopefully find Cecily and discover who really committed the Moonflower murder.
I thought the placement of the Atticus Pund book within the book was better this time. In Magpie Murders you read the Pund mystery almost from the start, go to the present day mystery with Susan, before finding the resolution of both mystery plots towards the end. This time Susan investigates quite a bit of the present day mystery before Pund’s story is interjected into the novel.
There were lots of twists in both the historical Pund mystery and the present day one. I puffed my chest out when I realised I’d worked out one part of the mystery but then came thudding back to earth when Horowitz revealed the multiple riddles and clues I’d missed throughout.
I think Horowitz could write more for this series and, frankly, I hope he does. They’re a lot of fun.
5 out of 5
Book Review: Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz (Susan Ryeland #1)
I’ve read and loved Horowitz’s The Word is Murder. In that, the twist was that Horowitz himself was a character. Again with Magpie Murders, Horowitz has added a bit of a meta twist to the usual mystery novel by writing a book within a book.
Susan Ryeland is best selling author Alan Conway’s editor who receives Conway’s latest manuscript, Magpie Murders, to read. Only, when she gets to the end, she realises it’s not the end and it’s missing the last, vital for a whodunnit, chapters. Pursuing the missing pages Susan discovers Conway has fallen to his death, a presumed suicide. However, Susan believes Alan has been murdered, complicating matters as she now has two mysteries to solve.
The ‘book’ mystery plotline is a traditional one, set just after WW2 and features a fictional Poirot-like detective, Atticus Pund. Horowitz’s style borrows heavily from that era’s formulaic whodunnit with a dimwitted sidekick, and a plethora of suspects, motives and red herrings. This familiarity with the likes of Christie and Sayers is actually part of the plotline for the ‘real life’ mystery featuring Conway.
I enjoyed both storylines. At one stage I was thinking I liked the present day one more but then, towards the end, I realised how invested I was to learn the resolution of the historical one, so Horowitz definitely sucked me into both worlds with ease.
No, I guessed neither outcome. I wasn’t even warm.
I thought Susan was a fabulous character and have immediately started the sequel. I also jumped in and watched the tv show based on the book since finishing and, although it’s quite different in parts, it keeps the book’s spirit and I also thoroughly enjoyed the adaptation (which Horowitz also obviously wrote as the bulk of his career has been as a screenwriter).
5 out of 5
This is the last Joe O’Loughlin book (for now) and this makes me so sad. I really recommend you read these books in order and the first, Suspect, remains my favourite. In Suspect Joe is helped out by his father, William, an eminent surgeon who was so easy to imagine with his very traditional English ways and crusty exterior. As such, I was torn about the plotline Robotham introduced in The Other Wife and I had a bit of trouble reconciling that William with the one in this book.
William is found beaten and in a coma, leading Joe to [obviously] investigate. The more Joe digs, the more family secrets he unearths which leads to an unexpectedly long list of suspects with motivations for harming the good doctor. Joe doesn’t find any support from the DC assigned to the case this time around but he does, of course, call in Ruiz to help out (yay!).
There were a lot of unexpected twists with this story and I really had no idea where Robotham was going to leave the characters and most of my tension stemmed from my panic he was going to kill someone off.
I adore Joe and Ruiz and feel bereft that we have to part ways. I am consoling myself that at least there’s a new Cyrus Haven book out.
5 stars and hoping Robotham revisits Joe again one day.
Book Review: The Girl Before by JP Delaney
I noticed this on one of my streaming services and realised I already owned the book, so I thought I’d quickly read it before I watched but… Hopefully it comes across better on screen. I found a lot of The Girl Before mostly cringe-worthy and convoluted.
The premise is that Jane, suffering from PTSD following a stillbirth, moves into an architecturally designed mansion with affordable rent on the proviso she agrees to a long list of rules. These rules focus on minimalistic living so that no mess or clutter is on display — no books, photos, kids, pets, blah blah. This is ridiculous but even more silly is the controlling way the house is set up – you wave your bangle to obtain everything from running water to gas on the stove – with apparently no manual override.
Jane is one of a series of women who have lived in the house. Emma is the girl before of the title who was killed in suspicious circumstances. The story is told from both Jane and Emma’s point of view, and most of the plotline is their relationship with the house’s designer owner, Edward, and Emma’s boyfriend, Simon.
To be blunt, I can really tell this book was written by a man. The women either manipulate the men to get what they want or rely on the males to ‘save’ them. There’s some sex scenes and nearly all of them are tedious and distasteful. Then, I realised Delaney was writing them this way deliberately as a sort of plot/characterisation point and this put me off further – judging people’s characters because of their sexual tendencies is just as degrading.
There’s more than one twist; some worked, some definitely did not. The ending too was convoluted.
I suppose some might enjoy this book but I was not a huge fan. Maybe it’s another one which could work for the younger reader who hasn’t read a lot in the genre as yet. 2 ½ out of 5
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