"Lillian Boxfish takes a Walk" by Kathleen Rooney

I need to keep a list of which blogger it is that recommends me which book - someone gave this novel a shout out, I fell in love with the cover and requested it straight away. I also fell in love with Lillian Boxfish too. So whoever it was who brought this book to my attention -thank you so much!

It’s the last day of 1984, and 85-year-old Lillian Boxfish is about to take a walk.

As she traverses a grittier Manhattan, a city anxious after an attack by a still-at-large subway vigilante, she encounters bartenders, bodega clerks, chauffeurs, security guards, bohemians, criminals, children, parents, and parents-to-be—in surprising moments of generosity and grace. While she strolls, Lillian recalls a long and eventful life that included a brief reign as the highest-paid advertising woman in America—a career cut short by marriage, motherhood, divorce, and a breakdown.

Lillian Boxfish is inspired in part by the life and work of the poet and ad woman Margaret Fishback- the real highest-paid female advertising copywriter in the world during the 1930s at R H Macy's. 

This is like "Mad Men for Women" - perhaps a parallel series when Peggy takes centre stage and gets to fully show off her talents- "Mad Men" crossed with a more upbeat, less serious Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet. Lillian is wry, witty, sharp, intelligent and fascinating. This is a swift 290 page enjoyable read about a memorable character full of colour, flair and edginess. 

"There once was a girl named Phoebe Snow. She wore only white and held tight to a violet corsage, an emblem of modesty. She was not retiring though, and her life spun out as a series of journeys through mountain tunnels carved from poetry. .......No there wasn't. She was just an advertisement." 

And so opens the novel and the story of Lillian Boxfish. 

Lillian Boxfish who is led to Manhattan and poetry by Phoebe Snow, applying for jobs with a short rhyme which lands her a position at the department store R H Macy's and the start of a successful career in advertising and poetry writing. Determined not to live the life of her mother who married and left behind her education to run an efficient household where ironically, she became a women who was quickly affronted by "anyone not living a life that fit the mould of her own- wifedom, motherhood....." Lillian bravely defies conventions from the outset.

It is the last day of the year and our bold, confident protagonist starts her walk around the city telling us about her career, marriage, family life and other key events in her past. The writing is fluent and well paced so you happily keep up with Lillian, hardly noticing the number of steps you're clocking up as you pound the streets alongside her; listening intently to her amusing, frustrating and interesting anecdotes. Her experiences, both professionally and domestically, offer real insights to the role of women in the 50s. Rooney has created a very natural narrative voice that is engaging- humorous, honest and entertaining rather than  informative or educative. Although Rooney clearly did her research thoroughly, this does not feel in any way like a history lesson or an author showing off every shred of detail they have gathered. I would have loved to listen to this as an audio book or on the radio to emphasise the feeling that Lillian was sat in the room talking to me. 

Lillian is a really remarkable character. She is hilarious. She is stylish, individual and determined. She is dedicated and focussed. She can talk her way in to and out of any situation. She thinks of herself as fashionably strange. 

"If you love something, know that it will leave on a day you are far from ready. I apply my Helena Rubinstein Orange Fire lipstick from one of the tubes I stockpiled in the 1950s. When I heard it would be discontinued, I bought twenty five. That lipstick fascinated me then, it fascinates me still: its colour, its spiral stripes, its waxy fragrance and ineffable taste. No cosmetic has ever suited me better."

She can be fierce and she can be brutal in her assessment of others, but it is so amusingly told, with such a dry and droll voice that you cannot help but grin. 

"I tried to twist my anticipatory wince into grin. I had only given Olive that assignment to make her feel better and keep her busy, and I had to resist the urge to hold her attempt with two fingers at arm's length, like something disgusting. Stay gentle Boxfish, I chided myself. Today may be the day she finally figures it out." 

But, as all the best comics knows, you can never mistake comedy for happiness, or good cheer for joy.  For example, she recognises the inequalities in the workplace and the obstacles in the way of any progression up the career ladder. I really smiled at the way Lillian voices her opinions and how her choice of language always creates effect.

"'Nobody asked these fellows with salaries to reproduce themselves,' I said, 'And were I ever to have a family, you wouldn't let me keep working here. Ladies get the boot the instant they show signs of spawning. Not that that matters to me, since I'd sooner die than join the wife-and-mother brigade.'"

But, inevitably, she does. And the tone of the novel changes. 

Marriage and motherhood take Lillian on a traumatic detour, one which is written with searing honesty. Again we are shown the complexity of Lillian's character despite her outward appearance, and these sections about her life with husband Max and the birth of her son are gritty, real and sensitive. 

Throughout the novel, Lillian brings us back to 1984 and I found her comments and reflections about the changes in advertising and the art of persuasion really pertinent. She constantly reflects on the absurdity of what she did for a job and how the effect these opportunities at R H Macys and her passion for her job both enhanced and damaged her life. 

The book ends with a moment of contemplation. 

"We drift- all of us - farther from the fraught spasm of midnight, settling into the fog of another year."

And perhaps one final inspirational quote from Ms Boxfish:

"My true religion is actually civility" 

"Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk" publishes on the 17th January.

For more recommendations and reviews please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk)

**AUTHOR POST** Leigh Russell

     

I'm am delighted to welcome Leigh Russell to my blog today with a guest post about location. 

Leigh will be appearing at the Bibliomaniac's Book Club event on the 18th January 2017 so keep your eyes peeled for more posts about this and with reviews of the evening. For more information about Bibliomaniac's Book Club, click on the link below:
Welcome to Bibliomaniac's Book Club

Leigh is a prolific crime writer with well over a dozen titles to her name. She writes the internationally bestselling crime series featuring police detectives Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson, which are currently in production for television. She also writes the mystery series featuring investigative reporter Lucy Hall.

Her most recent title "Deadly Alibi" is available on ebook already and the paperback is due out on the 25th May with No Exit Press. 

So without any more false starts up the garden path, let's get back to Leigh and here more about her writing process and the locations for her crime novels! Thanks so much Leigh for popping along today!

LOCATION 

So many elements combine to make a successful crime novel that it's difficult to pick out just one to write about!

            In my writing I started out by focusing on plot and character, at the same time considering social issues such as the problems following a character who ought not to be living in the community unsupervised, or some of the social issues surrounding gun crime.

            Location didn't play a significant role in my early books. In fact my detective, Geraldine Steel, begins her career working in a fictitious town in my debut novel, Cut Short. Although several scenes take place in a place loosely based on my own local park, much of the setting is made up.

            As I grew in confidence, I felt I ought to offer my readers more authentic locations. The description of a realistic setting can add another layer of interest to a narrative, if convincingly written. So in the fourth book in my first series, Geraldine moves to London, which is my home turf. From that point on, most of the scenes in my books are set in real places.

            The spin off series for Geraldine's sergeant, Ian Peterson, is set in York right from the start. My descriptions of the places are brief but detailed, attempting to convey the atmosphere of the city as well as its physical features.  

 

            Unlike Geraldine Steel and Ian Peterson, my latest protagonist isn't a police officer. The Lucy Hall series has given me licence not only to create a "savvy Nancy Drew of the modern era" (Trip Fiction), but the freedom to set my books anywhere in the world. The first in the series, Journey to Death, sees Lucy in the Seychelles. From there she moves to Paris and then Rome.

            At the moment I'm back in the UK writing the tenth Geraldine Steel book as the ninth, Deadly Alibi, has just been published. With two more Geraldine Steel books in the pipeline, and more planned after that, it looks as though I'll be busy describing different locations for quite a while!

Thanks so much Leigh! And I wonder, does planning for the Lucy Hall series involve thorough research on location? That sounds like it could be fun - and possibly affect the next location?!! Great to hear there are so many more books to come from you!

For my review of some of Leigh's books please click on the links below:
Deadly Alibi Review
Murder Ring: Review and Interview
Blood Axe Review



Here's a little bit more about Leigh Russell:

"From the moment I learned to read, writers drew me into their imaginary worlds. Never Never Land, Narnia, Wonderland, Treasure Island, Middle Earth, they were all so much more exciting than the world around me. 'One last chapter, just one more,' I'd beg every night when my parents told me to go to sleep. 'I can't stop now.'
Hooked on reading, I studied literature at university, and spent four years immersed in books. After that, I had a number of different jobs before becoming a teacher, a career that enabled me to share my enthusiasm for books with teenagers. Once again, I was spending most of my working week reading and discussing books. 

Despite reading so many books, for many years it never crossed my mind to attempt to write one myself. So you might wonder how I became a published author. F Scott FitzGerald's words describe my experience very neatly. "You don't write because you want to say something. You write because you have something to say." There I was, happily reading other people's books, with no plans to write my own, when the idea for a story popped into my mind. That moment changed my life.

Intrigued by a fictitious killer who had arrived, unbidden, to lurk in my imagination, I began to write his story. Having started, I could not stop. That story, Cut Short, was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger Award, and went on to become the first in a long running series. 

I now have three series to my name. My original detective inspector, Geraldine Steel, features in an ongoing series. Her sergeant, Ian Peterson, has his own spin off series as a detective inspector. Both of these series are in development for television and have been translated throughout Europe. My third series is a new departure for me as Lucy Hall does not work for the police, although she also investigates murders.

In the seven years that have passed since Cut Short was published, I've rarely managed to go a day without writing. What surprises me now, is that I didn't discover my passion for writing sooner. It's late, so I'm off to type one last chapter before I go to sleep... just one more... I can't stop now... "

If you would like to find out more about Leigh you can follow her on Twitter @LeighRussell or via her website http://www.leighrussell.co.uk/index.php

To find out more about Bibliomaniac's Book Club, or read more of my reviews and recommendations you can follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk)

**AUTHOR POST** SJI Holliday

 

It is my honour to welcome SJI Holliday to my blog today! Susi has written a trilogy set in Banktoun, each focuses on a different murder although there are also several threads running across the whole series as well.

Black Wood and Willow Walk are available to buy now and The Damselfly publishes on 2nd February 2017 by Black and White Publishing.

Today Susi is treating us to a guest post about her writing and the setting for her fictional Banktoun series. Thanks so much Susi!

BANKTOUN 

When the Setting Takes on a Life of its Own

When I started writing my first book, Black Wood, I already ideas for another two books to be set in the same small town: Banktoun. Three would be just right, I thought. You can’t kill off too many people in a small town unless you’re writing a series of Midsomer Murders!

I call Banktoun a fictional town, because I’ve taken a few liberties with the street names, cut off a chunk on the other side of the river to make it smaller and changed a few other things about, but it’s not really 100% fictional. It’s based on the small town where I grew up – about 15 miles south east of Edinburgh. I lived there until I left to go to university, and I worked in my dad’s shop from a young age, followed by our family pub and B&B – so I got to know a lot of interesting characters! In a town like this, there are always deep-rooted family secrets. People tend to know each other’s business, and there’s not much you can do to escape that – especially if you work in one of the town’s busiest pubs! I loved growing up there. I loved the feeling of community, the quirkiness of some of the people who lived there, the gossip… But it was suffocating too, and I left to seek out the bright lights of a big city (but I go back several times a year, and I still love it!).

By setting my first three books in this version of my own town, I was able to explore the secrets and lies of the community as I imagined them – taking snippets of real life events and mashing them up in my imagination. In Black Wood, a face from the past comes back to haunt an already damaged girl; in Willow Walk, the fair comes to town, and with it brings an undercurrent of unease, a stalker, and the horrors of herbal highs; and in The Damselfly, a young girl is murdered, whipping the town into a frenzy and leaving it bruised and damaged once more. I always thought that Banktoun had a shelf-life. A trilogy meant there would be enough time to develop the main character, Davie Gray (who was never even meant to exist, when I started writing the first book!) – but now I’m not so sure. It’s not just Davie. It’s the whole town, and the people who live there, and all the offshoots of them and their lives. So maybe three books aren’t enough, after all.

I might just have to write about Banktoun again.

* * *

Thanks so much Susi! It's so interesting to hear about the inspiration behind Banktoun! I for one (but I am certainly not alone) am hoping that Banktoun does not just stop at a trilogy! 

To read my reviews of Susi's books please click on the links below:

My review of The Damselfly by SJI Holliday
My review of Willow Walk by SJI Holliday

Susi will be appearing at Criminally Good Books on the 18th Jan 2017 (which is part of Bibliomaniac's Book Club) so please stay tuned to this blog to read more from the criminally good authors. To find out more about the Bibliomaniac's Book Club please click here:

Bibliomaniac's Book Club

S.J.I. (Susi) Holliday grew up in Haddington, East Lothian. She spent many years working in her family’s newsagent and pub before escaping to St Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh to study microbiology and statistics. She has worked as a statistician in the pharmaceutical industry for over sixteen years, but it was on a six-month round-the-world-trip that she took with her husband in 2006 that she rediscovered her passion for writing. After abandoning her first attempt at a paranormal thriller, she wrote hundreds of crime and horror short stories before finally sitting down to write the book she was always meant to write. Based on a true-life creepy event, Black Wood is the first of a loosely-linked series set in the fictional town of Banktoun. She lives in London, except when the magnetic pull of Scotland attracts her back, and she can usually be found in cafes, pubs, hanging around at book festivals and on Facebook and Twitter (@SJIHolliday). For more information please visit her website:  http://www.sjiholliday.com

For more reviews, recommendations, author interviews and Bibliomaniac's Book Club material please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 or sign up on this blogsite to receive future posts via email.

**AUTHOR POST** Angela Clarke

It is my great pleasure to hand over my blog today to Angela Clarke, author of the Social Media Murder Series, "Follow Me" and "Watch Me". 

Angela will be appearing at Bibliomaniac's Book Club event on Wednesday 18th January in Harpenden. Keep an eye on my blog for more posts about this! To find out more about Bibliomaniac's Book Club click on the link below:

Bibliomaniac's Book Club

Today she talks to us about "The Difficult Second Book". Thanks so much Angela for coming along today and chatting! 

The Difficult Second Book

People often say musicians struggle with that difficult second album. But what about authors? Can the same be said for that difficult second book?

I never set out to write a crime series, I never set out to write a crime novel. In 2014, I was trolled in response to some feminist posts I wrote. It didn’t last too long, but during the couple of days it did, the graphic rape threats (they helpfully sent pictures) and threats of violence I received left me frightened and more than a little perplexed. Until then, Twitter had been a safe space, somewhere I could find and interact with like-minded people. What would drive someone to brutally threaten a stranger just because they disagreed with something they wrote online?

I began to do some digging. I found out information about those who had sent terrifying rape threats to me. One was a father of two young girls who sat on his children’s school’s PTA. Another was a nineteen year old economics student at Warwick University, and female. If you want to know what they said, take a look at my novel Follow Me. I reproduced their intimidating messages word for word. If they wish to claim their work, I’m more than happy to credit them. That is what the trolls really gave me: grist for the mill.

I became fascinated with what drove people to behave badly online. Is it because, under the illusion of anonymity, we forget there is a real person on the other end of the internet? Whether we’re shaming, flaming, trolling or campaigning, you are talking about and too real people. Each of those words is striking another human being. Just how far would we go? If a killer was tweeting clues to their next victim, would we engage with them? Would we share their posts (even in the misguided notion that we might be helping)? Would we challenge the killer? Would we follow the killer online? From these kernels, grew a book about the internet. My Great Internet Book. About how technological developments like social media are changing the way we interact, changing how we live. How technology is advancing too fast for us to develop social etiquette, norms and laws in line with it. How in that lag, we are finding new ways to hurt people, and we’re making ourselves vulnerable.

When I presented My Great Internet Book to my agent she read it and said, ‘Darling, it’s full of dead bodies. You’ve written a crime novel.’ How exciting! I loved watching and reading crime, and in technology I’d found a niche. I write the Social Media Murder Series. The first, Follow Me, concerns trolling, and a tweeting serial killer, the second is themed on SnapChat, and explores revenge porn and online bullying.

Many of my crime writing pals, both on screen and in print, try to get rid of a character’s tech. We can all think of character whose mobile phone have no signal or battery. That way the character can’t call for help, or Google the answer to something. But that’s too easy. Far better is to have fun with the darker elements of our new toys. To make us think about what we open ourselves up to when we share so much online. Or even if we don’t. Did you know you could take a nude Selfie on your phone and immediately delete it, but a copy will be saved on the cloud unless you have actively disabled that option? That means you might never share that nude Selfie with anyone, but it could still be stolen from your cloud and published online. It could still be sent to your work colleagues, the parents of your children’s friends, it could still destroy your life. That’s an uncomfortable darkness we should all be aware of. We need to talk about these things. We need to educate ourselves and each other. We need to be kinder.

So, did I have a difficult second book? Oh no, because as long as we keep inventing new technology, and new ways to abuse it, I have plenty of material. Stay safe, guys.

Thanks so much Angela! This is really interesting and great to hear that there will hopefully be many more Social Media Murder books coming in the future!

To read my reviews of Angela's books you can click here:
My review of Watch Me by Angela Clarke
My review of Follow Me by Angela Clarke

Angela’s bestselling crime thriller Follow Me is out now. Watch Me was released on 12^th January 2017. Angela will be appearing at the Criminally Good Books event on the 18^th January 2017. 

You can follow her on Twitter at @TheAngelaClarke, and receive an exclusive free short story and insider industry information on getting published by signing up to her newsletter here: http://angelaclarke.co.uk/free/

You can follow me and Bibliomaniac's Book Club on Twitter @katherinesunde3 or by signing up on this blogsite to receive all future posts via email. 

"The Dry" by Jane Harper

Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. If one of their own broke under the strain then.......

Set in a small community in Australia, during a drought that is destroying the land, the farmers' livelihoods, marriages, friendships and lives. Aaron Falk, a Federal Police Officer who left Kiewarra twenty years ago, has returned to investigate the death of his childhood friend.

As Falks digs deeper into the mystery surrounding the murder of the Hadler family, he finds himself haunted by ghosts from the past and struggles to come to terms with the rejection he suffered from this community all those years ago, a rejection that which made him leave for a new life in Melbourne. Then the past becomes entangled with the present and the secret Falk thought he had buried long ago is brought back to the surface.

I read a few reviews of this book on Twitter and Facebook and decided it was my kind of story. I requested it immediately even though my TBR pile is in danger of toppling over and my diary for January is already rammed with books waiting to be reviewed...... But I *had* to have this book.

I am so glad I was lucky enough to get an ARC just before publication date and squeeze it in to my reading schedule as the reviews are right - it really is a bit of special book.

The opening is hugely atmospheric. Harper sets a scene of heat, death and decay through images of insects and nature which capture the affects of the drought on the landscape. Then she uses this imagery to reveal the scene of the murdered Hadler family. Although clearly this is a harrowing picture laid out in front of us, the sense of stillness, quietness and isolation makes the realisation of what we see before us even more hard hitting. The atmosphere of desperation is eerily conveyed through the weather and the landscape - a technique used throughout the whole novel with the drought becoming as much of a character as the protagonists. Harper's ability to capture the acrid dryness is impressive and I could almost feel the suffocating heat catching in my throat despite the fact it is actually snowing outside my window.

Harper's prose is full of evocative descriptions and effective dialogue.  I thought these sentences at the beginning of the prologue captured the essence of the character's suffering and sense of hopelessness.

"'It'll break,' the farmers said as the months ticked over into a second year. They repeated the words out loud to each other like a mantra, and under their breath to themselves like a prayer."

And the chilling last line of the prologue:

"So nothing reacted when deep inside the house, the baby started crying."

This idea of nothing reacting also hints at the numbness beginning to trickle through the community as behaviours and attitudes become so changed by the long term effects of the drought. It is an interesting exploration of a community under pressure and I liked that the pressure was a completely different kind from the usual ones found in crime thrillers.

Despite the oppressiveness of the heat, Harper's language blows through the pages like a fresh wind. Her writing is full of original imagery; she presents characters and situations through sentences that lack any cliches or well worn paths often trodden in this genre. This is a book that makes you pause, look up from the page and let the sentence sink in as you absorb and enjoy the picture or character created in front of you.

"How short was the road from the decision to this moment? The question ached like a bruise."

We are never allowed to forget about the dry and Harper's references are subtle and unforced yet permeate through the passages like the dusty footprints on the ground that follow everyone everywhere in this time of drought.

"a stern sign hanging from an egg timer next to the shower head had ordered him to keep ablutions to three minutes."

And another example of her writing style is when the Hadler family funeral takes place, we are reminded that the 13 month old Charlotte escaped death:

"No name spelled out in flowers for her" 

But her future would not be a happy one:

"Not many places to hide for a kid destined to grow up with the label 'lone survivor'."

Again this also captures the underlying sense of a small community in an isolated countryside. In fact, this novel is as much an exploration of the dynamics and workings of an insular community as an investigation of murder. I thought the setting almost felt post apocalyptic at times which was really effective as this implies a society where the rules are different and what becomes acceptable has changed - what can happen to a town which is suffering extreme circumstances.

"It's so bad Aaron. So bad. You can feel it. We're all walking around like zombies. Not sure what to do, what to say. Watching each other. trying to work out who'll be next to snap."

What is also interesting is the reaction to Luke's death. Although horrific, there is also a "parochial pity" as he is now "out of it, isn't he? While the rest of  us are stuck here to rot, he's got no more worrying about crops or missed payments to the next rainfall," which conveys the pressure the people are under. I thought this was a really interesting thing to explore and again, reinforced my feeling that this is a very different kind of crime story.

The main character is Aaron Falk. The story is told from mainly from his point of view as he refuses to believe his best friend Luke would kill his own family and refuses to accept that Luke could be a murderer or would commit suicide. He is convinced that someone else is responsible, that there is a murderer at large. Joining forces with the local police, Falk teams up with Raco to investigate the crime. Immediately there are hints that Luke and Falk have a hidden secret and something has happened to them in the past when they were teenagers. Harper's interjection of a short italicised phrase begins to infiltrate the pages and create a further atmosphere of unease and suspense.

"Luke lied. You lied."

Falk, Luke, Gretchen and Ellie were "teenage tight, where you believe your friends are soul mates and the bonds will last forever" and now, with both Luke dead and Ellie having died twenty years ago, it is only Gretchen and Falk left. But what happened between them? How did Ellie die and how is her death linked to the death of Luke? What does Falk know and what is he trying to hide? Why did he leave and what was he trying to escape?

I was drawn to Falk. Initially - and for almost two thirds of the book - he is a little aloof and reserved. He feels like a bit of a loner, a man who is secretive and insular. He is a great observer and a man troubled by something which is stopping him from moving on with his life emotionally. He is excellent at his job and relates well to people but for some reason he is disliked and some people are not pleased to see him return. He is well crafted, intriguing and Harper's ability to create a male protagonist with such authenticity and complexity is impressive.

I also like Raco, the local Police Officier. He felt more punchy; unafraid to ask the questions, cross the lines and is sharp, shrewd and objective enough to interpret more of what is going on around him. I enjoyed the developing the relationship between the two men and found the dynamics between them, their working and professional interaction, engaging. Raco often brings a little bit of pace and lightness to the storyline. He is clever and insightful and able to push Aaron in a way Aaron is restricted because of his ghosts from the past. He is also able to push Aaron to look for things that always been there but he's chosen not to see. I really enjoyed the increasing dramatic tension when Aaron had to relive conversations, look again at photos and rethink the things he thought he knew.

This novel does begin slowly - perhaps in keeping with the setting and temperature of Kiewarra - but the last third is absolutely compelling and it suddenly becomes a real page turner. I was completely gripped and could not be interrupted as I read on to the end, watching the revelations, realisations, twists, turns and last minute rug pulling moments leap from the page.

I enjoyed the way the story resolved itself - there is quite a lot of exposition and explanation but it is not superfluous; it is measured, considered and carefully executed. Just like the rest of Harper's writing.

To me, this novel seems to cross over a few genres. Yes, it is a murder story, yes there is mystery and crime, yes it is a police procedural novel but it is also a novel about friendship, about secrets, about hidden pasts. It is a novel about small communities, coming of age and the environment. It is not a page turner but it is intriguing. It is not a quick one sitting read but it is compelling and gripping. I really enjoyed it and actually, the last third of the book completely transformed my opinion. For the most part I thought it was a very well written crime story but by the end I thought it was a clever, multilayered story with a dramatic and climatic denouement that was hugely satisfying and left me staring blankly ahead beyond the pages as the final few revelations sank in.

"The Dry" might be a bit different from your usual crime thriller read, but I would recommend you read it. I think Harper offers something a little different and I really admired her writing. There is no way this reads like a debut and I can't wait for the next book from her!

"The Dry" by Jane Harper was published on 12th January 2017 by Little, Brown.

Thanks to the publishers Little, Brown and netgalley for the last minute approval and thanks also to all the bloggers who convinced me to read this book with their enticing reviews!

For more recommendations and reviews you can follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk)