Grand Prize: Murder! by Vivian Conroy

I like Vivian Conroy's writing. I enjoyed her Lady Alkmene series which are historical cozy crime novels set in the 1920s and this is the second in Conroy's new series, The Country Gift Shop Series, which is as pleasing and charming. Conroy's novels do all that their attractive covers suggest. They are cozy. They are crime stories. They are easy to read, enjoyable and well paced.

The cover and the series title perhaps suggest something quite twee but although the influence of Miss Marple is clearly an influence for Conroy, there is something a little bit more quirky and humorous rather than saccharine about these books. And they are crime stories so there is blood, there is murder, there is violence and police investigations. There are all the elements a reader wants and needs to make the stories compelling and Conroy ensures that you are engaged with the story and characters so that you want to read on until the end.

Although this is book 2 in the series, it doesn't matter if you haven't read book 1 as Conroy swiftly brings everyone up to date in the first chapter with a succinct summary of all you need to know. But to be honest, these are light and easy reads at around 220 pages so it won't take you long to catch up if you want to start from the beginning!

We return to Glen Cove and to Vicky Simmons and her gift shop. This time, Vicky is awaiting the arrival of Bella Brookes who is a cozy crime author coming for a book signing and to open Glen Cove's One Mile Book Market. There's also going to be a scavenger hunt - which I thought was an inspired idea for any book signing event as well as a rather clever plot device!

I think Conroy had quite a lot of fun writing this novel and she must have enjoyed writing about a cozy crime author and a book event! Bella Brookes is a fantastic, larger than life character who the readers loves to love, cringe at, feel frustrated by and maybe even hate as she has so much self confidence and such a sense of self importance. Her flamboyancy and then her rudeness are well evoked and she makes a for a character who leaps of the page with her vitality and personality. The effect she has on the people around her is amusing and I really enjoyed the description of her arrival at the party. Nor does she fade or whither when accused of being a suspect in the murder.

But she is not the only colourful character - there are many more here in Glen Cove. And as well as the interlopers and visitors, there are also the steady, quiet, reliable and honourable employees at the gift shop, the police department and in Vicky's group of friends. They are a great bunch to spend some time with and it was enjoyable to watch the relationships developing as the second novel continued.

Of course I cannot include spoilers so I cannot reveal any more about the characters and the storyline but I would recommend these books. They should be on every readers book shelf, ready for when you fancy some escapism, light relief or a good thriller that will give you enough clues, hints and revelations without dragging you into anything too violent or stomach churning. Recommend!

Grand Prize: Murder is out in ebook on 15th March 2017.

Vivian Conroy

Vivian Conroy discovered Agatha Christie at 13 and quickly devoured all Poirot and Miss Marple stories. Over time Lord Peter Wimsey and Brother Cadfael joined her favorite sleuths. Even more fun than reading was thinking up her own fog-filled alleys, missing heirs and priceless artifacts. So Vivian created feisty Lady Alkmene and enigmatic reporter Jake Dubois sleuthing in 1920s London and the countryside, first appearing in A PROPOSAL TO DIE FOR (published by Carina UK/Harper Collins). Now she has created the contemporary Country Gift Shop Mysteries published by HQ Stories.

@VivWrites
@HQStories @HQDigitalUK

For my reviews of Vivian Conroy's other titles please use the links below:
Dead To Begin With #1 Country Gift Shop Series
A Proposal To Die For #1 Lady Alkmene Series

For more recommendations and reviews you can follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk) or sign up to receive future posts via email. Thank you!

The Lauras by Sara Taylor

The Lauras is the new novel from the exceptionally gifted author of The Shore, which was long listed for the Baileys Women’s Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year.

"I didn’t realise my mother was a person until I was thirteen years old and she pulled me out of bed, put me in the back of her car, and we left home and my dad with no explanations. I thought that Ma was all that she was and all that she had ever wanted to be. I was wrong."

As Ma and Alex make their way from Virginia to California, each new state prompts stories and secrets of a life before Alex. Together they put to rest unsettled scores, heal old wounds, and search out lost friends. But Alex can't forget the life they've left behind.

To be honest it was the quotes from other authors that made me want to read this book. If Ali Smith and Helen Dunmore are referring to this novel as 'eloquent', 'engrossing', 'extraordinary' and claiming that Taylor is a  'A writer of real gravitas and potency,' (Ali Smith) then this book has to be worth investigating! Having read a lot of thrillers recently I was looking for something which would offer me a bit of a change and this was definitely the right choice! 

I knew from the first line of the first chapter that I was going to enjoy this novel. The storyline was going to be secondary to me, the thing I knew I was going to enjoy was the writing. From the opening, I was caught up by Taylor's stunning prose and elegant writing. 

"I could hear them arguing......... I could feel one doing like the promise of a storm thickening the air........I listened to the rise and fall of their voices for hours some nights, for as long as it took for them to gradually calm."

But this night, when the voices went from "full pitch to silent in a moment", Alex knew something was wrong. Her mother is suddenly at her door, dragging her out of bed, into the car and driving away from the house and Alex's father. 

"That twenty-four hours, starting with the moment we left home, was burned into my memory. ..... I can't forget the grease and the smoke, the flannel on the skin, the fear of realising that my life was taking a ninety-degree turn." 

And off they go. Ma and Alex. On a journey from Virginia to California, to the places Ma had lived as child and as a teenager; places she lived in foster care, run away from and places full of secrets that only now was she ready to share with her daughter. Her mother is going to "write in the details" as if the "stories had finally backed up in her and she had to let them out." 

Told from Alex's point of view this is as much her mother's story as Alex's. Alex's observations and insights about her mother are poignant, often revealing a troubled person and someone who has suffered trauma, but always utterly exquisitely conveyed with beautiful description and imagery. I could not help but become enraptured with both characters and totally absorbed in their journey - both physical and emotionally. Even though Alex is 13 and her mother's daughter, Taylor manages the narrative in such a way that it is effective and works very well. It feels authentic and real.

I felt great empathy for Ma as her past was revealed and the obstacles she has overcome explained. Although she has taken Alex away from their family home, and then often leaves her for hours in small, cheap accommodation while she goes off to work, and although she uproots Alex again and again as their journey requires, she is a character who evokes sympathy and interest. A lot of her past is told to us through Alex as she recounts the stories her mother is now choosing to share about her life but this cleverly seems to create a closeness to both characters rather than any sense of distance or that we are learning things too vicariously. To be honest I was so mesmerised by the prose I was completely carried along anyway and just couldn't help but keep highlighting passages of writing that I found truly striking. 

The Lauras is just as much of a coming of age story about Alex too. This drive across the states with her mother is just as much an emotional journey for Alex as it is her mother and just as much a revelation and learning for her character as it is her mothers. There is so much in this book about fitting in, hiding and disguising yourself, wanting to belong and wanting to shield yourself that there are pages and pages of pertinent, insightful, well written observations and comments about people and the relationships formed between them. And Alex is a dignified, thoughtful, reflective narrator whose expression is remarkable and arresting. Her descriptions of the people she meets - particularly at school - are vivid.

"[They] talked over each other until their voices blended together in a counterpoint of contradiction." 

And then there are the Lauras; Ma's friends and the people who have had pivotal roles in her life or been at her side during significant moments in her childhood, teenage and adult life. 

"Why do all the women in your stories have the same name?" Alex asks as we meet more and more of these Lauras over the course of the novel. Ma's reply is lengthy and detailed, but it is very moving too and more a description of how influential friendships and people can be at particular moments in your life. It reveals even more about the holes in Ma's life, the emptiness, the emotional deprivation and the constant search to recreate something meaningful with people. Taylor uses the Lauras to contemplate the effect of loss and the way in which perhaps our mind seeks out connections it thinks will bring it happiness and security - the way perhaps we seek to make ourselves fulfilled and happy without truly being able to see what is actually happening to us. 

This isn't a sad novel, it is not a heavy going novel. There are some difficult truths acknowledged and there are some passages that are full of raw, realistic and very honest writing about taboo subjects and the ugly nature of relationships and parenting but I did not find it an oppressive read or depressing. I was caught up in the journey with Alex and Ma and I wanted to find out all about them. I was waiting with Alex until her mother gave her the answers she was waiting for and told her the stories she wanted to hear. I was completely transfixed by the relationship between Ma and Alex and the dynamics between them as they traced back a life of hardship and struggle. I devoured the pages and devoured the development of the characters. I hung on Alex's words and was constantly impressed with Taylor's exposition and writing. 

"I didn't have the child's blind trust in the omnipotence of parents anymore. I had eaten the apple and now knew that Ma was just like me, that she probably didn't know what to do right now anymore than I would, that her only advantage was a rapidly narrowing gulf of experience." 

Taylor's prose is without doubt eloquent, captivating and vivid. The Lauras is without doubt a beautifully observed novel with stunning writing and engrossing characters. 

I'm so glad I requested this book on a whim and I feel so massively rewarded from Taylor's writing. It is excellent literary fiction.  I shall definitely be reading her first book The Shore, and looking out for anything else she writes in the future.

If you like Ali Smith, Helen Dunmore and Margaret Atwood then you will enjoy this!

The Lauras is available in Hardback and as an ebook and will be published in paperback on 6th April 2017 by Windmill Books.

For more recommendations and reviews please follow me on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk) or sign up to receive future posts via email. Thanks!

The Sister by Louise Jensen

The opening is so mysterious as we meet our protagonists in a forest, in the dark, in the wet and squelching through mud with a shovel and "heartbreak heavy legs." The final lines of this short enticing section finishing with the intriguing sentence:

"The dampness of the leaves and earth seep through my trousers, as the past seeps through to my present."

Shiver.

Meet Grace. Meet Charlie. Best friends since childhood. Different enough but similar still that the bond between them is deep and strong. But Charlie has died and Grace is devastated. She wears a half heart necklace "forever on a chain around my neck" which is "desperate to be whole again." She has a  boyfriend Dan who loves her but Grace's heart seems broken by the death of her friend and she's clearly struggling to move forward. Digging up an old memory box that the friends buried years before, Grace finds a letter and realises that perhaps she never really knew her friend after all.

"Can you ever really know someone? Properly know someone?"

The book is divided into two narratives, "Now" and "Then" and I liked that they weren't always alternating told and that the we often stayed with one of them for a few chapters before switching. This increased the tension and kept the reader glued to the page, desperate to return to the past and find out what happened in the lead up to Charlie's death and desperate to stay in the present and find out what was happening to Grace.

Grace's life is unravelling. She has a traumatic past for which she carries blame and guilt and now with the death of her best friend she seems rudderless, drifting dangerously into a haze of depression. Her relationship with Dan is under pressure as "Grief has pulled us apart like repelling magnets," with a "gulf between us that we just can't bridge." So finding a letter from Charlie, Grace is given purpose by wanting to know just what her words meant and then also deciding to track down Charlie's father as was Charlie's last wish.

The story is narrated by Grace and the reader cannot help but form a deep attachment with her. When she recounts scenes from her childhood, scenes from when she first started at a new school, tried to make new friends, tried to process what she had been through, it's impossible not to feel empathy for her. The detail and emotive manner of Jensen's writing made me feel like I was always at Grace's side, always with her at every moment however sad, happy, special, confusing or upsetting. In fact, this book is one of those stories where your are screaming at the page as you watch the drama unfold in front of your eyes, desperate to leap in and help Grace realise what is going on around her and desperate to give some of the other characters a piece of your mind.

By screaming I obviously mean with your inner voice.. ... well, I hope it was an inner voice although I'm pretty sure the way I was leaning forward into my kindle as if I might dive through into the screen because I was so gripped by the story and the way I sighed rather too loudly when the train reached my stop, was probably a little unnerving for my fellow commuters.....

But don't you just love a book that makes that happen to you?

I do.

The story rattles along with Grace's attempts to find Charlie's father and to work out what Charlie's letter meant but as she does, other things start going wrong around her. Is she being followed? Why is Charlie's mum so angry with her? And then as we head back into the past, what happened to the friendship group Grace and Charlie were part of at school? Why did the group of four girls disintegrate? What did happen to Grace's family and why does she think she is responsible for the death of her father? Why is she blamed for the death of Charlie?

Jensen does such a fabulous job of making us wonder whether Grace is to be trusted - her grief, her projection of what she wants to be true, the realisation that she is strongly medicated and therefore how reliable she really is challenge us and confuse us. We want to be on Grace's side but Jensen is toying with us, dropping small hints and clues that nothing is as it seems. But we want to believe Grace and we want her to uncover the truth.

Then Anna arrives. Charlie's long lost sister. Grace wastes no time in welcoming Anna into her house her life, her heart even, so desperate is she to get something of Charlie back in her like. But Anna, oh yes, Anna. Wow! Fantastic!

Anna is delightfully terrible. I loved that she gave the appearance of someone vulnerable, gentle, kind and innocent yet you knew she was none of those things. You just can't prove it. And you just can't get Grace to see it! I'm currently hooked on the BBC drama "The Replacement" and this relationship between Anna and Grace really reminded me of the central relationship in the programme. It was at this point that I felt Jensen really upped her game and demonstrated her skill as a thriller writer who can create characters that are vivid and compelling and a storyline that is tightly controlled and full of twists.

When I started reading The Sister I was engaged and enjoying it. I loved the complexity of Grace's character as she tried to juggle her job, her relationship, her grief and her memories of the past. I liked the hints, the clues, the half revelations about the characters which was so effective in making me read on and is what makes the first half so suspenseful. This was a psychological thriller; it ticked all the boxes for the kind of read I enjoy and Jensen was successfully following the form of this genre. I was happily reading along. I was turning the pages. I was intrigued and invested in the story. But I wasn't blown away.

And then I was.

Completely. And utterly. Blown away.

I could not read the last third fast enough. My body was tense, my hands twitching, my eyes racing to read on as my head keep asking more questions, trying to keep up with everything Jensen was revealing, everything that was spiralling out of control and everything that each of the characters had to say. And answers - I wanted answers! Every time I thought I had one, Jensen would throw something else in there to complicate things, add a twist, a turn, a shock which just opened up more questions, more tension, more panic- and made the connections that I was trying to link together more tangled.

I really enjoyed The Sister. It is a great debut novel and I am delighted that I also have The Gift - Jensen's second novel, downloaded on my kindle too. I know it won't be long before I abandon my TBR pile and slot it in as I'm sure it will be as excellent as this one!

A really fantastic, gripping, multilayered book about friendship, love, mistakes, secrets and lies. Absolutely well worth a read!

Just remember:

"We all have different sides, I think. The things we share. The things we keep hidden. The good, the bad. The truth, the lies."

The Sister was published as an ebook in July 2016 and in paperback August 2017.

Louise Jensen is very active on social media and I follow her (ok, ok, so I stalk her) on Twitter and via her blog, Fabricating Fiction. She is a great author to follow as her blog posts often have author interviews, insights into her writing process, her latest flash fiction stories and lots lots more. It's definitely one of my favourite blogs - it has a lovely, distinctive design too!

You can follow her blog here fabricating fiction and follow her on Twitter @Fab_fiction

LOUISE JENSEN

Louise Jensen is a No. 1 bestselling author of psychological thrillers. Her debut novel 'The Sister,' was published in July 2016 and reached No. 1 in the UK where it stayed for over 5 weeks, and it also hit No. 1 on the Canadian Amazon chart, No.1 in Apple's iBooks and is listed as a USA Today Bestseller. It was the 6th biggest selling book on Amazon in 2016.

'The Gift' Louise's second book, was published in December and within a week of release gave Louise her second No. 1 in 2016 both in the UK, where it stayed for over a 5 weeks, was No. 1 in  Canada and is also a USA Today Bestseller. 

To date Louise has sold over 700,00 books and her novels have been sold for translation in fifteen territories. Louise was nominated for the Goodreads Debut Author of 2016 Award.

Louise also writes flash fiction, and features and articles for both magazines and online publications. Louise specialises in writing about mindfulness, chronic pain and mental health.

louisejensen.co.uk

MORE ABOUT LOUISE JENSEN:

When I was little I was obsessed by Enid Blyton. Her characters were so real to me they became my friends. I often huddled under my covers, stifling my yawns and straining my eyes, as I read 'just one more page' by torchlight. 
Mr Townsend, my primary school English teacher always encouraged my love of literature, and it wasn’t long before I’d read everything my school had to offer. The first book I created was six pages long, had stick-man illustrations and was sellotaped together. I was immensely proud of it. Writing was a huge part of my life, until one day it wasn’t.
I can’t remember ever making a conscious decision to stop writing but it became easier to act on the advice I was given - ‘grow up and get a proper job’ - and my dreams were tightly packed away, gathering dust for the next twenty years.
My thirties were a car crash. Literally. I sustained injuries which when coupled with a pre-existing condition forced me to radically change my lifestyle. I felt utterly lost and utterly alone. Always an avid reader I began to devour books at an alarming rate. ‘You’ll have read every book in here soon,’ my local librarian said. ‘You’ll have to write your own.’
And there was a flicker, a shift, a rising of hope. I grasped that nugget of possibility and I wrote. I wrote when I was happy. I wrote when I was sad. I wrote when I was scared and in-between writing, I read, read and read some more.  Words have the power to lift, to heal. They have illuminated my world, which for a time became very dark.
As Anne Frank said ‘I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.’


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

The Place That Never Existed by Jim Ody

For Paul and Debbie it was meant to be the happiest time of their lives – a small village wedding in front of their family and friends, followed by a quiet honeymoon in Devon. Not everyone was happy to see them together. Someone from the past was intent on ending their marriage before it had really started. Now, supposedly away from it all in a picturesque log cabin, Paul and Debbie find themselves in the midst of mysterious happenings. Unexplained disappearances with people turning up dead, and all of it centred on the site of an horrific murder. A place the locals wish was a place that never existed.

When you pick up this book, make sure you have settled somewhere with all the lights on, a supply of tea (or something stronger if you are of a nervous disposition) and enough biscuits to get through at least the first chapter - after that your stomach will be too tense to eat, even with the mouth watering descriptions of delicious meals and snacks Paul and Debbie keep trying to distract themselves with rather than accepting what strangeness surrounds them. Because reading this book is like watching "The Blair Witch Project" crossed with "The Hand that Rocked the Cradle"; it has the feel of a cinema blockbuster. Ody has combined all the perfect elements of a story that makes you too scared to turn the light off at night and too scared to ever stop at a service station again.

The opening chapter really had me interested. Paul and Debbie, out walking in the forest stumble across a derelict house.

The aura of a forgotten house that was sat in such beautiful forest surroundings should be idyllic, but somehow there was an unspoken sinister presence that instantly put you on edge. A spine tingling feeling aroused by one too many horror movies of deserted houses in the woods just like this. 

I can't resist an empty house, an isolated location, no phone signal and a loved up couple. Ody gave me the magic ingredients for a story and I couldn't help but let out a bit of an "ooohhhhh" in anticipation- in my inner voice obviously otherwise it would have just been embarrassing.... *blushes*

I liked that Ody acknowledged the comfortable, well worn path he was treading with his protagonists being a couple, in the middle of nowhere, entering a house and then all the subsequent suspicions and events that came from this decision to cross the threshold when they shouldn't have. I liked that he often reminded us of well known scary horror films and other contemporary crime writing authors as I found it quite playful and it probably helps the reader to buy in to a few situations when the reader might challenge the character's actions. Like when someone decides to enter an empty, dark house and then walk all the way down into the dark dark cellar with no protection and without anyone knowing they are there!

Ody has a very wry voice at times and his humour filters through the pages. I particularly liked Paul's reflection at the beginning of the story about the fact they were honeymooning on a tight budget in the back of beyond - not what they had ever imagined for their special holiday. And especially not with all the strange goings on that they had managed to get mixed up in.

A five star hotel in the Maldives wouldn't have offered them such adventure. Just the boredom of warm white sands, a cyan coloured sea lapping at their feet with cocktails, in their own paradise, Speedos and bikinis, sunburn and coconut lotion, relaxing and reading the day away. Awful. 

Ody also has some fun by changing writing style a few times to incorporate lists. For example when we meet two new characters who are about to break up, Ody takes us through a bullet point presentation of the emotions a woman will be through after a break up. I have never come across the term 'post relationship funeral' but it is a great explanation! I also enjoyed his description of Chrissy and how he was able to convey so much about her through one or two comments:

He had looked nervous and she had looked at her bare finger and hoped that it would soon have a ring on it. 

But ultimately, smiles aside and despite Paul and Debbie's generally positive attitudes and sunny personalities, this is a dark tale of obsession, revenge, secrets and relationships. Ody is always able to deliver these moments of shock effectively with lots of dramatic impact:

he thought it best not to let her know about the text message. And of course, neither of them knew about the small black tract box underneath the Jeep.....

There are plenty of sentences that get under your skin, that unsettle you and his straight talking lines of prose can be very evocative.

Could a place actually be evil? Even without the person being there, a dark residual aura hanging over the place and polluting the air?

So are you settled in that chair? Well hurry up because Paul and Debbie haven't got long. You don't want them disappearing like the people in the novel! I would recommend this novel. It's very readable, very accessible and a good mixture of crime, horror and psychological drama. Enjoy!

My thanks to Emma (@emmamitchellfpr) for letting me on the Blog Tour and for the advanced copy to read and review. Don't forget to look out for the stops over the next few days. there are lots of reviews but also guest posts and author interviews which will be well work reading.

JIM ODY

As a child Jim wanted to be a truck driver - more specifically Kris Kristofferson in the movie 'Convoy', however somehow this never happened, nor did he ever smuggle moonshine in Hazzard County, find treasure with his buddies in the Goondocks, or hunt sharks on Amity Island. He did win ‘The Spirit Of Judo’ award as a seven-year-old, and have published his design of a ‘Dog-Walking Machine’ in an English text book at the age of ten; so every cloud and all of that…

Jim has had poems and articles published on a number of websites, and for eight years, was a weekly music reviewer for a popular music website where he got to meet bands and see free gigs.

Jim has published two books 'Lost Connections' and 'The Place That Never Existed', and had his short story, 'The Moth In The Jar' selected and published in the charity anthology 'Dark Minds'.

Jim lives with his wife and three children in Swindon, Wiltshire, and is currently writing his next novel 'A Cold Retreat' (due out in summer 2017); and more than likely eating chocolate. And watching football.

@Jim_Ody_Author

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

Born Bad by Marnie Riches

I discovered Marnie Riches last year when I read Book 3 in her Georgina McKenzie series. I was really impressed with it and you can read my review here (my review of girl who walked in shadows). I immediately downloaded books 1 and 2, and have since bought book 4. Please  whatever you do, don't tell Marnie but I just haven't managed to read them yet.....and I really have no excuses. 

It's not a good week for me with all these confessions of unread books. I am in danger of having to change my name from Bibliomaniac to Bibliophobe.

But the good news is that Born Bad is a new standalone crime thriller from Riches so I was extremely pleased when I was offered an ARC in return for an honest review. And for the first time this week, I wouldn't be out of step with a series but starting at the beginning at the adventure alongside all the other fans of her books! I was also excited to read more of Riches work as even though it is a year ago, I remember The Girl Who Walked in the Shadows and her great characterisation of McKenzie.

So, what is Born Bad all about?

When gang leader Paddy O’Brien is stabbed in his brother’s famous nightclub, Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core. Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.

But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…

Welcome to Manchester. Welcome to the back streets and criminal world of Manchester. Prepare yourself for a high speed ride through the underworld of Manchester. Prepare yourself from a gritty, no nonsense, no holding back novel that is littered with expletives, crooked businesses and violent gangs.

Yes. Riches is back. Her new novel is born and it is bad!

It starts by introducing us to Sheila with her Porsche, her Louboutins, her pristine house and the nails she's chipped carrying in the gun she's just brought for her husband. That's right - a gun. She struggles to hide this special 'present' she wants to surprise Paddy with "but at least the determined Mancunian rain wasn't falling on her freshly blow-dried hair." Quite!

I was glad to be back in the hands of Riches. Her ability to set up a scene, a location and a character quickly but convincingly is great. I like the slight touch of humour or sarcasm when appropriate to help the shape the reader's response to the people that she introduces and I really like Riches tone of voice and down to earth style of writing.

Sheila and Paddy's relationship is troubled and within a few pages we have witnessed our first act of violence. This establishes what kind of story we are reading and what we might expect from the characters from the outset.

"'Nice gun,' he said. Then he hit her over the head hard with the barrel."

Yes. She doesn't mince her words this Riches.

It might take a bit of getting used to but the overall effect is that this is a fast paced, punchy (literally and metaphorically!) crime thriller with a well controlled plot. There are a lot of characters to keep track of but you are in safe hands and Riches is able to juggle the different voices and points of view. The chapters are short so this makes it easier to keep on top of who, what and when and they are all headed with that particular character's name which also very clearly keeps the reader on track. Riches is able to manage the voices and threads with confidence and this is a very fluent, seamless read. These characters may wheel and deal, move and shake, shout and scream within the dark and low shadows of the criminal world but the reader never sinks and always stays afloat, carried along with the excitement, tension, anticipation and dramatic storytelling.

Although the language is often a little crude, it is never gratuitous and reads as many modern films sound. But in and amongst the pacy, rapid dialogue there are often passages which reflect Riches ability to conjure very evocative scenes through clever images and astute observations. I particularly liked the description of the people outside the hospital and the "stinking flesh of smokers who are trying on their corpses for size." I think sometimes it is easy to get caught up in a plot driven, tense and brutal novel and forget that actually even though is popular fiction, a crime story as opposed to literary fiction, the author still has an impressive control of language. Riches has an ability to place you firmly in a world outside your comfort zone and amongst characters who were you to sit next to in real life would utterly terrify you. The very fact that she can reflects her skill as a writer and her appeal as an established crime writer. 

It's a good read. Intriguing, shocking, uncomfortable, blunt, scary, gritty and realistic. I look forward to the next book and I look forward to staying on top of this series! 

If you enjoy Howard Linskey's David Blake series then you will enjoy this. If you like Angela Clarke, you will like this. If you liked Georgina McKenzie then you are in for a treat. 

Born Bad is published by Avon on the 9th March 2017.

Marnie Riches 

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester. She learned her way out of the ghetto, all the way to Cambridge University, where she gained a Masters degree in German & Dutch. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. Previously a children's author, now, she writes crime and contemporary women's fiction.

Marnie Riches is the author of The Girl Who Wouldn't Die - the first installment of the George McKenzie crime thriller series, published by Maze and Avon at Harper Collins.

In her spare time, Marnie likes to run (more of a long distance shuffle, really) travel, drink and eat all the things (especially if combined with travel) paint portraits, sniff expensive leather shoes (what woman doesn't?) and renovate old houses. She also adores flowers. 

@Marnie_Riches

www.marnieriches.com

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

#TheRoanokeGirls by #AmyEngel #Review

I received an electronic ARC in return for a fair and honest review, of this but the cover is so beautiful I will be buying a physical copy too. I love the cover. And I love every single page inside.

This is a engrossing novel with which I became entranced by from the first page. The characters are compelling, beautiful, mysterious and disturbing. It is a mesmerising tale of a family who are bound by love, by hatred, by desperation, by secrets, by obsession. It is a story that haunts you while you are reading and then haunts you for days after. I want to read it again. And again.

The novel opens with 15 year old Lane being sent to her grandparents, from who she has been estranged, following her mother's suicide. Her first description of her new home - a rambling rural estate in Kansas- is that it was "like a handful of giant houses all smashed together with no regard for aesthetics or conformity. It was equal parts horrifying and mesmerising." When she meets her new family, they seem to also fit this description; they have their own rules, they have little care for anyone outside their family, all Roanoke girls are beautiful and hypnotic..... yet there is something terrifying and dark lurking in the shadows......

Lane's cousin Allegra is also living there and wastes no time introducing Lane to her family history. She shows her the photos of the Roanoke girls and Lane comments:

"It was eerie how much they all looked alike, how much they looked like me. As if the Roanoke genes were so strong they bulldozed right over anyone else's DNA." 

But the girls have not had happy lives. Tragedy surrounds them - or follows them, or catches them.....somehow it seems inevitable which perhaps makes them more untouchable and more mesmerising.

"Sophia drowned in the North Fork during the spring floods..... Penelope fell down the main stairs and broke her neck..... Emmeline was a crib death......"

"That's a lot of dead girls." 

"In the end we either run or we die."

And so that is what happens. They run.

The story is split between Lane's first summer with her grandparents and then 11 years later when she returns because Allegra has gone missing. The sections are simply headed with "Now"and "Then", divided further with interludes from each of the previous Roanoke's lives. I really enjoyed these sections headed with the name of the girl whose story we were then told snippets from. They added intrigue, drama and mystery, often leaving me in a cold chill. Each section forms another piece of the jigsaw as the reader tries to establish what happened to Lane that summer 11 years ago and what impact the stories of Lane and Allegra's predecessors might have on what has now happened to Allegra.

I particularly enjoyed the extract about Camilla as the description of her really captures the twisted, dysfunctional, eerie and emotional complexity of these women.

"a dark twisting horror show of love. Love that spread through her like poison, coiled like inky tentacles that slowly squeezed out all the light." 

With each heading for the different stories of Roanoke girl, Engel adds the date of birth and date of death in brackets. Such a simple addition but such an effective method for creating a sense of foreboding. These small details, like the scattered crumbs fed to us throughout the prose, create an accumulation of something more sinister. Is this family under a curse? Is there some sort of mental illness amongst the family? What is it that haunts these girls and why is it their lives have all been so tragic?

Lane is our protagonist and our narrator. She has never lived with her grandparents before, she knows nothing of the Roanoke's but as soon as she gets there she feels part of the family. It's like she can recognise that she too shares something of them and that here, in Kansas, on their estate, the rules, expectations and judgements are different.

"[there was] something dark inside me........maybe here it was like a different country, someplace where it was all right to be a little wicked."

Engel links the dual timeline together with a deft and polished hand. The teenage voices of Lane and Allegra are captured with insight and with conviction. Their behaviour, antics, relationships and emotional journeys are well written. Their interaction is full of vitality and energy and both are strangely likeable characters who I really enjoyed reading about despite their sharp edges. In a way this is a kind of coming of age story, particularly for Lane who begins to understand why her mother was so desperately unhappy and depressed.

I don't want to say much more for fear of spoilers. Or perhaps because I am actually a little tongue tied. To be honest, all I can really think to say is that this is a special book. It is a fantastically eerie, compelling, disturbing and unnerving tale of families, love, trauma and buried secrets. I thought it had some of the gothic terror from "Little Strangers" by Sarah Waters, some of the relationship issues and dysfunctional families from Helen Dunmore's early novels and it also reminded me of "We Were Liars" by E Lockhart.

This book deserves recognition and deserves to do well. It will definitely be in my top ten for 2017 and it will definitely stay with me beyond 2017. I cannot believe this is Engel's first novel for adults and I am really looking forward to whatever rich tale she spins for us in the future. 

The Roanoke Girls will be published on 9th March 2017 by Hodder & Stoughton 

Amy Engel

Amy Engel is the author of THE BOOK OF IVY young adult series. A former criminal defense attorney, she lives in Missouri with her family. THE ROANOKE GIRLS (March 7, 2017), is her first novel for adults.

www.amyengel.net

@aengelwrites

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

#IFoundYou by #LisaJewell #Review

'How long have you been sitting out here?'

'I got here yesterday.'

'Where did you come from?'

'I have no idea.'

East Yorkshire: Single mum Alice Lake finds a man on the beach outside her house. He has no name, no jacket, no idea what he is doing there. Against her better judgement she invites him in to her home.

Surrey: Twenty-one-year-old Lily Monrose has only been married for three weeks. When her new husband fails to come home from work one night she is left stranded in a new country where she knows no one. Then the police tell her that her husband never existed.

There is one word which really captures my feelings about this book: satisfying. I know that doesn't sound effusive enough, doesn't sound as knock-your-socks-off or blow-me-away as some other adjectives but it should!

This book is deliciously satisfying. It is a curl-up-in-bed-and-read-it-until-midnight-satisfying; it is read-it-on-a-rainy-Sunday-and-lose-yourself-in-it-satisfying. It is like meeting-an-old-friend-and-listening-to-them-talk-for-hours-satisfying. It is picking up a book by an author you've dipped in and out of for years and still find their books completely hit the spot satisfying. Lisa Jewell is an author that you can completely depend on to deliver a story with characters, plot lines, issues, ideas and excitement in a way which is extremely satisfying.

Although sometimes labelled as a 'light, chick-lit" read, Jewell actually delivers more than that in "I Found You". Her recent titles are more psychological thriller in style; they retain all the best features of her previous novels, particularly their readability and accessibility, but now add in a satisfying dose of darkness, intrigue, suspense and tension.

Meet Alice:

"Alice sits in her tiny room at the top of her tiny house. From here she runs her business. She makes art from old maps, which she sells on the Internet for silly money. Silly money for a piece of art made from old maps, perhaps, but not silly money for a single mother."

Jewell's description is simple yet conveys much more and sets up the scene effectively with a character we immediately have sympathy for but who also carries an air of vulnerability.

I liked the use of maps. People buy the artwork made with maps to show loved ones how they belong to each other, where they found each other and rooting them firmly in specific places. Alice spends her days collecting old maps, searching out locations and journeys in a way that masks her emotional journey and what she is unwittingly seeking. And then we meet "Frank",  a man who is completely lost. "Frank" has no memory, no home, no roots, nowhere to ground himself and no idea where and how he belongs. It's an intriguing premise and one which Jewell develops in to a fascinating story full of twists, turns, revelations and developments which will keep you gripped and turning the pages until the very last satisfying line.

Alice is an extremely likeable character. She is open, trusting, giving and kind. I did worry for her when she let "Frank" into her house so readily, but Jewell manages to make this convincing by allowing Alice to doubt herself and there are several moments where she questions her decision.

There is a dual narrative in the story and once we are embedded in Alice and Frank's story we meet Lily whose husband doesn't come home from work one night. Lily is newly married and it is clear her husband is completely head over heels in love with her so there is no reason why he wouldn't come home. The police arrive to help investigate his disappearance but this only confuses things further when they announce that actually, he never existed:

"There is no Carl John Robert Monroe."

Lily is now lost. In a strange country, with no family, few friends and no sense of who her husband was and where he might be. She needs to find him. She needs to find the truth.

Throughout the novel I was wondering how the threads would become woven together and how Jewell would link up the characters, the revelations, the events. This is masterful story telling and the resolution is rewarding, believable and very pleasing - yes, satisfying too!

There is a good range of characters - not too many to keep track off (particularly when there are characters who have lost their identity or created new ones!) but plenty enough to make it a more complex tale with some layers and depth to it. The pace is great and with the dual narratives and the mix of overlapping story lines the reader can not help but read on and watch how Jewell brings everything together in a dramatic conclusion.

This is simply a very good novel. It is what we have come to expect from Lisa Jewell and why we trust her as a storyteller. This is a page turner. This is a good drama. It is a story about families, relationships, revenge, justice and love. It will no doubt fly off the shelves and do very well. I enjoyed it. I found it incredibly satisfying (have I mentioned that?) and was delighted that I chose to read it rather than watch telly this weekend as to me, it read as well as any recent TV drama and had all the same ingredients.

Go on, indulge yourself. Find time for it.

I Found You is released on 9th March 2017.

Lisa Jewell

Lisa was born in London in 1968. Her mother was a secretary and her father was a textile agent and she was brought up in the northernmost reaches of London with her two younger sisters. She was educated at a Catholic girls’ Grammar school in Finchley. After leaving school at sixteen she spent two years at Barnet College doing an arts foundation course and then two years at Epsom School of Art & Design studying Fashion Illustration and Communication.

She worked for the fashion chain Warehouse for three years as a PR assistant and then for Thomas Pink, the Jermyn Street shirt company for four years as a receptionist and PA. She started her first novel, Ralph’s Party, for a bet in 1996. She finished it in 1997 and it was published by Penguin books in May 1998. It went on to become the best-selling debut novel of that year.

She has since written a further nine novels, as is currently at work on her eleventh.

She now lives in an innermost part of north London with her husband Jascha, an IT consultant, her daughters, Amelie and Evie and her silver tabbies, Jack and Milly.

You can follow her on Twitter or find out more via her website: 

@lisajewelluk
www.lisa-jewell.co.uk

You can follow me for more reviews and recommendations on Twitter @katherinesunde3 (bibliomaniacuk)