When a debut novel isn’t: introducing Rachel Rhys Rachel Rhys is a pen name for a well known (and totally amazing) writer of psychological suspense novels. Having gone to all the effort of creating a different persona to publish this book, (and two subsequent historical fiction titles so far,) it seems odd that the blurb […]
‘Two years of internet dating. It’s fair to say they haven’t flown by.’ Meet DS Manon Bradshaw: single, lonely, funny and clever. Steiner introduces us to Manon while she’s on her first, and last, date with Brian – or was it Keith? Either way, the sex was as dull as the conversation, leaving our lonely […]
Sisters. Love them or hate them, it’s awful to lose them. Lucy Clarke’s debut novel explores the tensions between one set of sisters in a dramatic novel that roams from Cornwall to California, to Maui and Australia, then finally to Bali. Can following Mia’s footsteps help Katie understand what happened to her sister? What’s it […]
Trust. Doubt. Ultimately even a court’s conviction is based on a handful of opinions. What damage might it do to a family if those opinions were wrong? If that conviction were unmerited? Would you know? Would you doubt? And would you risk everything to find out? Gillian McAllister’s fourth psychological thriller explores this question through […]
I have been lucky enough to meet Louise Beech in person, and she is lovely. Really lovely. But my word, her characters can be thoroughly horrible to each other! Expect child neglect and abandonment, dark, (consenting adult!) sex games and the brutal murder of a pregnant woman – and those are just the secrets and […]
One hotel. Twenty survivors. Who will be…the last? It’s not surprising that Hanna Jameson’s post-apocalyptic novel is so popular: America’s incumbent President is one who surely has us all wondering when, rather than whether, nuclear war will erupt. But what will happen when it does? Hanna Jameson has some ideas, and they aren’t pretty… What’s […]
He plays the oldest children’s game in the world: hide and seek. Only the Eye Collector plays it to death… I love stories which play with narrative, so when I realised that the story of the Eye Collector began with an epilogue and concluded with a prologue, I knew I was going to enjoy it. […]
‘I know who you are’ by Alice Feeney. Having read and LOVED Alice Feeney’s debut novel, ‘Sometimes I Lie’, I was delighted to spot her second book, ‘I know who you are’, at Crimefest this year. Would it live up to the twisty masterpiece of her first book? The short answer is, not quite, but […]
‘The Devil’s Dice’ by Roz Watkins You know it’s a good book when you giggle out loud three times during the first chapter. You know it’s a fabulous book when it just gets more and more interesting as you get to the heart of the plot. What’s it about? A lawyer is found dead in […]
I love this title. It makes me think of that film where it appears that the hapless villagers are living in the 1600s and in dire fear of a beast in the wood, but in fact they live in the modern age, totally separate from the modern world, ruled by despotic village elders who want […]