He said / she said: many rape cases are fought over belief; who will the jury trust? When Laura witnesses a brutal attack on a traumatised young woman, she calls the police and so begins a process of events that will leave her panic stricken, in hiding and fearing for her life. Now-husband, then-boyfriend, Kit, […]
It’s every parent’s nightmare: your child, taken. Missing. Years later the case is still unsolved, your child’s whereabouts still unknown, your arms still empty. Now rub salt in the wound: everyone, including you, thinks it was your own fault. Meet Caroline Shipley. This is her living nightmare. What’s it about? Fielding has evidently taken Madeline […]
London Society takes their problems to Sherlock Holmes. Everyone else goes to Arrowood. What if you were a jobbing detective who lived at the same time as the great Sherlock Holmes? What might you think of this so-called genius with an eye for the significant clue and a general dislike of people? Would you respect […]
I LOVE this book. This is a grower. I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Perfect Victim’ while I was reading it, but it’s only when you reach the explosive finale that you can fully appreciate just how cleverly Corrie Jackson has pulled this story together. As soon as I finished it I was desperate to discuss it: […]
When Bartholomew Fynch is murdered, finding out whodunit proves challenging. Not only was he a secretive chap, rumoured to have worked for MI5, but he was deeply unpleasant and it gradually emerges that almost everyone in the village hated him enough to do him in. Oh, okay, EVERYONE in the village hated him enough to […]
What if…the worst thing that ever happened to you wasn’t what happened, but not being believed? What if…that lack of belief in you left a killer free to kill again? This is Alex Taylor’s life. Will it also be her death? What’s it about? Usually, I like to give my own take on what a […]
Book groups and book blogging: two great ways to discover authors you might not otherwise have been aware of. My crime reading book group recently introduced me to the joys of Dana Stabenow’s ‘Kate Shugak investigates’ series. Set in Alaska it follows the adventures of a retired (but young) District Attorney investigator with four Aleut […]
I love Liane Moriarty’s books. I think my favourite is ‘Big Little Lies’, but I also loved ‘What Alice Forgot’ and enjoyed ‘The Husband’s Secret’ despite a truly divisive ending. The moment I spotted this in the bookshop I knew I would be setting all other books aside to devour this, and so I did. […]
Facebook: the platform where many of us embrace contact with “friends” we would never embrace in Real Life. Maybe we knew them, once. Maybe they attended our school. Maybe they’re a friend of a friend you keep meeting. These “friends” could become Real Friends, they could become the main source of irritating cat memes in […]
‘She saw the portrait quite by chance, or so she thought.’ Openings can be crucial in capturing a reader’s attention, especially if the reader in question is choosing what to read next from a wobbling stack of ARCs! The sly mystery, the sense of fate, lurking in this ambiguous opening statement intrigued me and I […]