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Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott

Published on June 25, 2018 by Margaret3 Comments

Once again I’ve fallen behind with writing reviews! This is the first post in a series of short reviews of the books that I’ve read this year and not reviewed.

Come A Little Closer (DCI Tom Douglas #7)

Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott. I had high hopes for this book as I’ve seen Rachel Abbott’s books praised on other book blogs and highly rated on Amazon and Goodreads, but I’d never read any of them. This is the seventh in the DCI Tom Douglas series, but I was encouraged by Rachel Abbott’s reassurance (on Goodreads author questions) that ‘each story is entirely standalone, but the character of Tom Douglas does run through the whole series. There are bits in each story about his life, but nothing that would require you to have read previous books. So please feel free to read them in any order you like. Many people do.’

Synopsis:

They will be coming soon. They come every night.

Snow is falling softly as a young woman takes her last breath.

Fifteen miles away, two women sit silently in a dark kitchen. They don’t speak, because there is nothing left to be said.

Another woman boards a plane to escape the man who is trying to steal her life. But she will have to return, sooner or later.

These strangers have one thing in common. They each made one bad choice – and now they have no choices left. Soon they won’t be strangers, they’ll be family…

When DCI Tom Douglas is called to the cold, lonely scene of a suspicious death, he is baffled. Who is she? Where did she come from? How did she get there? How many more must die?

Who is controlling them, and how can they be stopped?

My thoughts:

I have mixed thoughts about this book – I didn’t ‘like’ it (although I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads), but it held my interest and I read to the end. It reads OK as a standalone, although it probably would have helped to have known more about Tom Douglas, but the police investigation isn’t the main focus of the book.

The main focus is on Callie and the mess she gets herself into. Her relationship with her boyfriend, Ian is awful, he’s just sponging off her and treating her like a doormat. Although she tells him to leave, by the time she returns from a trip to Myanmar, he is still living in her flat. She then goes to stay with a couple she met on the cruise ship, without knowing that she is letting herself in for a nightmare scenario.

Here’s where the two women mentioned in the synopsis come into the story – a story that left me feeling sick. It’s not blood thirsty or gory – it’s just sick as the protagonists set about manipulating their victims. It’s full of action and barely credible coincidences. About halfway in I could see where this was going – and I didn’t like it. I was glad to finish it. It’s easy to read, but the characters seemed shallow and the only ones I liked were Tom his team and his brother, Nathan – now that sounds as though it’s a more interesting story.

What do you think? Should I read any of the other Tom Douglas books – or are they all like this one?

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 6326 KB
Print Length: 406 pages
Publisher: Black Dot Publishing Ltd (15 Feb. 2018)
Source: Kindle Users Lending Library
My rating: 3*

Stalker by Lisa Stone

Published on June 18, 2018 by Margaret4 Comments

Someone is always watching…

Derek Flint is a loner. He lives with his mother and spends his
evenings watching his clients on the CCTV cameras he has installed inside their homes. He likes their companionship – even if it’s through a screen.

When a series of crimes hits Derek’s neighbourhood, DC Beth Mayes begins to suspect he’s involved. How does he know so much about the victims’ lives? Why won’t he let anyone into his office? And what is his mother hiding in that strange, lonely house?

As the crimes become more violent, Beth must race against the clock to find out who is behind the attacks. Will she uncover the truth in time? And is Derek more dangerous than even she has guessed?

A spellbinding crime novel from the worldwide bestseller
Cathy Glass, writing as Lisa Stone.

Stalker is the first book by Lisa Stone (or Cathy Glass) that I’ve read. It’s a quick easy read, with a straight forward third person narrative, but its simple plot (great if you’re wanting a comfort read) is rather predictable and unconvincing in parts.

I liked Lisa Stone’s portrayal of Derek Flint, a loner, computer savvy, but very naive, who still lives with his mother. Having set up CCTV cameras in his clients’ homes and businesses, he believes he is helping them as he watches what they are doing from the comfort of his bedroom, even going as far as intervening if he doesn’t like what he sees. He’s creepy but not scary. It’s the result of his good intentions that ends in violence and that is truly scary. When some of his clients become victims of crime, the police, DC Beth Mayes and her colleague DC Matt Davies, begin to suspect that Derek is involved.

The subject matter – cyber stalking – is unsettling. It’s a book of two parts, with the second part involving violent and gruesome scenes with some very nasty characters. I had to read on to find out how it ended, but I didn’t enjoy the experience. It’s definitely not comfort reading.

It’s a timely book as security issues on line have recently been highlighted in the media with emphasis on checking your own systems and the need to change your passwords regularly.

Many thanks to Avon Books UK for a review copy via NetGalley.

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 876 KB
Print Length: 384 pages
Publisher: Avon (14 Jun. 2018)
My Rating: 3*

The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton

Published on June 11, 2018 by Margaret5 Comments

Orion Publishing Group 3 May 2018 |432 pages|e-book |Review copy|4.5*

Devoted father or merciless killer?

His secrets are buried with him.

Florence Lovelady’s career was made when she convicted coffin-maker Larry Glassbrook of a series of child murders 30 years ago. Like something from our worst nightmares the victims were buried…ALIVE.

Larry confessed to the crimes; it was an open and shut case. But now he’s dead, and events from the past start to repeat themselves.

Did she get it wrong all those years ago?
Or is there something much darker at play?

It’s been a while since I read one of Sharon Bolton’s books, so I was looking forward to reading her latest book – The Craftsman. I must admit that I was a bit dismayed when I realised that most of it is written in the present tense, but as soon as I began reading I was immediately drawn into the story, forgot about the tense, and just had to read on.

This is one of her standalone books and I have found each one really scary, creepy books and The Craftsman is no exception. In 1969 WPC Florence, ‘Flossie’, Lovelady began to work in Sabden, a small town in Lancashire under the shadow of Pendle Hill, notorious for witch trials back in the 17th century. But the book begins in 1999 when Florence, now an Assistant Commissioner returns to Sabden for the funeral of Larry Glassbrook who died after thirty years in prison, convicted for the murders of three teenagers buried alive in 1969. Taking her fifteen year old son Ben with her, she goes to Larry’s house where she had lodged and discovers a clay effigy similar to the ones found buried with the three teenagers. She revisits the scenes of the burials, meets some of her old colleagues and starts to think that maybe Larry wasn’t the murderer after all.

And so the nightmare begins, going back to 1969 as Flossie, a clever young woman, found it hard to be taken seriously at first by her colleagues in the police. And she was aware of how different she seemed to the local people in a place still steeped in superstition and belief in the supernatural. Her investigations, looking for connections between the victims, ad exploring the local history of witches and their covens raised an atmosphere of suspicion and near hysteria in the community.

Sharon Bolton’s writing is so descriptive, both of the beautiful landscape and the main characters, that I was inescapably drawn into this chilling and terrifying story with the horrors of being buried alive clearly described. She has produced a remarkably powerful book, full of tension and fear, but also focusing on the culture and attitudes of society at the end of the 1960s. I thought the pace of the book dragged a bit in the middle section only to be ramped up to the utmost as it drew to it conclusion, which I have to say I hadn’t expected and am not sure I can believe. It is a compelling and absorbing book that left me thinking about it days after I finished reading.

Many thanks to Orion Publishing Group for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link

Bats in the Belfry: A London Mystery (British Library Crime Classics ) by E C R Lorac

Published on June 7, 2018June 29, 2018 by Margaret7 Comments

Poisoned Pen Press 2018 |233 pages|e-book |Review copy|4*

This was first published in 1937 by Collins Crime Club. This edition has an introduction by Martin Edwards.

Description:

Bruce Attleton dazzled London’s literary scene with his first two novels – but his early promise did not bear fruit. His wife Sybilla is a glittering actress, unforgiving of Bruce’s failure, and the couple lead separate lives in their house at Regent’s Park.

When Bruce is called away on a sudden trip to Paris, he vanishes completely – until his suitcase and passport are found in a sinister artist’s studio, the Belfry, in a crumbling house in Notting Hill. Inspector Macdonald must uncover Bruce’s secrets, and find out the identity of his mysterious blackmailer.

This intricate mystery from a classic writer is set in a superbly evoked London of the 1930s.

E C R Lorac was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958) who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club. Little has been written about her life. By the time of her death she had produced more that seventy books but she seems to have been a forgotten author and I hadn’t heard of E C R Lorac until quite recently.

I’m pleased to say that I enjoyed Bats in the Belfry, which is set in London in the 1930s. There is the occasional anti-Semitic comment, offensive now but it seems to reflect the period in which Lorac was writing. However, it’s full of descriptive writing painting vivid pictures of the streets of London and in particular the spooky, Gothic tower in which a corpse is discovered, ‘headless and handless‘. For a while the identity of the murdered man is in doubt – is it that of Bruce Attleton who had unaccountably disappeared or that of the mysterious stranger, Debrette who it seems had been blackmailing Bruce?

Chief Inspector Macdonald of New Scotland Yard is called in to investigate Bruce’s disappearance. I liked Macdonald, a ‘long lean faced’ Scot. He’s a shrewd detective, not easily ruffled or fooled. The other characters are well defined, including Bruce’s wife Sybilla, both of whom are having affairs, and his friends, one of whom, Robert Grenville, is in love with his ward Elizabeth, a lively and resourceful young woman. The plot is complex, with enough twists and turns to keep me guessing until very nearly the end of the book.

I think this is one of the better Golden Age Mysteries that I have read, and I’m now looking forward to reading another of her books, Fire in the Thatch, set in Devon.

Many thanks to Poisoned Pen Press for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link

First Chapter First Paragraph: The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton

Published on June 5, 2018 by Margaret24 Comments

Every Tuesday First Chapter, First Paragraph/Intros is hosted by Vicky of I’d Rather Be at the Beach sharing the first paragraph or two of a book she’s reading or plans to read soon.

On Sunday I thought I’d just have a quick look at Sharon Bolton’s latest book, The Craftsman and was immediately hooked and had read 20%. I’ve had to put the other books I’m reading on hold as I just have to know what happens next.

The book opens with a letter from Sharon Bolton:

Dear Reader,

On a spring day in 1612, a mill owner called Richard Baldwin, in the Pendle forest of Lancashire chased two local women off his land, calling them ‘witches and whores’, threatening to ‘burn one and hang the other’, and in so doing, set in motion events that led to the imprisonment, trial and execution of nine women on the charge of murder by witchcraft: the infamous Pendle Witch Trials.

Like Sharon Bolton the north of England is my homeland and just as she has always wanted to write a book about witches, I have always been fascinated by such books. So it’s no wonder that I am now immersed in her book. It’s not about the Pendle Witch Trials as such, but is set in the shadow of Pendle Hill and moves between the events of 1969 and 1999.

Chapter One

Tuesday, 10 August 1999

On the hottest day of the year, Larry Glassbrook has come home to his native Lancashire for the last time, and the townsfolk have turned out to say goodbye.

Not in a friendly way.

Blurb (Amazon):

Devoted father or merciless killer?

His secrets are buried with him.

Larry confessed to the crimes; it was an open and shut case. But now he’s dead, and events from the past start to repeat themselves.““

Did she get it wrong all those years ago?
Or is there something much darker at play?

What do you think – would you read on?

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

Published on June 3, 2018 by Margaret7 Comments

Description:

Second literary thriller from bestselling author of MISSING, PRESUMED.

A brutal murder. A detective with no one left to trust.

As dusk falls a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls; cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life.

DI Manon Bradshaw can’t help taking an interest – these days she only handles cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police station where she works.

She’s horrified to discover that both victim and prime suspect are more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. And as the Cambridgeshire police force closes ranks against her, she is forced to contemplate the unthinkable.

How well does she know her loved ones, and are they capable of murder?

I loved Missing, Presumed (link to my post) so I was keen to read Persons Unknown. They are both written in the present tense which, if you read my blog regularly you will know, I usually find irritating. But for some unknown reason it didn’t bother me and as I read the books I completely forgot about the tense and was totally immersed in the mysteries. Persons Unknown is just as good, if not better than Missing, Presumed.

Although it’s the second Manon Bradshaw book I think it works well as a standalone book, particularly as her circumstances have changed since the end of the first book. She has moved from London to Cambridge and she and her adopted son Fly, aged twelve, are living with her sister Ellie, and Ellie’s nearly three-year-old son Solly. Fly is struggling to fit into school, a vast comprehensive school where he is the only black boy in the school, and Manon is five months pregnant and working on cold cases. She would have loved to be included in the investigation into the murder of Jon-Oliver Ross who was found stabbed to death in the local park. But that’s not possible when Ellie identifies him as Solly’s father and Fly is a suspect after he is spotted on CCTV near the body.

What I particularly like about this book is that it follows the events as they occur without flashbacks and although it’s a complicated story I found it easy to follow all the twists and turns and the multiple viewpoints. The characters are totally believable, their personalities clearly defined and explored with psychological depth. A number of issues are raised, such as the mix of work and home life, childcare and motherhood and racial prejudice. Manon, as the main character, stands out but some of the other characters, such as Birdie, the shopkeeper and Mark Talbot, a lawyer, who agrees to help Manon, are also memorable. At the same time it is tense and gripping as the events that led up to the murder are revealed.

Susie Steiner is currently writing the third Manon Bradshaw book – I hope it’ll be published soon!

Many thanks to The Borough Press/Harper Collins for a review copy via NetGalley.

Amazon UK link
Amazon US link