Two Lacey Flint books by Sharon Bolton

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

I’ve recently read Dead Scared, Sharon Bolton’s  second Lacey Flint book and Like This, For Ever, the third book in the series:

Bolton bks

Synopses from Sharon Bolton’s website:

Dead Scared

Someone is watching you…

When a Cambridge university student dramatically attempts to take her own life, DI Mark Joesbury realizes that the university has developed an unhealthy record of young people committing suicide in extraordinary ways.

Despite huge personal misgivings, Joesbury sends young policewoman DC Lacey Flint to Cambridge with a brief to work undercover, posing as a vulnerable, depression-prone student.

Psychiatrist Evi Oliver is the only person in Cambridge who knows who Lacey really is – or so they both hope. But as the two women dig deeper into the darker side of university life, they discover a terrifying trend…

And when Lacey starts experiencing the same disturbing nightmares reported by the dead girls, she knows that she is next.

Like This, For Ever (published as Lost in the US)

Twelve-year-old Barney Roberts is obsessed with a series of murders. He knows the victims are all boys, just like him. He knows the bodies were found on river banks nearby. And he’s sure the killer will strike again soon. But there’s something else, a secret he’d rather not know, a secret he is too scared to share . . .  And who would believe a twelve-year-old boy anyway?

Like This, For Ever is a twisty, addictive, up-all-night thriller from a writer who loves nothing more than to play with your mind.

Two perfect books for the RIP Challenge. they are both totally absorbing murder mysteries – maybe Like This, for Ever is even better than Dead Scared. I did have an inkling quite early on who was pulling Lacey’s strings in Dead Scared, but I just didn’t know how it was being done – nightmares, hallucinations, bizarre suicides and vulnerable students. It is terrifying in parts.

With Like This, For Ever I had no idea until very near the end who the killer was. It’s so full of red herrings and twists (more than in Dead Secret) that I swung from believing it could be this person to that, or thinking it can’t possibly be that person, or I do hope it’s not that one. It was one of the people I thought maybe it’s that one, but I quickly dismissed that idea.

Both books are full of believable and individual characters, plus there is the ongoing story of Lacey, her boss Mark Joesbury and psychiatrist Evi Oliver. I’d love to read the next book in the series soon – A Dark and Twisted Tide.

I first read Sharon Bolton’s books when she was writing under the name SJ Bolton, and I wondered why the name change.  The answer is here in this post on her blog . It’s long, so I’ll summarise – ‘SJ Bolton’ was the name her publishers suggested in 2006 in the manner of PD James and JK Rowling and she went along with it, the thinking being that men don’t buy books by a woman author. But she doesn’t have a middle name and chose ‘J’, confusing for people who knew her personally , and then more SJs appeared on the book shelves and she felt lost in the crowd. There was also the issue around the name ‘Sharon’, a name that can conjure up images of Pauline Quirke slouching around Chigwell in a shell suit. So  she now writes as Sharon Bolton and I for one am glad she does – it’s less anonymous as well as being a much more memorable name.

As well as being perfect for the RIP challenge, Dead Scared is a book I’ve owned for a while and so qualifies for the Mount To Be Read Challenge.

This Week in Books: 9 September 2015

Published on by Margaret14 Comments

This Week in Books is a weekly round-up hosted by Lypsyy Lost & Found, about what I’ve been reading Now, Then & Next. A similar meme is run by Taking on a World of Words.

Now I’m reading Like This For Ever by Sharon Bolton (the third Lacey Flint book) and it’s good!

Blurb

Twelve-year-old Barney Roberts is obsessed with a series of murders.

He knows the victims are all boys, just like him.

He knows the bodies were found on river banks.

And he’s sure the killer will strike again soon.

But there’s something else, a secret he’d rather not know, a secret he is too scared to share . . .

And who would believe a twelve-year-old boy anyway?

*LIKE THIS, FOR EVER is published as LOST in the US*

In contrast I’m also reading Adam Bede by George Eliot

After a bit of a false start I am now well into this book.

Blurb

Carpenter Adam Bede is in love with the beautiful Hetty Sorrel, but unknown to him, he has a rival, in the local squire’s son Arthur Donnithorne. Hetty is soon attracted by Arthur’s seductive charm and they begin to meet in secret. The relationship is to have tragic consequences that reach far beyond the couple themselves, touching not just Adam Bede, but many others, not least, pious Methodist Preacher Dinah Morris. A tale of seduction, betrayal, love and deception, the plot of Adam Bede has the quality of an English folk song. Within the setting of Hayslope, a small, rural community, Eliot brilliantly creates a sense of earthy reality, making the landscape itself as vital a presence in the novel as that of her characters themselves.

Then – I read Dead Scared by Sharon Bolton (the second in the Lacey Flint series) and it was excellent!

My post will be up soon. Here’s the blurb:

A series of suicides. Each one a female university student. Each one more horrifying than the last.

The police know it cannot be coincidence. But they can’t prove it.

They need someone to go undercover. A young policewoman, as vulnerable as the others. As unprepared for the nightmare that will greet her.

Watch your back, Lacey Flint . . .

Next: For once I know exactly which book I’ll be reading next – it’s The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro

Blurb:

The Romans have long since departed, and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. But at least the wars that once ravaged the country have ceased.

The Buried Giant begins as a couple, Axl and Beatrice, set off across a troubled land of mist and rain in the hope of finding a son they have not seen for years. They expect to face many hazards – some strange and other-worldly – but they cannot yet foresee how their journey will reveal to them dark and forgotten corners of their love for one another.

Sometimes savage, often intensely moving, Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade is about lost memories, love, revenge and war.

I’m looking forward to reading it. I hope it lives up to its reputation. This is what the Neil Gaiman said in the New York Times about it:

The Buried Giant does what important books do: It remains in the mind long after it has been read, refusing to leave, forcing one to turn it over and over … Ishiguro is not afraid to tackle huge, personal themes, nor to use myths, history and the fantastic as the tools to do it.

The Robber Bride

Published on by Margaret3 Comments

It took me several days to read Margaret Atwood’s The Robber Bride. It’s a intricately woven book, long and detailed. At times I thought it was too detailed and I just wanted to get on with the story. But overall I thought it was very good, and in parts excellent.

It begins with Zenia – and Zenia is dead. She died five years earlier and Tony, Roz and Charis went to her funeral. These three women all had cause to be thankful she was dead; Zenia, beautiful, smart and greedy, had deceived all three, wrecking their relationships, taking their money and self-esteem.  Although they met regularly they hadn’t talked about her since they’d buried her and their lives are turned upside down again when, lunching at the Toxique, Zenia walks back into their lives.

The rest of the book tells what had happened in each of their lives, told from each woman’s point of view and moving backwards and forwards in time – a bit confusing sometimes, you have to concentrate.  Tony, is a small woman, an academic specialising in military history, with a habit of pronouncing words backwards; Charis is described as ‘what Ophelia would have looked like if she’d lived‘, who thinks she has healing powers; and  Roz is a successful business woman, whose husband is a serial womaniser. Zenia, who never tells her story, is a consummate liar and presents a different version of herself to each of the three women and she remains a mystery and a dark malevolence throughout the book.

The Robber Bride is inspired by “The Robber Bridegroom,” a  tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them, one by one. But it’s much more than that – it’s about power and the struggle between good and evil. It’s also about women’s friendship, and about the relationship between men and women.

This is one of the books I’ve listed for the TBR Pile Challenge, so it also meets the criteria for the Mount TBR Challenge too – a book I’ve had on my shelves for several years now.

Reading for Pleasure – and Not to Plan!

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

I decided at the beginning of the year that I was going to take my time reading, not rushing from one book to the next and also reading whatever takes my fancy. So it’s no surprise to me that having thought I was going to read books for the R.I.P. event this autumn as well as two very long novels my plans have been disrupted and  I may not get round to them.

And this is because two books I reserved at the library months ago have come in. I picked them up yesterday and also a book by Ian McEwan. Earlier in the week one of the questions on Pointless was about Ian McEwan’s novels and although I’ve read quite a lot of his books, I realised there are some I haven’t read. So I had a look at what the library had by him on the shelves and found one.

These are the books that have upset my plans for reading this autumn:

The buried giant

  • The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro – his latest novel, set in Britain sometime after the Romans had left – a time when ogres were an everyday hazard. (Could this book be an R.I.P. book? Or is it more a book for Once Upon a Time? No matter I’m reading it anyway.)
  • Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck – a modern classic about George Milton and Lennie Small are two workers in pursuit of the American dream.
  • The Innocent by Ian McEwan – set in post-war Berlin in the 1950s at the beginning of the Cold War.

So, as  Robert Burns’ poem To a Mouse, 1786 tells of how he, whilst ploughing a field, accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest, my plans have gone awry.

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane [you aren’t alone]
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley, [often go awry]
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promised joy.

Aptly this is the poem  from which Steinbeck took the title of his book!

10 Books of Summer

Published on by Margaret5 Comments

10 books of summerThe 20/10 Books of Summer Challenge hosted by Cathy  at 746 Books ended today. I did the 10 book version and didn’t do too badly, reading 6 books.

I read:

  1. The Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter ‘“ the last Morse book. I loved it. The plot is detailed, complex and as usual with Morse a puzzle type murder mystery with plenty of challenging clues.
  2. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie ‘“ a most satisfying mystery, in which Hercule Poirot discovers that almost everyone he talks to is lying. It has a clever and most complicated plot and it kept me guessing right to the end.
  3. Zen there was Murder by H R F Keating ‘“ murder on a Zen Buddhism course. This book has a surreal feel about it and for most of the time I was completely bamboozled – not a great success.
  4. The Day of the Lie by William Brodrick ‘“ a Father Anselm book.  A meaty layered book that made me think. Nothing is straight forward as it delved into the past, uncovering secrets and revealing crimes.  I did enjoy it, but it was hard work in parts.
  5. A Medal for Murder by Frances Brody ‘“ the second Kate Shackleton mystery, set in the 1920s.  It was easy to read but I just couldn’t see who could be the murderer. I had several suspects, all of whom turned out to be innocent of the crime. I liked the historical setting and the characters rang true.
  6. The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam ‘“ the second book in the Old Filth trilogy. I also read the third book, Last Friends.  Both books follow the lives of Old Filth, his wife and friends  over 50 years, told from the different characters’ points of view,  forming a memorable trilogy, of love and life, humour and heartbreak in colonial Hong Kong and the contrasting setting of the English countryside.

So actually I read 7!

And these are the ones I didn’t get round to reading:

  1. Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie ‘“ an early collection of short stories.
  2. Silas Marner by George Eliot ‘“ a short classic.
  3. Great Escape Stories by Eric Williams ‘“ it comprises twelve true-life escape and evasion stories from the Second World War and one from the Korean War.
  4. How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton.

If you did this challenge – or the 20 books challenge – how did you get on?

Five of the Best: August 2011 – August 2015

Published on by Margaret6 Comments

This was originally Cleo’s idea (Cleopatra Loves Books). It’s to look back over your reviews of the past five years and pick out your favourite books for each month from 2011 ‘“ 2015. I like it so much it inspired me to do the same .

I really enjoy looking back over the books I’ve loved reading. These are some of my favourite books for each August from 2011 to 2015 (click on the titles/covers to see my original reviews).

2011

The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths – this is the second in the Ruth Galloway investigation series. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist. In this book she is called in to investigate when builders, demolishing a large old house in Norwich, uncover the skeleton of a child ‘“ minus the skull ‘“ beneath a doorway. Is it some ritual sacrifice of just plain straightforward murder? Ruth is pregnant, but she’s not sure she wants the father to know.

I like the mix of archaeology, mystery and crime fiction in Elly Griffiths’s books. This one has a double dose, with mythology and Catholicism running through the narrative as well as the police procedures.  Ruth is an interesting character, not your usual detective, she’s overweight, self-reliant but also feisty and tough. She has to be with everything that’s thrown at her and as her investigations lead her into great danger.

2012

The Girl on the Stairs by Louise Welsh is a dark, psychological thriller, full of atmosphere and claustrophobic tension. I really enjoyed it.  It’s a book that once I started reading it I just had to finish it. It’s full of suspense and increasing tension as Jane moves to an apartment in Berlin to join her partner, Petra. Everything is new to her, she only speaks a little German, she doesn’t know the area and has no friends there. And she’s pregnant.

For most of the time Jane is alone in the flat and her sense of isolation grows. She hears their neighbour Dr Mann and his daughter Anna ‘“ the girl on the stairs arguing – and fears Dr Mann is abusing Anna. She ventures out at 3.00am one dark morning drawn by a flickering light in the derelict house at the back, worried that Anna was hiding in there. And as more secrets are revealed I began to wonder just how paranoid Jane was and how much was down to her imagination. Are Jane’s fears justified or is she delusional?

2013

The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge – an absolutely fascinating novel about Captain Scott’s last Antarctic Expedition. It gets inside each man’s mind, it seemed to me, vividly describing the events as they progressed to the South Pole and the terrible conditions they had to endure. Beryl Bainbridge’s imagination and research combined make this a dramatic heroic story and an emotional roller-coaster set in the beautiful but deadly dangerous frozen landscape of the Antarctic.

At times I had to remind myself that I was reading a novel, but then again there were passages where I had to remind myself that these events really did take place as they seemed so fantastical. Beryl Bainbridge has written a most remarkable book, full of facts seamlessly woven into the narrative, and full of emotion and feeling. It was not only my favourite book of the month but also one of the best books I read in 2013.

2014

All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard, the  fifth book in her Cazalet Chronicles. I’d read the first four books years ago and loved them, so I was keen to read this last one. It’s the story of the Cazalet family, a very large family by the time of this novel ‘“ 1956 ‘“ 1958, a lovely warm, old fashioned family saga, with both happy and sad events as the Cazalets move forward, and not successfully for all of them, in post-war England. It was a great treat!

2015

This August it was extremely difficult to choose which book I’ve enjoyed the most – see this post. It didn’t help that I gave three books five stars on Goodreads and two more would have been 4.5 if half stars were allowed on Goodreads. The three are all different genres so that made it practically impossible to choose one. In the end and for this post I’m highlighting:

A Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel –  one of Hilary Mantel’s early books, first published in 1994 and  described on the back cover as ‘˜a literary family saga’ and ‘˜a first rate thriller’. It’s a book with an ‘enormous destructive secret‘ at its heart.  A book about family, trust, disillusionment and tragedy, about bereavement and loss of faith. A great book on all counts, characters and locations beautifully described and a well constructed and convincing plot, powerful and challenging on several levels.