Review - Pariah by David Jackson

Pariah

Blurb

It's a bad enough day for NYPD detective Callum Doyle when his cop partner is murdered. It's about to get a hell of a lot worse ...When the dead man's replacement is also brutally killed, suspicion falls on Doyle himself. Then he receives an anonymous message. This is just the beginning, it says. Anyone he gets close to will die and that includes Doyle's own family. The only way to keep them alive is to stay away. For good. Doyle is desperate to find out who is responsible, but when his every move puts others in danger he is forced to back off. With the investigation getting nowhere and his isolation deepening, Doyle has to ask himself an uncomfortable question: just how low is he prepared to sink in order to get his life back?

Review -

Callum Doyle really looks as though he has no place to go. Every step he takes someone is close on his heels and with fatal consequences, and it's this premise that makes the book a page turner.

Just when you think things can't get any worse, they do and with a great story telling technique the disaster that is Doyles life is portrayed well.

One of my favourite characters was Paulson. I'm not sure if I was supposed to like him or not but the way he was written just made me see him leap off the page. I hope he makes it into any future Callum Doyle books.

As I mentioned, the book is a page turner and when I was reading it I was having a tiring week but I had to keep picking the book up just to see what was happening to Doyle. A great sign for a book. I'm hoping there is to be more from Doyle. He's a good guy and a good read.


Just to add, there will be an interview with David Jackson, author of Pariah, on the blog within the next couple of weeks. He's a lovely guy and I'm really looking forward to chatting to him. Look out for it.

Review - Girl 4 by Will Carver

Product description

Detective Inspector January David has always put his professional before his private life, but the two worlds are about to clash horrifically as he visits his latest crime scene. He is confronted by a lifeless figure suspended ten feet above a theatre stage, blood pouring from her face into a coffin below. This gruesome execution is the work of an elusive serial killer.

Three women from three different London suburbs, each murdered with elaborate and chilling precision. And as January stares at the most beautiful corpse he’s ever seen, he detects the killer’s hallmark.

But Girl 4 is different: she is alive – barely. And January recognises her…

Review

This book is written from the viewpoint of several people. Each person having their time to talk. Murder victims talk about what it was like for them before their death and Detective Inspector January David tells the story from his viewpoint, on the trail of a serial killer. This very serial killer even gets a voice.

The chapters are kept short to accommodate this style and it keeps things fairly fast paced.

It took me a few chapters to get used to the chopping and changing of viewpoints on such a regular basis, but once I had, I found I really enjoyed the different style I was reading.

The climax is lengthy and I couldn't put the book down for the last 100 pages. I'm not sure how I felt when it ended as it wasn't what I expected, but I will definitely buy another January David book.

If you're a crime reader and you want to try a different style, I'd recommend giving this a try and pushing past the first few chapters if you struggle with the style - though you could easily take to it straight away. It's a great read.

Book Review - Broken by Karin Slaughter

Good reads blurb - 

A woman's corpse is discovered in the waters of Lake Grant, and a note is found which seems to point to suicide – but Sara Linton has never been a woman to settle for obvious solutions. The principal suspect in the case has requested – desperately -- to be able to speak to Sara -- but when she turns up at his cell in the local police station, the suspect, Tommy Braham (whom she had known as a boy), is unable to speak to her. Tommy is dead; he has been savagely beaten, and his wrists have been cut. Scrawled in blood on the cell wall is a poignant message: ‘Not me’. Sara, personally involved now, is distrustful of Lena Adams the detective in charge, so she gets in touch with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and asks (as she has done before) for the help of Special Agent Will Trent (Karin Slaughter readers will be well aware of the intriguing relationship between these two). The duo begins to suspect that a murderer enjoys the covert protection of the close-mouthed inhabitants of Grant County, who have fashioned a skein of non-communication. But, as the Bard observed, murder will out...

Review -


I've read the Karin Slaughter series since her debut with Blindsighted, which I loved and I've loved every day since. There are usually multiple gruesome murders to resolve and always something a bit iffy running around behind everything and I love this.

What I really love about Karins book are they are well written and character based as well as following the plot, the crime and all the procedural stuff but through the eyes of the very real people with very real flaws or ghosts that effect them. Its not just a matter of having a murder and watching the procedural stuff work through it, having characters with histories and failings you feel closer to them and in return to the book.

I loved this book and if you have read any of the previous in the series you will love this, but if this is your first Karin Slaughter, it may be a little confusing because past events are big drivers. I could see where newcomers may become a little disorientated. It's written so well, a new reader could go and read it, and enjoy it, but I love this author so much, I'm actually advocating you go and read the previous books in the series!

Great crime, great people and people you cared about or at least had an opinion about, what else do you need. Get yourselves into Karin Slaughter if you haven't already.

Book Review - Blacklands

Today I'm reviewing the book, Blacklands by Debut Dagger winning author, Belinda Bauer.


Goodreads blurb

EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, Billy Peters disappeared. Everyone in town believes Billy was murdered—after all, serial killer Arnold Avery later admitted killing six other children and burying them on the same desolate moor that surrounds their small English village. Only Billy’s mother is convinced he is alive. She still stands lonely guard at the front window of her home, waiting for her son to return, while her remaining family fragments around her.

But her twelve-year-old grandson Steven is determined to heal the cracks that gape between his nan, his mother, his brother, and himself. Steven desperately wants to bring his family closure, and if that means personally finding his uncle’s corpse, he’ll do it.

Spending his spare time digging holes all over the moor in the hope of turning up a body is a long shot, but at least it gives his life purpose.

Then at school, when the lesson turns to letter writing, Steven has a flash of inspiration . . . Careful to hide his identity, he secretly pens a letter to Avery in jail asking for help in finding the body of "W.P."—William "Billy" Peters.

So begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game.

Just as Steven tries to use Avery to pinpoint the gravesite, so Avery misdirects and teases his mysterious correspondent in order to relive his heinous crimes. And when Avery finally realizes that the letters he’s receiving are from a twelve-year-old boy, suddenly his life has purpose too.

Although his is far more dangerous . . .


Blacklands is a taut and chillingly brilliant debut that signals the arrival of a bright new voice in psychological suspense.

Review.

This book won the coveted Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger award in 2010 and Belinda Bauer had her first novel published. Blacklands is the result. It's not a crime novel as you may expect it to be. There's no cops chasing bad guys. It's a more settled pace, exploratory of relationships carved through the horrifying circumstance of the murder of a child.

Blacklands explores the fractured lives of those left behind and in particular, a child living with the remnants of the past. The poor economic standard of the family has a dark seventies feel about it and this is added to with vivid descriptions of the openness and danger of the local moors.

The unexpected twist is the connection made between child killer and child. It's not fast and thrill a minute but it is well written and slightly dark. If that sounds like your kind of book then I'd say definitely pick it up.

Ordinary Angels - Book Review

Although most of Zoe Pendergraft's friends are dead, that means nothing to her. After all, they died long before she meet them. What does matter is the angel who took her dancing and turned her world upside down. 
But grim reality intrudes when she finds a body, and the Higher Angels accuse her of the murder.
Knowing she's the only one who can stand against the Higher Angels, Zoe uses any means necessary to save her friend all the while, wondering if the tempestuous love she's feeling is real. 
The blood on her hands forces Zoe to question herself, and her angel to question her.


Contains strong language and supernatural sizzle.

I finished this book Sunday night after being unable to put it down. I absolutely loved it.

Books around angels and magical beings etc are not usually the genre of books I usually read. I tend to read lots of crime thrillers and more recently I have ventured into chick-lit.

I picked up Ordinary Angels because I follow the author India Drummond on twitter and her blog and "knowing" who the author of a book is really interests me, so on the release of her novel I downloaded myself a copy of the ebook.

I found it really well written. I became invested in the characters and by the end I was wanting more. I'm not sure if a sequel is planned, but I would definitely pick it up.

The main love interest of mortal Zoe is an Angel called Alexander. Though he was of course lovely. I personally preferred the strong free angel of Thomas. There is murder, mayhem, romance and some wonderful descriptions of magical worlds and items.

I lost myself in Ordinary Angels and would absolutely recommend it. Even if you don't normally indulge in angels and fantasy. A thoroughly great read!

Book Review - The Hating Game

Today I am reviewing The Hating Game by Talli Roland. Talli had a successful eBook launch last year and today the book is newly available in paperback. To celebrate the release I am reviewing the book.  

The Hating Game - Talli Roland

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. 

After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £50,000 prize? 

Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. 

Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end? 


I found this book a very easy relaxing read. Mattie was likeable even though she had very obvious flaws. She discarded people easily and gave little thought to their feelings but as the book progressed you began to understand why and see her in a different light. 

The humour from each of the dates is well written and amusing as previous bad dating decisions come back to haunt Mattie. 

The other characters in the book have obviously been well thought out as much as the protagonist. I particularly liked the hapless Nate as he continually attempted to show what great producer material he was while all the time failing in the false light of Baz Johnson.

The will they, won't they scenario is well played out throughout the book as exes come back from the past. Which one will you be rooting for and do they get the girl. Definitely worth checking out the pages of this girly chick-lit.

As for small sausages, I don't think I will ever look at one the same way again. 

Overall a quick page turning girly read. 

Book Review - Storm's Heart

Storms Heart is a contemporary romance with a dark brooding centre. When Greek lawyer Andreas Lazarides and bistro-manager Kizzy Dean clash over the executing of his mothers final wishes, Kizzys turbulent past kicks up a storm in Andreas's heart that rages until his own explosive secrets are revealed. 

Andreas lazarides, a wealthy gorgeous Greek whisks Kizzy Dean off to Greece under the guise of writing up a contract to secure her silence on the sale of her place of employment. 


There is an instantaneous sizzle between Andreas and Kizzy as they meet, which continues and is realised in the beauty of Rhodes. Conflicting emotions and misunderstandings threaten their relationship and you are drawn into the will they wont they scenario. 

Though I become slightly confused as to the reason Andreas is so adamant to protect the feelings of the people he buys a failing business from, Greek heat, brooding good looks and some sizzling scenes make this a great girly read. Watch you don't burn your fingers in chapter 6 though where an 18 rating is advisable! 

It has the definite feel of a contemporary Mills and Boon. So if you want a book full of emotion and steam whilst sitting with a box of chocolates and your drink of choice, then this is for you. 

The book is the debut novel of Rachel Lyndhurst and you will find a Storms Heart book competition over on her blog, Rachel Lyndhurst.