+ crime fiction, Detective novel, fiction, murder mystery, mystery, police drama, police procedural, psycopath, serial killer
Genesis by Chris Carter (Robert Hunter #12)
A killing like no other.
A killer more twisted than he’s ever seen before.
A case that will test him to the limit.
Has Robert Hunter finally met his match?
‘Do you believe the Devil exists, Detective?’ the officer at the end of the line asks. ‘Because if you don’t . . . I’m sure you will once you get here.’
Robert Hunter is called to the most vicious crime scene he has ever attended. It is made even more disturbing when the autopsy reveals a poem, left by the killer, inside the body of their victim.
Soon, another body is found. The methods and signature of the murder differs, but the level of violence used suggests that the same person is behind both crimes. Hunter’s fears are confirmed when a second part of the poem is found.
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But this discovery does more than just link the two killings – it suggests that this is the work of a serial murderer.
With no forensic evidence to go on, Robert Hunter must catch the most disciplined and systematic killer that he has ever encountered, someone who thrives on the victims’ fear, and to whom death is a lesson that needs to be taught.
My Review
Welcome to post number twelve – the penultimate book on this fab #blogathon. I have been reviewing one book per month.
“A killing like no other.
A killer more twisted than he’s ever seen before.
A case that will test him to the limit.
Has Robert Hunter finally met his match?“
I’m thinking the author (apologies Chris) has forgotten some of the earlier books when he says ‘a killer more twisted than he’s ever seen before’. We’ve had some of the most gruesome killings ever written in any book I’ve ever read. Killings that make Gwyneth Paltrow’s head in a box in Seven look like a walk in the park. Even Hannibal Lecter ripping the guy’s face off in the lift in Silence of the Lambs seems mild in comparison.
In Genesis the first two murders are very inventive and original, while the third one is just plain weird (part of it that is). It’s rare for anything in Chris’s books to make me laugh, but I came close – clack clack.
Is there a link between the victims? Robert and Carlos can’t find anything. And what about the lines from a poem left with each victim? Are they part of a whole and what do they mean? Again, there’s nothing on the internet. Not a poem, a song, or something from a film. There is no forensic evidence either, the killer is far too smart.
But what makes Genesis so clever is that when a link is finally found – even Robert has struggled – it is something that no-one could have guessed. Or who.
I am getting close to the end of the series now and Genesis was one of my favourites. I’m really going to miss Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia.
PS I still struggle with the killer leaving things inside the body of the victim when it’s a woman.
Many thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n for inviting me to be part of the #CompulsiveReaders #blogathon.
About the Author
Born in Brazil of Italian origin, Chris Carter studied psychology and criminal behaviour at the University of Michigan. As a member of the Michigan State District Attorney’s Criminal Psychology team, he interviewed and studied many criminals, including serial and multiple homicide offenders with life imprisonment convictions. He now lives in London. Visit his website www.chriscarterbooks.com
+ art, audio book, austria, fiction, Historical fiction, Italy, review, World War Two, WW2
The Seeker of Lost Paintings by Sarah Freethy
An unforgettable story of love and betrayal across the decades from the author of The Porcelain Maker – perfect for fans of Christy Lefteri and Victoria Hislop.
Rome 1939
Arriving in Rome to work for the wealthy Montefalco family, Maddalena is homesick and alone. She finds solace – and love – in the beauty of the city, but as the war in Nazi-occupied Italy rages, she must make a devastating choice.
London, 1997
After her mother Maddalena’s death, Beatrice Fremont discovers a fragment of a painting and a letter that sends her on a hunt to Rome. Helping her is art dealer Jude Adler, who’s convinced they are looking for a lost Caravaggio. For Jude, this could be the find of a lifetime; but for Beatrice their search uncovers a shocking secret and the answer to a mystery kept hidden for years.
My Review
The Seeker of Lost Paintings is set in two timelines. In 1997 we meet Beatrice Fremont, whose mother Maddalena is dying. Upon her passing, Beatrice knows she must sell her father’s art collection in order to keep the house. So she enlists the help of art dealer Jude Adler to help catalogue the paintings and put them up for auction. But Jude is shocked to discover part of a painting that looks like a lost Caravaggio.
In 1939, a very young Maddalena has arrived in Rome from Sicily to take up work in the house of the extremely wealthy Montefalco family. She is lonely and unhappy, but soon discovers her talent for cooking, and also finds forbidden love within the family.
Initially I was far more interested in the modern part, and was often exasperated when we jumped back to Maddelena’s story. But after a while I became fully invested in the history of Italy during the Second World War. I learned so much about Mussolini, his followers, the relationship with Hitler, and then how it all went wrong and Rome was eventually occupied by the Nazis. I won’t say anymore as I don’t want to get it wrong.
Conte Luca Montefalco’s older brother Robert gave up his inheritance to join the Catholic Church and I learned a lot about the Vatican’s art collection. It all became more and more interesting.
I listened to this book on Audible and the narration was brilliant. It makes so much difference to listener enjoyment when the characters are so richly portrayed.
The Seeker of Lost Paintings is Sarah’s second novel – I read her debut novel The Porcelain Maker last year.
About the Author
Sarah Freethy has been writing for television for the past three decades. Freethy has worked as an Executive Producer in factual TV and series as varied asBig Brother and Country House Rescue, to Clive James’ Postcard from Havana andTFI Friday. In 2020, she was a Script Consultant on two broadcast drama series, Before We Die (Channel 4) and Professor T (ITV) for Eagle Eye Drama. Sarah is a keen artist and photographer, as well as being a collector of vintage ephemera and odds and sods.
Sarah’s Social Media links
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The year is 2082. Climate collapse, famine and war have left the world in ruins.
In the shadow of the Alpha-Omega regime – descendants of the super-rich architects of disaster – sixteen-year-old Boo Ashworth and her uncle risk everything to save what’s left of human knowledge, hiding the last surviving books in a secret library beneath the streets of Hobart.
But Boo has a secret of her own: an astonishing ability to memorise entire texts with perfect recall.
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When the library is discovered and destroyed, she’s forced to flee – armed with nothing but the stories she carries in her mind, and a growing understanding of her family’s true past.
Hunted and alone, and with the help of some unlikely allies, she must fight to save her loved ones – and bring hope to a broken world.
My Review
I’ve read both The Forcing and The Descent, which is helpful when reading and reviewing The Hope – the final book in the trilogy. Dystopian fiction is not my usual genre – in fact it is something I often avoid – but these books are something special. Set in the future (2082), The Hope warns us what could happen if we ignore the signs – now. In the original book, the earth had reached 13 billion inhabitants (didn’t they warn us that 7 billion was the ‘tipping point’?), fires were burning out of control, a third of the animals were extinct and the Youth leaders blamed everyone born before 1990. All those people were shipped off to be relocated, their assets stripped.
The Hope is split into two parts. Kweku, the main character in The Descent is talking to President Lachie Ashworth about what went wrong and documenting the answers. The most worrying thing is how close we are to this situation right now. The powers that be over the pond scrapped all green initiatives and climate control, pillaged the earth’s resources for its remaining fossil fuels, fished the seas till there was nothing left, but only keeping the best catches and destroying the rest, and making the billionaires even richer. Millions died.
But the book opens In Tasmania with Kweku’s niece Boo fleeing her home and their secret library, all that is left of people’s knowledge through history books and literature. The place is set on fire and she has to run to the place where Uncle said they would meet if this ever happened.
Boo, now 16, is the three-year-old child from The Descent, kidnapped earlier and the one that Kweku, his wife Julie and son Leo traversed the earth to find. She tells the story from her point of view. There is so much she has never seen in her short life – things that most 16-year-olds today take for granted, like TV and mobile phones. But she carries all the information in her head.
The Hope takes a bleak view of our future where climate change is dismissed as a scam, and wealth is more important than humanity. There are things that happen or are said that makes me wonder if the author is psychic or has some special power, because I keep wondering ‘how did he know that?’ Things that have happened since he finished the book. I’m in awe, I really am.
But if there is just one thing you can take away from this book, it’s the title – The Hope. Because one day that may be all that we have left, but if there is still hope then we have a chance.
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Canadian Paul Hardisty has spent twenty-five years working all over the world as an environmental scientist and freelance journalist. He has roughnecked on oil rigs in Texas, explored for gold in the Arctic, mapped geology in Eastern Turkey (where he was befriended by PKK rebels), and rehabilitated water wells in the wilds of Africa. He was in Ethiopia in 1991 as the Mengistu regime fell, survived a bomb blast in a café in Sana’a in 1993, and was one of the last Westerners out of Yemen at the outbreak of the 1994 civil war. In 2022 he criss-crossed Ukraine reporting on the Russian invasion. Paul is a university professor and CEO of the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS). The four novels in his Claymore Straker series, The Abrupt Physics of Dying, The Evolution of Fear, Reconciliation for the Dead and Absolution, all received great critical acclaim and The Abrupt Physics of Dying was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and a Telegraph Book of the Year. Paul drew on his own experiences to write Turbulent Wake, an extraordinary departure from his high-octane, thought-provoking thrillers. Paul is a keen outdoorsman, a conservation volunteer, and lives in Western Australia.
About Orenda Books
Orenda Books is a small independent publishing company specialising in literary fiction with a heavy emphasis on crime/thrillers, and approximately half the list in translation. They’ve been twice shortlisted for the Nick Robinson Best Newcomer Award at the IPG awards, and publisher and owner Karen Sullivan was a Bookseller Rising Star in 2016. In 2018, they were awarded a prestigious Creative Europe grant for their translated books programme. Three authors, including Agnes Ravatn, Matt Wesolowski and Amanda Jennings have been WHSmith Fresh Talent picks, and Ravatn’s The Bird Tribunal was shortlisted for the Dublin Literary Award, won an English PEN Translation Award, and adapted for BBC Radio Four ’s Book at Bedtime. Six titles have been short- or long-listed for the CWA Daggers. Launched in 2014 with a mission to bring more international literature to the UK market, Orenda Books publishes a host of debuts, many of which have gone on to sell millions worldwide, and looks for fresh, exciting new voices that push the genre in new directions. Bestselling authors include Ragnar Jonasson, Antti Tuomainen, Gunnar Staalesen, Michael J. Malone, Kjell Ola Dahl, Louise Beech, Johana Gustawsson, Lilja Sigurðardóttir and Sarah Stovell.
A missing boy. Three extraordinary children. And a darkness that will stop at nothing.
Fourteen-year-old Ollie Cruise is missing. He was last seen two nights ago, down by the river, with an older boy.
DCI Bob Foreman suspects something very nasty has happened to him – and there’s only one person who can uncover the truth: Ellie McEwan, a healer with a rare psychic gift.
At her Surrey healing centre, Ellie is already alarmed by two new cases. Five-year-old Harry sketches WWII bomber planes with uncanny technical precision. Eight-year-old Christopher writes chilling stories of events before they actually happen.
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When the body of a teenager is found on a lonely forest road, Ellie realises the boys are connected to something very dangerous.
All leads point to an isolated mansion deep in the woods, home to the mysterious Eleventh House – and an extraordinary secret.
To save the children – and those she loves – Ellie must lead a perilous rescue. But it will take every ounce of her courage, and stretch her ability to its limits.
My Review
A teenage boy called Ollie Cruise has gone missing and DCI Bob Foreman is worried that he has been abducted or worse. His parents and one of his teachers give a very different view of the boy – his school ‘friends’ just think he is weird.
In the meantime, five-year-old Harry is creating detailed pictures of WWII bombers that a competent adult artist would be more than proud of, and Ellie’s neighbour Christopher wants to write a book. He is eight.
Ellie McEwan has inherited a healing centre where a number of interesting people work. Ellie herself can read auras as can her colleague Michael. Callum sees dead people like Carole and Vera who owned the centre before leaving it to Ellie. He can even see their dog. Are they there to warn him of some impending doom? He also sees a WWII airman, who stands close to Harry when he is drawing.
But then things take a sinister turn when a teenager’s body is found by the side of the road and then promptly disappears. So what’s going on? Are these all connected and what and where is the mysterious Eleventh House?
It’s an engrossing and captivating read with a unique plot and some lovely characters, particularly Ellie and Callum It’s just a bit overlong for me, though it will keep you interested until the climactic ending.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
“I was born in Kent but spent most of my working life in London and Surrey. I was an apprentice florist to Constance Spry Ltd, a prestigious Mayfair shop that throughout the Sixties and Seventies teemed with both royalty and ‘real’ celebrities. What an eye-opener for a working-class kid from the Garden of England! I swore then, probably whilst I was scrubbing the floor or making the tea, that I would have a shop of my own one day. It took until the early Eighties, but I did it. Sadly the recession wiped us out, and I embarked on a series of weird and wonderful jobs; the last one being a bookshop manager. Surrounded by books all day, getting to order whatever you liked, and being paid for it! Oh bliss!
“And now I live in a village in the Lincolnshire Fens with my partner, Jacqueline, and three Springer spaniels and four little rescue Breton spaniels. I had been writing mysteries for years but never had the time to take it seriously. Now I write full-time, and as my partner is a highly decorated retired police officer; my choice of genre is a no-brainer! I have an on-tap police and judicial consultant, who makes exceedingly good tea!”
Where can you find her?
Social Media Handles
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Purchase Links:
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A young aspiring writer finds romance and mystery in Paris! For fans of Mary Shelley, Daphne du Maurier, Diane Setterfield and Laura Purcell.
A daring adventure or a foolhardy affair…?
1814, London
It isn’t easy being the daughter of the great Mary Wollstonecraft, harder still to navigate life without her. Sixteen-year-old Mary Godwin is desperate for excitement and trapped in a family she feels stifled in, under the watchful, disapproving glare of her stepmother, she is constantly battling for her father’s attention and approval.
So when the young Romantic poet, Percy Shelley, comes blazing into her life, she falls quickly and deeply in love with him. But Percy has plenty of demons. He is already married with a second child on the way, and he turns up to the Godwin family home with a bottle of laudanum, declaring he will end his life if he cannot be with Mary.
William Godwin forbids contact between them, but Mary’s heart aches for the man she believes to be her soulmate. And so she agrees to elope to Paris.
The excitement of the journey soon wears off and they arrive in the city weary, travel-sick and penniless, though luck finally seems to be on their side when they meet a man who offers them money to find his missing wife.
But with Mary becoming increasingly homesick and concerned for her future, will her love affair with Percy be all she had hoped for? Could the search for the missing wife set her on a new course of self-discovery?
Or will her first daring adventure prove to be her downfall…?
THE MISSING WIFE is the first book in the Mary Shelley Investigation series: thrilling Gothic murder mysteries with a tenacious literary heroine working as a female sleuth.
THE MARY SHELLEY INVESTIGATIONS SERIES:
Book One: The Missing Wife
Book Two: The Lost Girls
Book Three: Death at the Altar
My Review
Because this book is based on real life characters, I did quite a lot of reading around the subject. While I knew a bit about Mary Shelley and her mother, the great writer and philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, I never knew that Mary Shelley was only 16 years old when she ran away with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, the same age as I was when I read her Gothic novel Frankenstein. But in spite of Percy being five years older than Mary, he appears very spoilt and childish – in fact Mary seems far more mature. I found him very silly at times, even though he was a talented writer and poet. He also had a wife, a child and another on the way.
When Mary and Percy elope, Mary’s half-sister (from her father’s second marriage after Wollstonecraft died eleven days after giving birth to Mary) travels with them. The trio keep running out of money, staying in less salubrious hotels as they progress to Paris. They do however manage to afford to buy a donkey called Napoleon.
But then their luck changes, or so it appears. They are hired by a grieving husband, who wants them to find his missing wife. He will pay well – half now, the rest when they find her – so off they go, travelling across France to a place called Troyes, their luggage being carried by Napoleon. It must have been a strange sight.
Things don’t quite go to plan though, and they soon become embroiled in a dangerous situation. Should they continue with their quest, or give it up and return to England, accompanied by shame and disgrace? We shall have to see, but suffice to say that the story got more complicated towards the end, and far more exciting and entertaining.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheMissingWife blog tour.
About the Author
Donna Gowland is a writer and teacher who lives by the seaside with her family and schnauzer dog. A lifelong lover of literature, Donna published her first poem while in junior school and has written prize-winning poetry, short stories and non-fiction (and is also an award-winning singer and dancer).
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+ audio book, audio drama, Aussie Noir, Australia, child abduction, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, review, thriller
Gone By Midnight (Crimson Lake #3) by Candice Fox
Crimson Lake is where people with dark pasts come to disappear—and where others vanish into thin air…
Four young boys are left alone in a hotel room while their parents dine downstairs. When Sara Farrow checks on the children at midnight, her son is missing.
Distrustful of the police, Sara turns to Crimson Lake’s unlikeliest private investigators—disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell. For Ted, the case couldn’t have come at a worse time. Two years ago a false accusation robbed him of his career, his reputation, and most importantly, his family. But now Lillian, the daughter he barely knows, is coming to stay in his ramshackle cottage by the lake.
Ted must dredge up the area’s worst characters to find the missing boy. The clock is ticking, and the danger he uncovers could well put his own child in deadly peril.
My Review
I’m totally bereft! What am I going to do without my daily fix of Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell while I walk the dog? 5km round the park, my new Shokz earbuds in my ears, my mind in Australia with the crocs, the mosquitoes, the swamps, and the corrupt police. Maybe not so much the corrupt police. And of course my two favourite private investigators, the geese and Celine the overweight white dog that Ted rescued after she was dumped at the shelter by the pedo in the previous book. Gone By Midnight is the third and last in the Crimson Lake trilogy. I need more.
Ted has finally managed to spend time with his three-year-old daughter Lilian without ex-wife Kelly and her boyfriend as they have gone to a yoga retreat for a few days. While Ted is investigating the disappearance of an eight-year-old boy, Lilian is babysat by Val the ‘morgue woman’. Lilian loves dog Celine and the geese. Val becomes her new Nana. Everything is fine. Ted may even find romance.
But with no trace of the missing boy, things are starting to turn weird. His mother (who has hired Ted and Amanda to find him) seems too unemotional. There is more than one suspect – but is either of them guilty? The police seem to want it to be Ted so they can hound him yet again, and Officer Fisher is obsessed with Amanda after her friend Pip was killed in the last book.
It’s all very exciting and entertaining, but it’s the characters that make the books. They are all so brilliantly written and I want to know what will happen to them – please.
About the Author
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
‘There’s a package on the porch,’ my husband calls as he leaves for work. I rip open the brown paper and find three books inside. I didn’t order them.
A week ago, my new neighbor was murdered in exactly the way described in the first book.
Her name was Naomi Sheller. I’ll never forget the first time I saw her — frozen in the middle of the grocery store, eyes wide with terror.
Days later, she’s found dead in the woods. Her husband, Eric, is led away in handcuffs.
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The second book has another murder in it. And the victim sounds exactly like me.
We moved here from New York City to raise our daughters somewhere safe. But now I think I made a terrible mistake. The police don’t believe me. My husband thinks I’m paranoid.
But I’m not. Because whoever sent these books . . . knows exactly where I live.
My Review
I was a beta reader for this book earlier this year and I really enjoyed it. In fact I read it in 24 hours. I’ve read quite a few of this author’s books – but this is totally different. It’s described as a domestic thriller, though I would probably call it more of a psychological thriller.
Lainey and Geoff have lived in Buxton for seven years. They are still regarded as newcomers. Geoff is a doctor, while Lainey has given up her career to look after their two children Delia and Charlotte. Charlotte is soccer mad and Lainey is one of the coaches. She is also part of a WhatsApp mom’s group, one of whom, Wendy, is married to police officer Martin.
After their next door neighbour Mrs Marvin died, her house was empty for a while until new neighbours moved in. Eric and Naomi Sheller also have two children of similar ages to Delia and Charlotte. The girls are very excited, while Lainey is just plain nosy. Eric pops over to say hello and a couple of days later Lainey and the girls take them brownies. And that’s when the mystery begins. Because isn’t Naomi the same woman who was having an ‘episode’ in the supermarket the other day? Having a daughter-in-law who is epileptic and has ‘absenses’, I assumed (wrongly) that’s what it was.
Then Naomi goes missing and Eric is the prime suspect. But that’s only the start, and at this point I just could not put the book down. Of course, because this is TJ Brearton, there are plenty of twists and turns and a surprise ending.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
T.J. Brearton is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the novels Gone and Dead Gone, both of which have ranked among Amazon Kindle’s top 100. His Titan trilogy has been an international best-seller. With Ted Magee, Brearton wrote Bare Knuckle, a martial arts film, and wrote and directed Breathe, about amateur MMA fighter Lane Buzzell on an undefeated streak.
He has written more than a dozen novels, mostly crime thrillers, including one paranormal mystery, and published short fiction in numerous literary journals. He lives in the Adirondack Mountains of New York with his wife and three children where he writes full time, takes out the trash, and competes with his kids for his wife’s attention. And yes, there are bears in the Adirondacks. But it’s really quite beautiful when you’re not running for your life.
Where can you find him?
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Purchase Links:
http://www.amazon.co.uk
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Website:
tjbrearton.net
A rhyming story showing the beautiful bond between a little girl and her best four-legged friend.
Follow their days full of muddy paws, tempting treats AND tasty socks!
Publisher: Blossom Spring Publishing
Genre: Children
Page Count: 30 pages
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This big, soft, lovable dog creates naughtiness wherever he goes…
But at the end of the day, he always knows how much he is loved.
My Review
As a dog lover myself, I couldn’t resist this lovely children’s book, written in rhyme and with the fabulous illustrations done by the author herself. It’s all about a child’s love for her dog, regardless of whether the dog is very naughty. I know the feeling as my 14-month-old puppy Patch is exactly the same.
Patch doesn’t dig in the garden (yet) but this dog does. He makes a terrible mess and leaves muddy footprints on the bed. He sits at the table when they are eating and rolls in puddles when out for a walk. Sometimes he runs off and doesn’t come when called, but he patiently waits at the school gates and barks for his playmate. He always jumps up to say HELLO.
Here is an extract that shows how much they love each other and the bond that has been created between them:
I love you at bath time
When I see your BIG BLACK NOSE
Even if you eat my socks
From the pile of dirty clothes!
I love you at the end of the day,
when all is said and done …
I’ll see you in the morning,
For another day of Love and Fun.
This is the perfect children’s book for dog lovers everywhere. And he’s not really that naughty. Just being a dog.
Many thanks to @ZooloosBT for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.
About the Author
Lucy’s Social Media
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Book Links
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+ audio book, audio drama, Aussie Noir, Australia, child abduction, crime fiction, fiction, murder, obsession, review, thriller
Redemption (Crimson Lake #2) by Candice Fox
When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting Claire Bingley, he hoped the Queensland rainforest town of Crimson Lake would be a good place to disappear. But nowhere is safe from Claire’s devastated father.
Dale Bingley has a brutal revenge plan all worked out – and if Ted doesn’t help find the real abductor, he’ll be its first casualty.
Meanwhile, in a dark roadside hovel called the Barking Frog Inn, the bodies of two young bartenders lie on the beer-sodden floor. It’s Detective Inspector Pip Sweeney’s first homicide investigation – complicated by the arrival of private detective Amanda Pharrell to ‘assist’ on the case. Amanda’s conviction for murder a decade ago has left her with some odd behavioural traits, top-to-toe tatts – and a keen eye for killers . . .
For Ted and Amanda, the hunt for the truth will draw them into a violent dance with evil. Redemption is certainly on the cards – but it may well cost them their lives . . .
My Review
As soon as I finished book one I downloaded book two from Borrowbox. Then I started listening straight away. When I finished it I downloaded book three.
I love this series and I love the narrator Lani Tupu. In fact he could be one of my favourite narrators ever. He speaks as Ted in the first person, while Amanda is narrated in the third person. Which brings me onto the characters themselves. Ted is just an ordinary guy, very tall, dark and supposedly handsome. He was a police officer with the drug squad in Sydney, Australia, until he was arrested for the abduction and rape of 13-year-old Claire Bingley that is. He lost his job, his wife, his daughter and his freedom. After eight months and insufficient evidence, he was released, and moved north to a remote house in the crocodile-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake.
But even though he is innocent, trial by media and the public is worse than the courts. Ted is harassed, beaten and threatened, by vigilantes and the police. But now we have someone else out to get him – Claire Bingley’s father Dale – because if Ted can’t find the real perpetrator, Dale will exact his own revenge. There are those who believe in Ted’s innocence, but they need proof.
In the meantime private investigator Amanda Pharrell, who spent eight years in prison for the murder of a teenage friend, has employed Ted as her sidekick. In Redemption the pair are investigating the killing of two bar staff at the Barking Frog Inn. For Detective Inspector Pip Sweeney, it’s her first homicide investigation and Amanda could be a help or a hindrance. Because Amanda doesn’t have an off button, she says it as it is, which is often inappropriate.
This is one of the best series I have read in years. I’ll be devastated to say goodbye to Ted and Amanda (not to mention Woman and the baby geese), but at least I have one more book to go before I need to.
About the Author
Candice Fox is the middle child of a large, eccentric family from Sydney’s western suburbs composed of half-adopted and pseudo siblings. The daughter of a parole officer and an enthusiastic foster-carer, Candice spent her childhood listening around corners to tales of violence, madness and evil as her father relayed his work stories to her mother and older brothers.
As a cynical and trouble-making teenager, her crime and gothic fiction writing was an escape from the calamity of her home life. She was constantly in trouble for reading Anne Rice in church and scaring her friends with tales from Australia’s wealth of true crime writers.
Bankstown born and bred, she failed to conform to military life in a brief stint as an officer in the Royal Australian Navy at age eighteen. At twenty, she turned her hand to academia, and taught high school through two undergraduate and two postgraduate degrees. Candice lectures in writing at the University of Notre Dame, Sydney, while undertaking a PhD in literary censorship and terrorism.
After a 14-year tenure as a successful CEO, Ishmael Dollah is settling into retirement in Singapore. But then…someone threatens his son’s happiness.
With decades of corporate strategy, crisis management and ruthless decision-making under his belt, how does he handle this situation? He decides to become a professional assassin!
Ishmael applies the same executive efficiency to find a permanent solution – eliminate the threat. The kill awakens something in him. Purpose. Control. A thrill he hasn’t felt in years.
In Assassins Are Our Greatest Assets, the second book in the series, Ishmael grows more confident and comfortable with each kill.
Three assassinations in three weeks. Retirement is off to a roaring start!
But Ishmael’s actions do not go unnoticed. A sharp, relentless presence enters the story – Inspector Julia Binti Shafiq of Singapore CID. Intelligent, intuitive, and unwilling to accept easy answers, Julia begins to sense that something dark is moving beneath the surface.
As the investigation begins and the walls close in, the line begins to blur for Ishmael…
Is he still the protector…or become the threat himself?
He used to run companies. Now he eliminates threats. And business is booming.
A darkly compelling thriller about what happens when a high-functioning executive finds his true calling – in murder.
My Review
Sometimes I wonder at myself, but I found book two even more hilarious than book one. But then I am writing a ‘comedy’ about a serial killer, so maybe I just have a warped (and dark) sense of humour.
In book one, retired CEO-turned-assassin Ishmael Dollah dispatched his first two victims and is getting pretty good at it. It’s all in the planning you see. It must be meticulous. Leave no stone unturned, though I think he needs to improve his disposal methods. Not of the bodies, but of his clothing and murder tools ie the evidence.
We now have a potential third target – the man who spread the false rumours about his son’s wife having an affair and almost destroyed their marriage. The man is a trouble maker and needs to go. Deserves to go in fact. So Ishmael decides to set him up online. It’s called catfishing apparently – I learned a lot if I ever decide to assassinate anyone (I’m joking).
In the meantime Inspector Julia Binti Shafiq of Singapore CID is looking at CCTV of who was coming and going on the evenings of the first two killings from book one. There is only one person she sees both times, but no-one believes her. She needs to get on with her other cases she is told by her boss, and forget about what’s been and gone. And one of those cases revolves around a domestic help who was bullied and starved by her employers.
We follow both threads and wonder if they will come together. That remains to be seen.
I loved this series. It’s just up my street. And who else spotted that Ishmael’s wife Nysa is going to order their son’s birthday cake from Sinsations, which is owned by the author’s wife Radhika in real life. I hope we get to see his cake on Instagram! Her cakes are amazing.
Many thanks to the author for inviting me to submit a review of book two in the series.
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About the Author
Shesh, or Venkatraman Sheshashayee, is a retired CEO living in Singapore. Armed with degrees in Marine Engineering and Management, he first sailed across half the known world and then built businesses across most of the rest of it. In his career spanning thirty-eight years, he built companies from scratch, transformed them and turned them around. Currently, he mentors nine start-ups and about twenty professionals. He is a director on three boards and advises two more.
He started writing in his teens. His articles have been published in trade publications (relating to the maritime and offshore energy industry) across the world.
Shesh is married to Singapore’s best home baker, Radhika (www.sinsationsbyradhika.com). They have two children, both of whom are in Singapore building a start-up in the physical fitness space.
When not mentoring or writing, he runs, plays tennis and reads. Though never at the same time.
When a mutilated body rises from the icy waters off the jetty in Kjerringøy, it shocks the quiet coastal village – and stirs something darker beneath.
Not long after, a young woman is found dead in a drab apartment. Suicide, perhaps. Or something far more sinister.
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Detective Jakob Weber and former national investigator Noora Yun Sande are drawn into both cases. Then a hiker has a terrifying encounter in the nearby wilderness: a solitary cabin … and a man without a face.
As the investigation deepens, the clues grow more disturbing – and the wild, wintry landscape closes in. Kjerringøy’s beautiful wilderness conceals a heart of darkness, and Jakob is certain of only one thing: if they don’t find the killer soon, he’ll strike again….
My Review
Another crime novel in one of my favourite genres – Scandi Noir. And Nordic Noir comes up top for me. It’s atmospheric, edgy, and dark, with creepy villains and dangerous settings, snow, ice, freezing water, abandoned huts deep in the forest. you know the kind of thing I mean. There’s something about Nordic Noir that is unlike other crime genres, though I’m never quite sure what sets it apart.
In Book Two of the series, we once again meet Jakob Weber (and Garm the Jack Russell), Amman, Fine and Noora who are all brilliantly written. My Jack Russell Patch is a huge fan of Garm (OK I made that bit up, but I’m sure she would be), and so am I. He’s part of the team.
This time we have two murders, first of all a body rises from the icy waters off the jetty in Kjerringøy where a group of women are wild swimming. One of them gets tangled in the rope that is holding the body down. Eeek! Then a woman is found dead in a shabby apartment. It looks like suicide at first but the evidence points to a brutal murder. And these two are just the beginning. But are they linked?
Once again there are many suspects who crop up in both cases and also connect to the missing woman Iselin Hanssen from book one. Because nothing is ever as it seems in a gritty Scandi Noir. There will be loose ends that will no doubt form part of Book Three. Two of the ‘villains’ in particular gave me the creeps, for very different reasons, but I can’t really say any more. Just that it’s brilliant!
Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours
About the Author
Ørjan Karlsson grew up in Bodø, a town north of the Arctic Circle. He holds a master’s degree in sociology and received officer training in the army. He has participated in international missions for the EU, UN, and NATO, and has worked for the Norwegian Ministry of Defence and the Directorate for Civil Protection. Ørjan has written a large number of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime novels for adults, including an acclaimed thriller series featuring Major Frank Halvorsen and Lieutenant Ida Vinterdal of the Norwegian special forces. Up in Thin Air, the first book in the Jakob Weber series, is his sixteenth novel.
“You can’t see the bars or the lock, but they are there. I am a prisoner.”
Meet Anoushka:
Edinburgh biology student, dutiful Indian daughter, great marriage material. She’s everything to everybody and yet – she’s nothing. She is invisible in an invisible cage. This is the year that changes her life.
At twenty-two, Anoushka, the eldest daughter in her family, is expected to take the next step in marriage. When her parents find her a “suitable” husband, she enters a new world where family expectations run deep and loyalties are tested.
But behind the promise of stability lies a far more complicated reality—an overbearing mother-in-law determined to control her son, and a husband still tethered to his mother’s will. Caught in the middle, Anoushka must summon the strength to navigate tradition, duty, and her own growing sense of self.
Based on a true story, The Invisible Cage is a moving and powerful tale of resilience, self-discovery, and courage. As Anoushka learns to fight for her voice and her freedom, she discovers the true meaning of independence—and what it takes to break free.
My Review
I wasn’t sure when I started reading this. Indian girl, studying for a biology Masters. Hoping to do a PhD. But what does any of it matter? She’s going to have an arranged marriage to a good Indian boy from a good family. The stars will be aligned and the gods will look favourably on the couple.
A match is found, a match made in heaven. But is it as it seems? Because once agreed, to go back would be shameful. And Ravi’s family are happy to move surprisingly fast.
Anoushka is swept away with the tide. She likes Ravi well enough, but his mother is the driving force. Her own mother is fully up for it, but she doesn’t know Dukkha yet. The woman is deranged.
I loved Anoushka’s sister, who is years ahead of her time. We have to remember the story is set over 30 years ago when Indian women had no voice.
Once married Anoushka learns the truth about her husband’s ‘perfect’ family and they are more dysfunctional than she could ever have imagined. But how can she jump off the roller coaster without disgracing herself and her family. A wonderful book which I adored and read well into the night. And surprisingly there is a lot of humour amongst the feeling of being trapped and having no voice, mainly between Anoushka and her sister.
Many thanks to @lovebookstours for inviting me to be part of #TheInvisibleCage blog tour.
About the Author
Suni Samara is a carer, writer and artist from Scotland. Her parents moved from India to settle into Scotland. In the 1960s Her debut novel ‘The Invisible Cage’ is a fictionalised account of her life, both own voices and diverse fiction. It is an adult novel with coming-of-age aspects that may also appeal to YA readers. Suni is a Science graduate and taught mainstream Science and special needs education. She enjoys drawing and has submitted pieces of her work to the Big Art Show She currently lives with her two daughters in Glasgow.
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