+ crime fiction, fiction, murder mystery, mystery, obsession, Peak Disctrict, psycopath, relationships, review, serial killer, writing
The Catch by T.M. Logan
Ed is delighted to meet his twenty-three year old daughter’s fiancé for the first time. Abbie is head-over-heels in love with her new man. Smart, successful and handsome, Ryan appears to be the perfect future son-in-law. There’s just one problem. There’s something off about Ryan. Something hidden in the shadows behind his eyes. And it seems that only Ed can see it.
Terrified that his daughter is being drawn in by a psychopath, Ed sets out to uncover her fiancé’s dark past – while keeping his own concealed. But no-one believes him. And the more he digs, the more he alienates her and the rest of the family who are convinced that Ryan is ‘the one’. Ed knows different. For reasons of his own, he knows a monster when he sees one…
I love a good psychopath. The crazier the better. You only have to look at the popularity of Killing Eve to see I am not alone. There’s dark humour in The Catch too at times (or maybe it’s not intentional and it just says a lot about me). Perhaps because it’s my favourite genre to write I can almost smell it.
This book was fantastic. I’ve read Lies and 29 Seconds by the same author but The Catch is way more exciting. This is real edge of the seat stuff. My only two issues were that I would have liked a kind of ‘nature or nurture’ explanation as to why someone becomes a total nut job. And also I so wanted one of the characters (I can’t say any more) to have outwitted the killer. But you can’t have it all.
Ed is paranoid when it comes to his daughter. He’d do anything to protect her. And I mean anything. Everyone else adores Ryan but Ed sees something else. Something hidden in those deep brown eyes that are so dark they are almost black. Hey – I have eyes like that but I hope I don’t look like a psychopath. But it’s not just that. He smiles with his mouth but his eyes don’t follow. They just stare back at Ed. Unmoving, fixed, unemotional. Sounds kind of scary but no-one else seems to notice except Ed. That’s when he starts Googling Ryan, looking at his social media profiles, breaking into his house, attaching a GPS tracker to his car. Hiring a private detective. The usual stuff when your daughter has a new boyfriend. In fact everyone thinks Ed’s gone a bit nuts. But just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean they are not after you.
So who really is the one with the problem here? Overprotective Daddy or too-perfect Ryan? This book will keep you guessing, skipping back and forth until near the end. Absolutely brilliant. Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons and to the author for making this such an enjoyable read. If I had had the whole book in one go I would have stayed up all night to finish it – and not just because I’ve been furloughed and don’t have to go to work tomorrow.
+ crime fiction, fiction, friendship, murder mystery, obsession, relationships, review, Uncategorized, writing
One White Lie by Leah Konen
Imagine you’ve finally escaped the worst relationship of your life, running away with only a suitcase and a black eye. Imagine your new next-door neighbours are the friends you so desperately needed – fun, kind, empathetic, very much in love. Imagine they’re in trouble. That someone is telling lies about them, threatening their livelihoods – and even their lives. Imagine your ex is coming for you.
If your new best friends needed you to tell one small lie, and all of these problems would disappear, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?
It’s only one small lie, until someone turns up dead…
What a cracker of a read. To say I just couldn’t put it down would be an understatement. Especially when a cute white dog called Dusty is involved. Every time the dog was threatened I just had to keep reading. And what a massive twist at the end – following all the other twists throughout this fab book.
So why only 4 stars (see Goodreads and NetGalley) I hear you ask? There were some parts I found a little unbelievable. Some suspension of disbelief. Does no-one ever go to the police when they are being threatened? How do you trust your neighbours with your life when you’ve only known them a few weeks? Especially when they are a bit odd. And also the attitude to Ryan’s abuse was somehow not strong enough. I feel he should have been punished more and surely his sister Ellie knew more than she was letting on.
Never assume the narrator is reliable however plausible they might appear. And everyone else seems to be lying. Or are they telling the truth? There were so many things I failed to spot. So many twists I didn’t guess. A great book.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Four hundred and eighty seconds. That’s how long it took for someone to steal Marin Machado’s four-year-old son.
Marin had the perfect life. Married to her college sweetheart, she owns a chain of upscale hair salons, and Derek runs his own company. They’re admired in their community and are a loving family. Up until the day Sebastian is taken.
A year later, Marin is a shadow of herself. The FBI search has gone cold. The publicity has faded. She and her husband rarely speak. The only thing keeping her going is the unlikely chance that one day Sebastian reappears. She hires a P.I. to pick up where the police left off, but instead of finding him, she discovers that Derek is having an affair with a younger woman.
McKenzie Li is an artist and grad student—Instagram famous—and up to her eyeballs in debt. She knows Derek is married. She also knows he’s rich, and dating him comes with perks: help with bills, trips away, expensive gifts. He isn’t her first rich boyfriend, but she finds herself hoping he’ll be the last. She’s falling for him—and that was never part of the plan.
Discovery of the affair sparks Marin back to life. She’s lost her son; she’s not about to lose her husband, too. Kenzie is an enemy with a face, which means this is a problem Marin can fix. But as she sets a plan in motion, another revelation surfaces. Derek’s lover might know what happened to their son. And so might Derek.
I struggled to connect with Marin unfortunately. Maybe if she hadn’t been a ‘celebrity hairdresser’ by trade I would have found her less annoyingly shallow. Boy that sounds judgemental! But I sometimes wondered if her lifestyle with her rich husband was just a bit too comfy and she wasn’t going to give it up.
However I loved this book. Some of it was rather far fetched and I do hate anything based on coincidences, but it was fast paced, tense, exciting, full of twists (that awful word where everything nowadays if full of twists you didn’t see coming). Well in this case I didn’t. Except it was hard to believe the outcome and who were the villains etc. I can’t say I liked Derek very much either. He was obviously very clever to have made such a fortune but he was still a twat. And McKenzie – sometimes I felt sorry for her while at other times I thought what a conniving little bitch.
I read this in two days flat apart from the final bit which I finished this morning as too tired last night to appreciate the ending. It could have all be said and done in probably two thirds of the length of the book but Marin’s meeting with other parents of missing children was more than just padding. For me it made the book – and Marin – more real.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
+ Ceylon, family drama, fiction, Historical fiction, literature, review, romance, Sri Lanka, writing
The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies
Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected.
The plantation workers are resentful, the neighbours treacherous, and there are clues to the past – a dusty trunk of dresses, an overgrown gravestone in the grounds – that her husband refuses to discuss.
Just as Gwen finds her feet, disaster strikes. She faces a terrible choice, hiding the truth from almost everyone, but a secret this big can’t stay buried forever….
I can’t pretend I enjoyed this book – in fact I was relieved when it ended. I have, however, given it 4 stars rather than 3 because if this is your cup of tea (no pun intended) then you’ll no doubt adore it. For me it had nothing new to say. It’s just another sad story but with a cast of characters that drove me mental. It would probably make a good TV series with beautiful costumes and panoramic shots of the surrounding countryside. I’m afraid I found it flat and I didn’t feel any of the emotion until the very last part, which I can’t give away because of spoilers.
So many secrets that if someone had had the guts to reveal at some stage all the tragedy could have been avoided. But I guess that’s easy to say now as we live in a different age. It was an age where women had only just found their feet (and vote) but there was still so much they couldn’t do or say. Gwen’s opinions about the racism and treatment of the Sinhalese/Tamils were really just a puff in the wind. She never actually did anything, usually just made things worse in a frail attempt to ‘help’. I read this with Pigeonhole and most of my fellow readers enjoyed being transported to Ceylon (as it was in those days) and found it an emotional read. But for me it was too predictable.
I’m sure Dinah Jeffries is a fabulous author but I need something grittier to keep me interested. Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for keeping me reading.
+ dark humour, fiction, literature, rabbit, review, satire, writing
The Constant Rabbit by Jasper Fforde
Peter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that’s up for the Village Garden of the Year award. Until Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, upsetting the locals (many of them members of the governing political party – UKARP or the United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population), complicating Peter’s job as a Rabbit Spotter, and forcing him to take a stand, moving from unconscious leporiphobe to active supporter of the UK’s amiable and peaceful population of anthropomorphised rabbits.
I loved this book. Probably the most original story I have read in years – maybe even ever. Lately every book I read is either historical fiction set in the underbelly of 17th century or 18th century or Victorian England or yet another crime thriller or police procedural. And then there are the psychological thrillers with a twist you never saw coming. Yes we did because we’ve already read about a hundred of them. I’m not saying some of them aren’t edge-of-the-seat brilliant but there is a limit and I joined NetGalley in the hope that I might get to read something unique. And I just have. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea (or should I say dandelion brandy – see below) but it’s definitely mine.
So here we go. The concept that rabbits have been anthropomorphised during an unexplained ‘Event’ and now live side by side with humans seems ridiculous, ludicrous and crazy and initially I struggled with it. I say initially – probably for about five minutes. But then it got better and better with little nuggets of comic genius thrown in every now and again from things like Doc and Constance distilling their own exceptional (and strong) dandelion brandy in the cellar to rabbits watching The Great Escape as they naturally adore films about digging tunnels. In fact there are so many references and homages to books and films, I can’t remember them all.
Peter Knox – a very boring middle-aged man – whose wife left him because he was (yes you guessed it) too boring lives in Much Hemlock with his grown up daughter Pippa. Peter is a rabbit Spotter. To most people they all look the same but Peter has the ability to spot the differences and so works undercover doing just that, but pretending to be an accountant. Then one day he bumps into Connie – an old friend from university. Except Connie is a bunny (bunny is now used as a derogatory term for a rabbit). Because of his ‘gift’ he recognises her after 30 years. When she and her third husband Doc (rabbits often have a short life-span so multiple marriages are common) move in next door with their two children Bobby (Roberta like in The Railway Children) and Kent. Peter must now decide whose side he is on. Some of it is hilarious but this isn’t just some silly bunny story.
The Constant Rabbit is a serious insight into the human condition and how it will take another so-called ‘lower species’ to make us realise who we really are and what we have done to this earth. It uncovers the hidden racism and the not-so-hidden hatred of anyone who is different. They’ll take over and then where will we be? It says a lot about our society and many people may even recognise themselves as marginally leporiphobic. I even cried at the end though I can’t say why without spoilers. And I laughed out loud many times throughout the book.
Please read it. I know it’s weird and bonkers at times but it really is worth it. Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
From the brothels and gin-shops of Covent Garden to the elegant townhouses of Mayfair, Laura Shepherd-Robinson’s Daughters of Night follows Caroline Corsham, as she seeks justice for a murdered woman whom London society would rather forget . . .
Lucia’s fingers found her own. She gazed at Caro as if from a distance. Her lips parted, her words a whisper: ‘He knows.’
London, 1782. Desperate for her politician husband to return home from France, Caroline ‘Caro’ Corsham is already in a state of anxiety when she finds a well-dressed woman mortally wounded in the bowers of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the deceased woman was a highly-paid prostitute, at which point they cease to care entirely. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done, and so sets out to solve the crime herself. Enlisting the help of thieftaker, Peregrine Child, their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice, deception and secret lives.
But with many gentlemen refusing to speak about their dealings with the dead woman, and Caro’s own reputation under threat, finding the killer will be harder, and more treacherous than she can know . .
Once again I have finished a book that falls between 4 and 5 stars. I am sticking with 4 stars only because it was slightly overlong and over-complicated. Don’t get me wrong, the story was excellently executed and intricately plotted but at times I wondered if I needed a spreadsheet to keep track of all the characters and the threads.
When Mrs Caroline Corsham, the wife of Harry Corsham (her politician husband who is currently away on business in France) discovers a murdered prostitute in Vauxhall Gardens, she begins an investigation of her own. Hiring the thief-taker Peregrine Child to help her, she is led into a world of prostitution, fraud, money-lending, rape, murder and all sorts, while together they attempt to uncover the truth. The descriptions of the goings-on in the underbelly of Georgian London are so well written that we are transported to the filth, excrement and degradation that lie therein. I knew about cock-fighting and bear-baiting but I have now learnt that women skinned dead mice in order to sell their pelts as false eyebrows while ‘entertainers’ juggled with live mice in Covent Garden. Who would have thought…
But enough about the poor mice (they always get a bad rap) and back to the prostitutes. Lucy Loveless (the murdered girl) and Kitty Carefree have been on the game for years, while Pamela – only 15 years old but as cunning as a barrel load of monkeys – is about to be sold as a virgin at auction. Yes this really did happen. She would be sold to the highest bidder who would have to be a gentleman of some wealth and standing and often married to boot. This is where we meet The Priapus Club, a group of libertine thrill-seekers (I’m being polite here), based loosely on the Hell-Fire Club of the time. At its head is Jonathan Stone, a money-lender who lends above the legal limit of 5% and thereby is the owner of numerous stately homes, antiquaries and a large fortune. Without any care for morality or outcome The Priapus Club ‘worshipped’ all things supposedly Greco-Roman, but more particularly drunken whoring dressed up as free thinking.
This is a fascinating look at the ‘beau monde’ of the time, the hypocrisy and double standards, and also at the dreadful lives of the poor and the things many of them had to do in order to survive. Caroline ‘Caro’ herself has to take unbelievable risks in her pursuit of the truth and she is not about to give up until she finds it. It is at times a tad unbelievable, but always exciting, and heart-stopping when we get near the end. If you love Historical fiction then don’t miss this fabulous book, but be warned that the language can be very colourful – Georgette Heyer this ain’t.
Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
His life was destroyed by a lie. Her life will be ruined by the truth.
Joely tells other people’s secrets for a living. As a ghost writer, she’s used to scandal – but this just might be her strangest assignment yet. Freda has never told her story to anyone before. But now she’s ready to set the record straight and to right a wrong that’s haunted her for forty years. Freda’s memoir begins with a 15-year-old girl falling madly in love with her teacher. It ends in a way Joely could never possibly have imagined.
As the story unravels, Joely is spun deeper into a world of secrets and lies. Delving further into Freda’s past, Joely’s sure she can uncover the truth… But does she want to?
Warning – contains spoilers.
I don’t normally start my review while still reading a book but I feel I must in case I forget how I felt at this time. Two thirds of the way through and I am totally confused. I no longer know who is who and what is what. Young Freda is really Joely’s mum Marianne (Linda) and Sir is Freda’s brother. Sir ( who is really David Martin and not David Michaels) left Marianne for Linda – his girlfriend travelling round India for three months – but Linda and Marianne are really the same person so how can that be? Joely is locked in a tower and her hair isn’t long enough I assume to do a Rapunzel so who will save her?
So how does Freda know the intimate details of what her brother got up to in Paris or in his uncle’s back garden, unless he told his sister, which would be really creepy. Is anyone who they say they are? How far will Freda go in order to defend her brother’s name apart from distinguishing a paedophile from a hebophile? And do we consider Marianne to be totally innocent as she was only 15? Oh boy.
Nearly there and things have changed dramatically. I know a lot of people won’t like this but it appears that the love between David (Sir) and Marianne (Linda) was real. Even though she was only 15. I think maybe the fact that he was her teacher is what makes it indefensible. He had a duty to his pupils and he let his desire overcome that. However 10 years seems a long sentence ( from what I have read about sentencing Laws in the UK).
It’s the end now and I have to admit that I thoroughly loved reading this book. I love the characters, especially Joely, Marianne, Holly and Freda. Just the women – funny that. But it is bonkers in places and there will always be that questions of statutory rape and teacher-pupil relationships and is there ever any excuse. I’ve known this happen twice (only one was regarded as Statutory rape) and in both cases the couples ended up married. The first was in about 1968 or 69. The boy was 17 and she was 13 – in the US they call this the Romeo and Juliet Laws. Yes he went to prison for about two years (this is because he was under 18). I was told later that when he came out they waited and got married just after her 16th birthday. The second was a teacher who had an affair with his pupil but she was 18 so no rape in this case. It was a scandal at the time because he was her teacher, but they are still married today and have two children now in their thirties.
For Sir and Marianne neither of these apply. He was a lot older than 17 and she was below the age of consent. I cried at the end, feeling sorry for all of them but then feeling guilty because I felt sorry for Sir and shouldn’t have. I feel that the author intentionally left us with this quandary and I know some of my fellow Pigeonhole readers thought that Sir deserved everything he got. I even felt sorry for Freda even though she locked Joely in a tower and was bat-shit crazy.
Then there’s Joely and Callum’s marriage. I know some readers were shocked that she took him back. But not everyone ends their marriage when things go wrong, especially under the circumstances. We only usually hear about the ones that do. However there are two problems here. It won’t be solved overnight. It may take years for the trust to be regained. But it’s mainly the fact that Callum chose Joely’s best friend, rather than a quick fling with a stranger. There’s the rub.
Finally, just before starting this book I watched Julia Bradbury on TV doing one of her Britain’s Best Walks on the Exmoor coast visiting Lynton and Lynmouth which made it even easier to picture the beautiful places described. And of course there’s the funicular railway! I adore these – they take me back to my first overseas holiday to Austria when I was 12 and we rode the funicular in Salzburg. If there’s one near I have to ride it. Even the dog loves it. I’m a bit obsessed. I’ve even considered touring the country from funicular to funicular, writing the history of each – but that makes me sound like those people who write about Britain’s best roundabouts… and we are not talking funfairs.
Many thanks to the Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making this such and enjoyable read. I shall be reading more of Susan Lewis’s work very soon.
It all started with just one little lie. But we all know that it never ends there. Because, of course, one lie leads to another…
Growing up, Jane and Marnie shared everything. They knew the other’s deepest secrets. They wouldn’t have had it any other way. But when Marnie falls in love, things begin to change. Because Jane has a secret: she loathes Marnie’s wealthy, priggish husband. So when Marnie asks if she likes him, Jane tells her first lie. After all, even best friends keep some things to themselves. If she had been honest, then perhaps her best friend’s husband might still be alive today…
For, of course, it’s not the last lie. In fact, it’s only the beginning…
Seven Lies is Jane’s confession of the truth—her truth. Compelling, sophisticated, chilling, it’s a seductive, hypnotic page-turner about the tangled, toxic friendships between women, the dark underbelly of obsession and what we stand to lose in the name of love.
I would have given this 5 stars but it took me quite a while to get into. I could not identify at all with either of the main characters – Jane with her obsession with Marnie – and of course Marnie herself. I’ve probably never been the sort of person who has known this kind of friendship. I still see people from school (though my friends now are not the ones who were my best friends then). We’ve grown apart over the years and in some cases I don’t even like them much. But I know people who are still best friends with their schoolmates but they give each other room to breathe. Jane has an expectation of friendship that goes beyond normal. Everything in her life revolves around her best friend. She also has issues with her mother who always favoured her younger sister Emma, now anorexic (though we are never really sure what triggered it). Jane’s mum suffers with early onset dementia and Jane visits her once a week. Out of duty? Not sure why. Their issues are unresolved but Jane makes no effort to resolve them. When she tells her mother about the sad or cruel things that have happened, she seems to do it out of spite. There was no need to tell her at all.
The one part that I didn’t get is how Jane switches her love temporarily to her husband Jonathan, but can’t understand when Marnie falls in love and gets married. Jane hates Marnie’s partner Charles with a vengeance. He’s a bit of an arrogant prat but that’s Jane’s version as she sees it. Charles has replaced her in Marnie’s life and Jane is insanely jealous. People get married Jane, and putting their family first becomes the new ‘normal’.
The writing and emotions portrayed are wonderful and beautifully written but I still struggled to find sympathy for Jane. She has no empathy with any of the other characters such as her sister Emma and at the end I felt there were a couple of strands left unresolved such as the introduction of journalist Valerie. But we do get to discover who Jane is ‘talking to’ and that part will have you holding your breath till you gasp out loud.
A great story though and many thanks to The Pigeonhole, my fellow Pigeons and the author for making this such an enjoyable read.
+ Catholic Church, crime fiction, fiction, Historical fiction, murder mystery, mystery, review, Tudor England, writing
The Lost Boys of London by Mary Lawrence
In the twilight years of Henry VIII’s reign, alchemist’s daughter Bianca Goddard uses her skills to aid the living, and help seek justice for the dead . . .
While her husband fights the Scots on behalf of King Henry VIII, Bianca Goddard earns her coin by concocting medicines that offer relief to London’s sick. Some unfortunates, however, are beyond any remedies she can provide–like the young boy discovered hanging from a church dripstone. Examining the body, Bianca finds a rosary twisted around the child’s neck. A week later, another boy is found dead at a different church. When Fisk, the impish little son of Bianca’s acquaintance, goes missing, she fears he may become the third victim . . .
There are many villains who would prey on wayward, penniless boys. But Bianca suspects the killings are not brutal acts of impulse, but something far more calculated. In her room of Medicinals and Physickes she examines the sole piece of evidence: a sweet-smelling, dark-stained cloth. If Bianca can unravel its secret, reputations and lives will be saved. But the expected hour of the next murder is approaching, and a single misstep may mean another boy is lost forever . . .
When I started reading I had no idea that this was Book 5 in the series of Bianca Goddard Mysteries. Nor did I realise that the author actually lives in the US. However neither of these detracted one bit from my enjoyment. The Lost Boys of London is a historical fiction novel – not my usual genre though I do dip in from time to time (Alice Hoffman, Kate Mosse, Andrew Taylor) – but it was a rip-roaring tale of murder and mayhem in Tudor England, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
My only criticism is the convoluted language which initially took some time getting used to and was often quite tiring to read, particularly when it crept into the descriptions as well as the dialogue. However, by half-way I’d forgotten my misgivings and got used to it. I was reading on my Kindle and at the end discovered a glossary of terms – I wish I’d known it was there from the beginning!
In the acknowledgements, the author mentions that she is not a history scholar and apologises for any mistakes she may have made with the facts. Well I am not either, though I did study the Tudors many moons ago for O Level and A Level History. In spite of that my knowledge of the Tudors is quite basic, but then I have to admit that I didn’t care too much (apart from the main facts about Henry VIII and the dissolution of the monasteries). I am not sure that a woman would have been allowed to accompany the police examining murder victims and interviewing members of the church in those days, but as this is a work of fiction I didn’t start checking the facts on Wikipedia.
Actually I really loved this story. It was exciting and the tension built up as we follow both Bianca and her accomplices in London and her husband John, sent away to Scotland to protect the bowmen as they fight the Scots, burning and pillaging the towns and villages. And we mustn’t forget her cat Hobs, who I dearly loved almost as mush as she does.
+ childhood, dementia, family drama, fiction, friendship, Kit Williams, literature, Magical realism, relationships, review, The Man Behind the Masquerade, writing
The Illustrated Child by Polly Crosby
Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past – but she knows that she is loved.
When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV, and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain clues leading to a precious prize.
But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of the outside world until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear altogether. With no-one else to help, Romilly turns to the secrets her father has hidden in his illustrated books – realising that his treasure hunt doesn’t lead to gold, but to something far more precious…the truth.
This book is so beautiful and sad, words cannot do it justice. Yes it’s slow at times – especially in the middle – and I guessed at some of the tragedies that do not come to light until the end, but don’t let that put you off. It’s not yet another book full of twists and turns and a shocking reveal. This is a gentle read about Romilly’s coming of age and one that will have you in tears at the end. All the characters are beautifully drawn – her dad Tobias whose life is changing in ways that she is too young to understand, her mum who cannot cope with reality – we don’t find out why until later on (I can identify with this), her elderly grandmother Beatrice who she has only just met, her mysterious friend Stacey and Monty the cat. Then there is Lidiya in the Circus who plays a part in her childhood.
I loved this book. It’s so real and heartfelt, it will stay with me (and hopefully you) for many years to come. For lovers of When God Was a Rabbit and The Trouble with Goats and Sheep.
Many thanks to NetGalley for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I must also give a mention to Kit Williams, whose book Masquerade, written and illustrated in 1979 inspired a worldwide treasure hunt by concealing clues to the location of a jewelled golden hare. I know it also inspired The Illustrated Child. William’s amazing wishing fish clock built in 1985 by renowned clock maker Michael Harding still plays music and blows bubbles every 15 minutes in the Regent Arcade in my home town of Cheltenham.
How well do you know your neighbours?
When residents of a North London cul-de-sac enrol in a seemingly innocent social network called Join Me, they soon find themselves embroiled in a murky web of sinister manipulation and murder.
From the outside, Caroline and Jason Swinton have an idyllic life. But when the cracks start to appear the residents of Riverside Close are drawn into a dangerous game. When Jason’s body is discovered in a house on the close, everyone becomes a suspect. Could his lovely wife be responsible for his murder? Or do the neighbours have a motive for wanting him dead? As the secret lives of those living on the Close are gradually revealed, it becomes clear that someone is hiding something they will stop at nothing to protect…
When the residents of Riverside Close get a leaflet through the door about a website called Join Me, little do they know that some of their lives will be changed forever. Join Me, run by husband and wife team Jason and Caroline Swinton, is not supposed to be a dating website. Its aim is to bring like-minded people together to go on trips to London to visit the Zoo, take a boat trip down the Thames or share fine wine and dining. Why is it therefore that women don’t meet other women to share these adventures? That would be good. Like pen pals who actually meet and do stuff. Why is it that it’s only bored housewives who find a kindred spirit in the same handsome man under different guises? Join Me has a very different agenda, as ludicrously naive and stupid Susan finds out. So does Alexis, whose relationship with doctor husband Adam is falling apart. But Alexis is a lot smarter than Susan. And Olive, an eighty-something busy-body is keeping a diary of all the comings and goings. Then Jason is found dead inside the only empty house in the close – number 4. Who killed him? Were they lining up? This is wonderful stuff, so why only 4 stars I hear you ask. 4.5 would be nearer the mark.
I actually loved this book until the last bit when the killer is revealed. Towards the end I made a list of my ‘suspects’. The perp was originally number one on my list but I soon dismissed him as too obvious and a motive that would make him a total hypocrite, unless he was bonkers. I then went through the list dismissing each one until I chose the one I thought would be a great twist. Unfortunately I was wrong!! I loved my twist!! However, I still enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. It’s original and fun and brilliantly written.
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for once again giving me the opportunity to read a book I would probably never have found on my own or chosen to read.
People would kill to have Faye von Essen’s life. She lives in an ultra-swanky apartment in the most exclusive area of Stockholm, she has a gorgeous husband who gives her everything she’s ever wanted, and she has an adorable daughter who lights up her world. Faye’s life is perfect.
So how is it, then, that she now finds herself in a police station?
The truth is that Faye’s life is far from what it seems. The truth is that Faye isn’t even her real name. And now she’s been caught out. There’s no way she’s going to go down without a fight. The only question is – who will escape with their life?
For once in my life I don’t really know what to say. What a difficult book to read. On the one hand it is well written and tells us a lot about a Swedish life-style I didn’t know existed, though I expect it’s the same in any Western country. Faye is one of a gaggle of rich and spoilt housewives whose lives are fuelled by greed and drink (I would be under the table after a tenth of what these women pour down their skinny necks), except she isn’t skinny and believes that is why her husband no longer fancies her. But he is a ruthless pig and has also locked her in a ‘Gilded Cage’ where nothing matters apart from what others in his world can see. And she doesn’t fit in. Academically smart but inherently stupid, it takes a wake-up call to finally catapult her into her final revenge.
Now all this would be fine if it wasn’t for a couple of things. Faye commits one crime that can never be forgotten and in my mind really spoils the whole story. Why the author included it I can never understand. Any sympathy we may have for Faye is now gone for good. Secondly, her rise to success in her own business is a little too predictable and unlikely. But then this is fiction so a bit of artistic licence is allowed.
Finally there’s the ghastly sex scenes. Even Fifty Shades of Grey managed to be more erotic and exciting. These scenes are all vile and horrible but maybe for someone of my generation I am expecting the sex to be at least a little romantic, even when it’s frantic. Unintended rhyme. I know many of us felt the same. Or maybe the author’s intention is to shock and disgust in which case it certainly succeeded.
Anyway, it’s still a good story and I would have given it 4 stars if it wasn’t for Viktor. Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and my fellow Pigeons for making it an enjoyable read.
