Review: THE GOOD SISTER, Sally Hepworth

•  this edition supplied by my local library

• first published by Pan MacMillan Australia 2020
• ISBN 978-1-76055-219-0
• 330 pages
  

 Synopsis (publisher)

Fern Castle works in her local library. She has dinner with her twin sister Rose three nights a week. And she avoids crowds, bright lights and loud noises as much as possible. Fern has a carefully structured life and disrupting her routine can be ... dangerous.

When Rose discovers that she cannot fall pregnant, Fern sees her chance to pay her sister back for everything Rose has done for her. Fern can have a baby for Rose. She just needs to find a father. Simple.

Fern's mission will shake the foundations of the life she has carefully built for herself and stir up dark secrets from the past, in this quirky, rich and shocking story of unexpected love.

WINNER OF THE DAVITT AWARD FOR ADULT FICTION 2021

My Take

Sally Hepworth has become one of those Australian authors that I look out for,  and in this case, an authors whose past titles I track down.

Fern and Rose are fraternal twins, that is, not identical, in reality very different. 

We begin the story with Rose's journal, recently begun, but beginning with a major event in their lives when they were 12 years old. So we see things in the journal from Rose's point of view. But then we begin to see things from Fern's point of view in chapters headed with her name. Rose appears to be the controller of their lives while Fern comes over as introverted and retiring.

As we put together the picture of their past, we also begin to see their mother, mainly from Rose's point of view, and are led to conclude that their childhood was an unhappy one. 

And then comes the question of a baby, which Rose desperately wants, and Fern thinks she has a solution.

An engrossing read.

My rating: 4.7 

I've also read

• 4.5, THE MOTHER IN LAW
• 4.7, THE YOUNGER WIFE 
• 4.7, THE SOULMATE
• 4.8, DARLING GIRLS
• 4.7, THE YOUNGER WIFE 

Review: ONE PERFECT COUPLE, Ruth Ware

 This edition an e-book from Amazon on Kindle

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CL5G23Z

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Gallery/Scout Press (May 21, 2024)

Print length ‏ : ‎ 395 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

Harkening to Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None, this high-tension thriller follows five couples trapped on a storm-swept island as a killer stalks among them—from Ruth Ware, the New York Times bestselling author who “is turning out to be as ingenious and indefatigable as the Queen of Crime” (The Washington Post).

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him.

A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death. 

My Take

This novel is an interesting reflection on the creation of reality TV shows. As we know, these shows rely heavily on factors like surprise "tests", contrived romances, losers and winners, the embarrassment of participants, early ejections and so on. In this case the storm that strikes the island soon after the group's arrival complicates the scenario beyond all predictions.  Not only does the boat that dropped them all at the island depart soon after their arrival, taking with the first ejection,  the storm causes huge destruction and a couple of deaths.

The novel is very well written, and structured with a couple of very interesting plot lines.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

• 4.8, IN A DARK, DARK WOOD
• 4.4, THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10
• 4.8, THE DEATH OF MRS WESTAWAY
• 5.0, THE TURN OF THE KEY
• 4.6, THE IT GIRL
• 4.8, ZERO DAYS
• 4.8, ONE BY ONE

Review: A DEATH IN THE PARISH, Richard Coles

ISBN 978-1-4746-1-269-2 published in UK by Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2023 this edition made available by my local library 414 pages #2 Canon Clement Mystery series Synopsis (publisher)  It’s been a few months since murder tore apart the community of Champton apart. As Canon Daniel Clement tries to steady his flock, the parish is joined with Upper and Lower Badsaddle, bringing a new tide of unwanted change. But church politics soon become the least of Daniel’s problems. His mother – headstrong, fearless Audrey – is obviously up to something, something she is determined to keep from him. And she is not the only one. And then all hell breaks loose when murder returns to Champton in the form of a shocking ritualistic killing…

My Take

There is more than one death in the parish in this book. An elderly parishioner is dying of cancer, and there is a couple who seem to keep turning up at death beds, and more than one case of an altered will. But Daniel and his mother Audrey become executors of her will, and when Audrey is going through the papers she has left, she finds out how the old lady made her money.

There is also a pretty horrific murder in this story. The perpetrator and his reasons comes as a shock.

There are a number of very interesting characters and I think this is one of those series where you need read the series in order so you understand relationships and character development. On the other hand I became annoyed at times with how "guff" in the form of ecclesiastical details slowed the story down.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.5, MURDER BEFORE EVENSONG - Canon Clement Mystery #1

Review: CLOSE TO DEATH, Anthony Horowitz

• 
• This edition supplied by my local library
  
• Published by Penguin Random House 2024
• ISBN 9781529904246
• 415 pages 
• Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #5

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

In New York Times bestselling author Anthony Horowitz’s ingenious fifth literary whodunnit in the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is once again called upon to solve an unsolvable case—a gruesome murder in an idyllic gated community in which suspects abound.

Riverside Close is a picture-perfect community. The six exclusive and attractive houses are tucked far away from the noise and grime of city life, allowing the residents to enjoy beautiful gardens, pleasant birdsong, and tranquility from behind the security of a locked gate.

It is the perfect idyll, until the Kentworthy family arrives, with their four giant, gas-guzzling cars, gaggle of shrieking children, and plans for a garish swimming pool in the backyard. Obvious outsiders, the Kentworthys do not belong in Riverside Close, and quickly offend every last one of the neighbors.

When Giles Kentworthy is found dead on his own doorstep, a crossbow bolt sticking out of his chest, Detective Hawthorne is the only investigator they can call to solve the case.

Because how do you solve a murder when everyone is a suspect? 

My Take

I'd forgotten the structure of my first experience of this series - the fact that the author actually makes an appearance in the novel as himself. That makes reading the novel a bit of a challenge - part of the narrative is in the third person, retelling and embellishing what investigator Daniel Hawthorne has told the author; and part of it is in the first person as the author steps onto the canvas himself and converses with the characters.

The plot is in fact quite complex, lots of solutions are on offer to the two murders that take place, and there is eventually a third murder that takes some believing.

In Acknowledgements in the final pages the author tells the readers that this was a complicated novel to write, and that while it was finished in 2020, for one reason another it wasn't published till 2024. 

Enjoy!

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.5, THE HOUSE OF SILK
  4.7, MAGPIE MURDERS
  4.3, THE WORD IS MURDER -Hawthorne and Horowitz Mystery #1

About the author

You've probably come across the work of Anthony Horowitz without realising it:

Anthony Horowitz is the author of the bestselling teen spy series, Alex Rider, and is also responsible for creating and writing some of the UK's most loved and successful TV series, including Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War.

He has also written two highly acclaimed Sherlock Holmes novels, The House of Silk and Moriarty; a James Bond novel, Trigger Mortis; and his most recent stand-alone novel, Magpie Murders, was a Top Five Sunday Times bestseller.

He is on the board of the Old Vic Theatre, and was awarded an OBE for his services to literature in January 2014.

Review: THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME, Laura Dave

 

I last read this book at the beginning of the year and now I have re-read it for discussion with my U3A Crime Fiction reading group. My review is here.

I am looking forward to our discussion mainly because the last time we read something by an American author, many of the group found both the style and the content difficult to get to terms with.

I will attempt to use some of the discussion questions provided by the publisher in their Reading Group Guide

In Conversation with Michael Robotham

 
Last night I attended a session in Adelaide at the Howling Owl Cafe to meet up with my favourite author Michael Robotham. The occasion was to launch his new book STORM CHILD, #4 in the Cyrus Haven series.

I reviewed it here. It was also a celebration of the fact that Michael has been publishing crime fiction now for 20 years. In that time he has published 18 books and I have reviewed all of them.

His new website is here

Events where you can meet Michael

Review: PAST LYING, Val McDermid

• 
  this edition published by Sphere 2023
  
• ISBN 978-1-4087-2908-3
• 452 pages
• #7 in the Karen Pirie series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of its many writers, is also the cold case beat of DCI Karen Pirie. So she shouldn't be surprised when an author's manuscript appears to be a blueprint for an actual crime.

Karen can't ignore the plot's chilling similarities to the unsolved case of an Edinburgh University student who vanished from her own doorstep. The manuscript seems to be the key to unlocking what happened to Lara Hardie, but there's a problem: the author died before he finished it.

As Karen digs deeper, she uncovers a spiralling game of betrayal and revenge, where lies are indistinguishable from the truth and with more than one unexpected twist . . .

The Queen of Crime Val McDermid is at the top of her game in her most gripping and fiendishly clever case yet.

My Take

I really should read more by Val McDermid. As you can see from my list below I always enjoy her books. I don't think I have read any others featuring DCI Karen Pirie. I usually favour reading a series in order to pick up on character development etc. But in this case I don't think it makes much difference. McDermid has done a lovely job of filling in the bits from the past that I needed to know. 

The novel is set in Edinburgh in April 2020, the beginning of the Covid lockdown with all sorts of regulations and restrictions that placed limitations on "normal" life including where we could go, what we could do etc. In fact, so well is this setting described in the novel, I had to remind myself as I set the novel down for a breather that we are not now in isolation.

The plot twists and turns as DCI Pirie and her team attempt to work out the correlations between the unexplained disappearance of student in Edinburgh a year before and a manuscript donated to the National Archives which seems to describe what happened to her. About half way through the novel, as my mind played with what DCI Pirie had uncovered so far, I came up with a "what if" which in fact was close to the final resolution. Now, it is not often that happens, but it didn't prevent me from reading the rest of the book, nor did it remove the pleasure of finding out that I was "nearly right".

Somebody wiser than me remarked a year or two ago that just as World War One, and World War Two, and the assassination of JFK, have provided time markers for us where we say pre-war or post-war, so Covid 19 will provide a similar time marker for us. I really haven't read too many books that have done that so far, but here is one that reminds of the impact Covid 19 had on our daily lives. Here in Australia variants of Covid are still having an impact. For example, there are still thousands in hospital. There are still people in our communities who disappear for a week or two with it. We are raising a whole generation of young people whose schooling has been disrupted by Covid. So much is different to what it was 4 years ago.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

• BENEATH THE BLEEDING
• 4.8, THE SKELETON ROAD
• 4.8, OUT OF BOUNDS
• 4.7, 1979
• 4.8, INSIDIOUS INTENT

Review: STORM CHILD, Michael Robotham

• 
  This edition available from Amazon on Kindle
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C7RPW5K1
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (July 2, 2024)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 333 pages
• Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1668030993
• #4 in the Cyrus Haven series

Synopsis (Amazon)

The mystery of Evie Cormac’s background has followed her into adulthood. As a child, she was discovered hiding in a secret room where a man had been tortured to death. Many of her captors and abusers escaped justice, unseen but not forgotten. Now, on a hot summer’s day, the past drags Evie back as she watches the bodies of seventeen migrants wash up on a Lincolnshire beach.

There is only one survivor, a teenage boy, who tells police their small boat was deliberately rammed and sunk. Psychologist Cyrus Haven is recruited by the police to investigate the murders—but recognizes immediately that Evie has some link to the tragedy. By solving this crime, he could finally unlock the secrets of her past. But what dark forces will he set loose? And who will pay the price? 

My Take

In his "acknowledgements" at the end of the novel, Michael reminds us that he has now been publishing for 20 years and in that time has published 18 novels. Most of them are listed at the bottom of this review. And I have been reading his offerings with great delight for all that time.

This latest one has delighted me as well.

Evie's past, which she rarely talks about, comes back to her as she watches bodies wash up on a Lincolnshire beach. Evie is now 22. She came to England with people smugglers when she was 9. She was the sole survivor of that circumstance and for a number of years has been sharing a house with Cyrus Haven, a forensic psychologist, a former pupil of Joe O'Loughlin, who featured in earlier Robotham novels. Cyrus becomes involved in investigating this latest case of people smuggling through its single survivor, and through Evie's glimpses of her past.

This one deserves your attention, but is probably best read in sequence with the earlier Cyrus Haven novels so you get the full story, and appreciate the character development and serious thought Robotham has put into it.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 5.0

I've also read

• BOMBPROOF
• SHATTER #3
• SHATTER (audio)
• BLEED FOR ME #4
• 5.0, THE WRECKAGE #5
• 4.8, SAY YOU'RE SORRY #6
• 5.0, WATCHING YOU #7
• 4.8, IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (edit)
• 5.0, LIFE OR DEATH Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger
• 4.8, CLOSE YOUR EYES
• 5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS
• 5.0, THE SUSPECT #1 (audio)
• 4.8, LOST #2 (audio)
• 5.0, THE OTHER WIFE
• 4.8, GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL -Cyrus Haven #1
• 4.8, WHEN SHE WAS GOOD -Cyrus Haven #2
• 5.0, WHEN YOU ARE MINE 
• 5.0, LYING BESIDE YOU - Cyrus Haven #3
• 5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS

Review: ASSASSIN EIGHTEEEN, John Brownlow

• 
  This edition an e-book read on my Kindle from Amazon
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C1SYK85Q
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hanover Square Press (April 23, 2024)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 468 pages
• #2 in the series 

Synopsis ( Amazon)

I am waiting for someone to kill me. Tonight would be a good night for it.

Agent Seventeen, the most infamous hit man in the world, has quit. But whoever wants to become Assassin Eighteen must track him down and kill him first. So when a bullet hits the glass inches from his face, he knows who fired it—doesn't he?

It turns out that the sniper isn't the hardened killer he was expecting. It's Mireille—a mysterious silent child abandoned in the woods with instructions to pull the trigger. Reuniting with his spiky lover, Kat, Seventeen has to protect Mireille and discover who sent her to kill him and why. But the road he must travel is littered with bodies. And the answer, when it comes, will blow apart everything Seventeen thought he knew.

My Take

Seventeen is now living in Sixteen's house and has decided to retire. His handler thinks he has lost what it takes to be an assassin. Every night he shows himself to the world, inviting them to take him out. And then one night someone tries. 

But that is when Seventeen discovers he has a daughter who has been set up to shoot him. And he discovers he is maybe human after all. Not as tough as he thought he was.

In answer to your question: this is the sequel to SEVENTEEN and, yes, you should read them in order.   

A spy thriller, rather than a mystery,

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.5, SEVENTEEN: Last Man Standing - #1

Review: SEVENTEEN: Last Man Standing, John Brownlow

• 
  This edition an e-book read on my Kindle from Amazon
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09FZJ4B1X
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hanover Square Press (November 1, 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 425 pages
• *Winner of the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for Best Thriller*
• *A Financial Times Best Thriller Book of 2022*

Synopsis (Amazon) 

You'll never know my name.

But you won't forget my number.

Behind the events you know are the killers you don’t. When diplomacy fails, we're the ones who gear up. Officially we don’t exist, but every government in the world uses our services. We’ve been saving the world, and your ass, for one hundred years.

 Sixteen people have done this job before me. I am Seventeen. The most feared assassin in the world. But to be the best, you must beat the best. My next target is Sixteen, just as one day Eighteen will hunt me down. It’s a dog-eat-dog world and it gets lonely at the top. Nobody gets to stay for long. But while we're here, all that matters is that we win.

Visceral, cinematic and wildly addictive, Seventeen will keep you on the edge of your seat and live long in the memory. Until Eighteen comes along…

My Take

Seventeen is part of a line of assassins, which began with Reilly, the Ace of Spies, and included 007 and others. They seem to be mostly, but not all, British. They simplify government, performing the dirtiest of tasks, quietly and efficiently. The resolution of major events in recent world history can be traced back to them.  Most recently there was Sixteen, but he is still to be properly eliminated by his successor. And that is Seventeen's task - locate and remove Sixteen.  

Mr Jones, as Seventeen is generally known, has located Sixteen but is having trouble eliminating him. He seems to those watching out for him, and, in retirement, is leading a rather odd life, almost offering himself up to his successor.

A spy thriller rather than a mystery

My rating: 4.5

About the author

John Brownlow is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. Born in Lincoln, UK, after studying maths and English at Oxford he produced and directed more than a dozen documentaries for British TV. In the early 2000s he turned to screenwriting, and wrote the film SYLVIA about Sylvia Plath, starring Gwynneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig. He also wrote the TV series FLEMING, about Ian Fleming's work in wartime intelligence, and the TV adaptation of Jessie Burton's best-selling novel THE MINIATURIST. His debut novel, SEVENTEEN, was published in 2022, and the sequel is due to be published in 2023.

John holds British and Canadian citizenship and lives in Ontario, Canada.

Review: THE WOMAN ON THE LEDGE, Ruth Mancini

• 
  this edition published by Penguin Random House 2024
  
• ISBN 97815299098
• 405 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Obsession, intrigue - and revenge. Get ready for an all-night read with one of the twistiest thrillers of 2024.

A woman falls to her death from a London bank's twenty-fifth-floor roof terrace.

You're arrested for her murder.

You tell the police that you only met the victim the previous night at your office party. She was threatening to jump from the roof, but you talked her down.

You've got nothing to do with tragedy.

You're clearly being framed.

So why do the police keep picking holes in your story? Even your lawyer doesn't seem to believe you.

It soon becomes obvious that you're keeping secrets. 

My Take

The structure of this novel will take readers by surprise, so I will try not to spoil it for you. 

Tate Kinsella is in bed when the police bang on her door. They are arresting her on the suspicion of murder, for a death that happened 10 days earlier. We get our first taste of Tate's story when she is at the police station, and relating events to the lawyer who has been assigned to her.

This psychological thriller will keep your brain working overtime.

I'm not sure there weren't some credibility glitches in the narration, but I will let you make up your mind about that.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Ruth Mancini was born in south-west London and started her career as a marketing executive for a publisher before undertaking a post-graduate diploma in law and retraining as a solicitor.

Ruth has spent the past twenty-five years in and out of courts and police stations, representing those accused of crimes. She still practises as a lawyer for a large criminal law firm with offices in London, conducting advocacy in the courts and defending people arrested at the police station.

She also reviews trial files across the firm and juggles her legal work with writing crime and psychological fiction.

She can be found on Twitter @RuthMancini1 and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ruth.mancini.author.

Review: A WORLD OF CURIOSITIES, Louise Penny

• 
   this edition from my local library
  
• originally published 2022 by St. Martin's Publishing
• large print edition
• 645 pages
• #18 in Chief Inspector Gamache series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

It's spring and Three Pines is re-emerging after the harsh winter. But not everything buried should come alive again. Not everything lying dormant should return.

But something has.

As the villagers prepare for a special celebration, Armand Gamache and Jean-Guy Beauvoir find themselves increasingly worried. A young man and woman have reappeared in the Sûreté du Québec investigators' lives after many years. The two were young children when their troubled mother was murdered, leaving them damaged, shattered. Now they've arrived in the village of Three Pines.

But to what end?

Gamache and Beauvoir's memories of that tragic case, the one that first brought them together, come rushing back. Did their mother's murder hurt them beyond repair? Have those terrible wounds, buried for decades, festered and are now about to erupt?

As Chief Inspector Gamache works to uncover answers, his alarm grows when a letter written by a long dead stone mason is discovered. In it the man describes his terror when bricking up an attic room somewhere in the village. Every word of the 150-year-old letter is filled with dread. When the room is found, the villagers decide to open it up.

As the bricks are removed, Gamache, Beauvoir and the villagers discover a world of curiosities. But the head of homicide soon realizes there's more in that room than meets the eye. There are puzzles within puzzles, and hidden messages warning of mayhem and revenge.

In unsealing that room, an old enemy is released into their world. Into their lives. And into the very heart of Armand Gamache's home.

My Take

As usual an engrossing read. Built solidly on the Armande Gamache saga, but also including some events in the past that we haven't heard about before. There are also references to true facts like the Montreal Massacre and The Paston Treasure. I liked the way the author  blended these into her fiction.

Although there are some things that strain the bounds of credibility, the threat to Gamache and his family feels very real. 

So now I'm up to date and ready for the next in the series THE GREY WOLF, to be published later this year.

My rating: 4.9

I've also read

• 4.8, THE CRUELLEST MONTH
• 4.9, A RULE AGAINST MURDER
• 4.9, THE BRUTAL TELLING
• 5.0, BURY YOUR DEAD
• 5.0,  A TRICK OF THE LIGHT
• 4.5, THE HANGMAN - a novella
• 4.9, THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY
• 5.0, HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN
• 4.9, THE LONG WAY HOME
• 4.9, THE NATURE OF THE BEAST
• 5.0, A GREAT RECKONING
• 4.9, GLASS HOUSES
• 5.0, KINGDOM OF THE BLIND  - #14
• 4.9, A BETTER MAN - #15
• 5.0, ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE - #16
• 5.0, THE MADNESS OF CROWDS - #17