Review: THE WICKED SISTER, Karen Dionne

• 
   this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published by Sphere (Amazon) 2020
• ISBN 978-0-7515-6742-7
• 285 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

A startling novel of psychological suspense, as two generations of sisters try to unravel their tangled relationships between nature and nurture, guilt and betrayal, love and evil.

You have been cut off from society for fifteen years, shut away in a mental hospital as punishment for the terrible thing you did when you were a child.

But what if nothing about your past is as it seems?

For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents' deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family's sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan.

As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns - as her mother did years earlier - that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.. 

My Take

Several ghastly threads in this novel: at least one of the women in this story is a psychopath but which one? Other reviews have labelled it atmospheric, chilling, thrilling. It is all of those things and more. Is it credible? I hope not, but part of me suspects that is possible.

What do you do if you learn that your daughter is a psychopath? How do you protect and manage her? And others?

My rating: 4.5 

I have already read 4.4, THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER 

Review: THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS, Agatha Christie

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (AmazonAU)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0046RE5H2
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 14 October 2010
• Originally published 1952, THEY DO IT WITH MIRRORS (aka MURDER WITH MIRRORS) -Miss Marple
• Book 6 of 12 
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 227 pages
• The foreword says that the original publication was used as the basis of this e-copy. I note here that it was appallingly produced, with passages repeated, and an incredible number of typos.

Synopsis  (AmazonAU)

A shocking crime
A mansion filled with suspects

Ruth Van Rydock can’t shake the feeling that something terrible is going to happen to her sister at Stonygates house.

Her old school friend Jane Marple decides it’s time to pay a visit.

But this grand Victorian mansion isn’t just a family home – it’s also a correctional facility for wayward young men.

And when something terrible does indeed happen, Miss Marple must face her most eccentric cast of suspects yet.

Never underestimate Miss Marple

From the Back Cover

Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in a Victorian mansion which doubles as a rehabilitation centre for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when a youth fires a revolver at the administrator, Lewis Serrocold. Neither is injured. But a mysterious visitor, Mr Gulbrandsen, is less fortunate – shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building.

Pure coincidence? Miss Marple thinks not, and vows to discover the real reason for Mr Gulbrandsen's visit.

Agatha Christie does it all with suspense in this intricately plotted mystery.

My Take

It is 14 years since I last read this title as part of Agatha Christie Reading Challenge and now I am re-reading it as part of this year's selection for my U3A Agatha Christie Reading group. After we meet to discuss the book we will watch the ITV production.

I think the group will find a number of things to discuss.
Among them:

• The setting - how does Christie establish this? What comments does she make about how the world has changed?
• What would Lewis Serracold like to establish? What do you think of his idea of "transportation"?
• What does the title of the book mean? Was it a phrase you were familiar with?
• How do the police treat Miss Marple?
• What does Miss Marple mean when she says the sitting room is like a "stage"?
• Are there too many red herrings? Too many characters?
• What "facts" are untrue?
• Why did Gulbrandsen come to Stonygates? Why was he killed and who killed him? How did he ensure his own murder?
• Was justice done? 

My rating: 4.4

My earlier review

Handy Wikipedia summary 

All my Agatha Christie reads.  

Review: THE DEPTHS, Yrsa Sigurdadottir

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• first published in Icelandic in 2023
• Translated from Icelandic to English by Victoria Cribb
• Published by Hodder & Stoughton UK 2026
• ISBN 9-781399-722964
• 363 pages 
• Black Ice #3 

Synopsis (publisher)

Just how low do people sink to get away with murder?

A human skull unearthed on the outskirts of Reykjavík.
A neighbourhood dispute turned deadly.
A daughter, trapped at sea, looking for answers.

What police officers Týr and Karó don’t know is that these events are all linked through a terrible tragedy, many years ago, when a trawler caught fire on the waves, the crew trapped inside.

The answers lie buried at the bottom of the cold Icelandic Sea. 

My Take

You always know that these three separate stories will coincide but part of the cleverness of the plot is that it is almost impossible until the last act to see how. And meanwhile the stories develop, get lives of their own. And you hang in there because you know somehow IT will happen.

Highly recommended. 

My Rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.8, SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME

5.0, THE SILENCE OF THE SEA 

4.8, WHY DID YOU LIE? 

4.9, THE PREY 

4.5, THE DAY IS DARK 

4.8, CAN'T RUN, CAN'T HIDE - Black Ice #1

4.8, THE WAKE - Black Ice #2  

Review: TRUTH TRUTH LIE, Claire McGowan

• 
  this edition published by Thomas & Mercer 2024 (an imprint of Amazon Publishing)
  
• supplied by my local library
• ISBN-13: 9781662513862
• 330 pages 

Synopsis  (publisher)

Everyone here has killed someone.

There is no way off this island.

You will all either kill or be killed here.

One of these statements is a lie. But which one?

Amira’s less than thrilled to be spending the weekend with her husband’s university friends. Two of them are hosting a joint fortieth on a private Scottish island, with vintage champagne, expensive gifts, and soaks in the wood-fired hot tub. Despite the luxury, Amira knows she’s going to feel left out, not to mention freezing cold and cut off.

When they decide to play ‘two truths and a lie’, anonymously posting three statements about themselves into a box, years of resentment start bubbling to the surface. And then an extra slip of paper emerges, scrawled with three chilling threats. Who wrote it? And are two of the statements really true—have they all been responsible for someone’s death?

With no phone reception and no way off the island, the group are trapped here until the end of the weekend. And as tension rises and secrets are spilled, they can’t shake the feeling that they’re not the only ones here. Is someone watching them? Someone who wants them dead? Or is it one of them who has murder in mind?

My Take

A variant of a plot used by Agatha Christie, and more recently a number of others. A group of people dropped on an island supposedly to enjoy themselves but right on the first night things begin to go wrong, plans backfire, and one dies. And then things get even worse.

A rather chilling thriller which has the reader guessing. For the record, I got most of it right but there was one little bit that I didn't "see". 

My rating: 4.6

About the author
Born in Northern Ireland, Claire published her first novel in 2012, and has followed it up with many others in the crime fiction genre and also in women’s fiction (writing as Eva Woods). Writing thrillers for Thomas & Mercer, she has sold over a million books and has had several number-one bestsellers. She ran the UK’s first MA in crime writing for five years, and regularly teaches and talks about writing. Her first non-fiction project, the true crime book The Vanishing Triangle, was released in 2021. She also writes scripts and has several original projects in development for TV, as well as having four radio dramas broadcast. Several of her novels are in development as television series. She lives in London and would love to hear from readers via her website (www.clairemcgowan.co.uk) or on Twitter (@inkstainsclaire), Instagram (@clairemcgowanwriter) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/ClaireMcGowanAuthor) 

Review: A DISORGANISED DEATH, Simon Brett

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published by Severn House 2026
• #5 in the Decluttering series
• ISBN 987-1-4483-1469-0
• 178 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Ellen Curtis – professional declutterer, amateur sleuth and woman of a certain age – hunts for a missing will with a killer bequest in this gripping mystery from the original king of British cosy crime, Simon Brett.

Professional declutterer Ellen Curtis doesn’t do house clearances. So when Tamara Nicklin, owner of a local gastropub, asks Ellen to clear her late father’s house, she’s not interested . . . even when Tamara admits that the real reason she wants to hire Ellen is to find his missing will.

Then Ellen discovers Tamara’s husband has plans for the house. Plans Tamara doesn’t know about. And it’s clear to Ellen that this is the right job for her, after all.

Ellen dives in, and what she finds in the dead man’s house soon makes her wonder if Tamara’s father really fell down the stairs, or if he was pushed. Can she sort through the secrets and lies to find not just the missing will – but the truth? 

My Take

This is another book that takes the reader into a world with which they are probably not all that familiar, but a scenario that is becoming more common in today's culture, where most of us have simply accumulated and accumulated. Many resort to a mini-skip on the front lawn, but for others willing to pay, the services of a declutterer are required to ensure that nothing important is lost.

There are two stories in this novel, both dealing with a search for a will, and then making sure the right will is actioned.

Perhaps once again I have come into this series from the wrong end. This is #5. My own advice to readers is always to start at #1 and to allow the author to share their character development with you. I didn't particularly "take to" the main character Ellen nor to the members of her immediate family. I can see where the author is laying ground for more in the series, so I should go back and read earlier titles some time. 

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

BLOOD AT THE BOOKIES
THE POISONING IN THE PUB
4.4, THE SHOOTING IN THE SHOP
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD
4.2, A DECENT INTERVAL
4.5, BONES UNDER THE BEACH HUT
4.2, GUNS IN THE GALLERY
4.6, THE CORPSE ON THE COURT
4.3, THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE
4.2, THE CINDERELLA KILLER
4.5, THE TOMB IN TURKEY
4.4, CHARLES PARIS: MURDER UNPROMPTED
4.2, CHARLES PARIS: CORPORATE BODIES
4.4, THE KILLING IN THE CAFE
4.4, THE LIAR IN THE LIBRARY

Major Bricket series

• 4.4, MAJOR BRICKET AND THE CIRCUS CORPSE -#1
• 4.4, MAJOR BRICKETT AND THE BODY IN THE BELL TOWER -#2 

Review: HOW TO KILL A CLIENT, Joanna Jenkins

• 
  this edition a paperback from my local library
  
• published 2025 ( first published 2023)
• Allen & Unwin
• ISBN 978-1-76147-137-7
• 384 pages
• 2023 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Novel (nominee) : How to Kill a Client 

Synopsis (publisher)

'Everyone is going to say what a great guy and a great lawyer he was. He wasn't. He was a prick … And a shithouse lawyer.'

Gavin Jones is dead at thirty-nine. As an in-house lawyer who controlled millions of dollars in fees per year, he was legal firm Howard Greene's biggest client and wielded that power with manipulative contempt. But he saved his worst behaviour for women, at work and at home.

The partners of Howard Greene relied on his favour to fund their lavish lifestyles. If sycophantic admiration of the man was all it took to secure work from Gavin, that's what they delivered.

But no one liked Gavin. The list of those who suffered from his cruelty was long enough to include pretty much everyone who had contact with him. So who actually killed him?

A fast-paced and wickedly funny thriller about power and revenge set in the pristine towers of capitalism, How to Kill a Client is a scorching debut straight out of tomorrow's headlines.

My Take

I am reading these books all out of order, having read #3 in the series first. 

This novel is quite a heavy, almost academic read, the setting a world with which most of us are not familiar. Ruth Dawson is a founding member of a law firm Howard Greene, recently returned to work after the death of her husband when he is hit on the road while cycling. 

Ruth agrees to move to Brisbane to the branch of the law firm, where some big projects will bring in millions. One of their clients is Gavin Jones, a mysogynist, who is not above appropriating the work of others and presenting it as his own. When he belittles the work of one of the newish female partners of Howard Greene she fantasises about a way to kill him and then shortly afterwards he dies. When the police investigators identify his death as murder, it becomes obvious that there are many who had a motive.

I can see that, having read #3 in the series first, I am going to have some problems in keeping Ruth's timeline straight.

There is no doubt that the author is one to add to my "watch" list.  

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.7, BAD NEIGHBOURS  - #3

Review: THE WATER'S EDGE, Karin Fossum

• 
  This title made available as an e-book by my local library on Libby
  
• #8 in the Inspector Sejer series
• Published in 2009 by Random House
• Translated into English from Norwegian by Charlotte Barslund 

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)
A married couple, Reinhardt and Kristine Ris, are out for a Sunday walk when they discover the body of a boy and see the figure of a man limping away. They alert the police, but not before Reinhardt, to Kristine's horror, kneels down and takes photographs of the dead child with his cell phone. 

Inspectors Konrad Sejer and Jakob Skarre begin to make inquiries in the little town of Solberglia. But then another boy disappears, and an explanation seems more remote than ever. Meanwhile, the Ris's marriage starts to unravel as Reinhardt becomes obsessed with the tragic events and his own part in them.  

My Take

It is nearly 10 years since I have read a book by this author and I had forgotten how good they are. It was almost meeting up again with old friends.

Karin Fossum is a Norwegian author and her novels owe a lot to the atmospheric setting. In many ways the novels are police procedurals but they also are related to themes of modern times: in this case paedophilia, and what leads some men to target children. Sejer and Skarr are methodical and sensitive. In a side-theme Kristine Ris is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man she has come to both fear and hate.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

• BLACK SECONDS
• BROKEN
• THE WATER'S EDGE
• 4.9, BAD INTENTIONS
• 5.0, THE CALLER
• 4.7, I CAN SEE IN THE DARK
• 5.0, THE DROWNED BOY
• 4.7, HELLFIRE