What I read in November 2019

November 2019

A few less books this month and my pick of the month is not crime fiction!

• 4.4, SILVER, Chris Hammer - Australian writer
• 5.0, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, Liz Byrski - Australian writer, not crime fiction 
• 4.7, LAPSE, Sarah Thornton - Australian writer
• 4.6, CRUEL ACTS, Jane Casey
• 4.5, THE MISSING PIECES OF SOPHIE McCARTHY, B.M. Carroll - Australian writer

See what others have read

Review: I KNOW WHO YOU ARE, Alice Feeney

• This edition published by Harper Collins Publishers 2019
• ISBN 978-0-008-26893-0
• 342 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Booktopia)

Aimee Sinclair: the actress everyone thinks they know but can’t remember where from. But I know exactly who you are. I know what you’ve done. And I am watching you.

When Aimee comes home and discovers her husband is missing, she doesn’t seem to know what to do or how to act. The police think she’s hiding something and they’re right, she is – but perhaps not what they thought. Aimee has a secret she’s never shared, and yet, she suspects that someone knows. As she struggles to keep her career and sanity intact, her past comes back to haunt her in ways more dangerous than she could have ever imagined.

My take

I enjoyed most of this book thoroughly. It was well constructed, the characters believable, and the plot was gripping. It is a story in two parts: that of Aimee Sinclair, very successful actress, and that of the little girl she once was, who ran away from home and was adopted by Maggie.

Aimee's husband has disappeared after an awful row the night before. She reports his disappearance to the police and then herself becomes a suspect, their suspicions confirmed when a body is found buried under her back porch. Aimee has been stalked, someone is leaving post cards "I know who you are" and there are things she doesn't want anyone to know.

What I didn't enjoy was a twist at the end when the author implements an extraordinary explanation for who the person is that has been stalking Aimee. But then there is a final twist that is brilliant.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.6, SOMETIMES I LIE

Review: POIROT'S EARLY CASES, Agatha Christie

• this edition published by Harper Collin's Publishers 2011
• ISBN 978-1-4448-0278-8
• 406 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis

Hercule Poirot delighted in telling people that he was probably the best detective in the world. So turning back the clock to trace eighteen of the cases which helped establish his professional reputation was always going to be a fascinating experience. With his career still in its formative years, the panache with which Hercule Poirot could solve even the most puzzling mystery is obvious. Chronicled by his friend Captain Hastings, these eighteen early cases - from theft and robbery to kidnapping and murder - were all guaranteed to test Poirot’s soon-to-be-famous ‘little grey cells’ to their absolute limit.

My Take

This title brings together 18 cases, and consisted of short stories I had mainly read in other collections. However I do not appear to have read Problem at Sea under that title.
It was originally called Poirot and the Crime in the Cabin and was not published till 1936.

The other 17 stories very largely first appeared in magazines in 1923, 1924, 1925, and 1928, 1929, and 1932. Here is a set of links in Wikipedia.
You can also find them on my list of 155 short stories

• 1 Plot summaries
  • 1.1 The Affair at the Victory Ball
  • 1.2 The Adventure of the Clapham Cook
  • 1.3 The Cornish Mystery
  • 1.4 The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly
  • 1.5 The Double Clue
  • 1.6 The King of Clubs
  • 1.7 The Lemesurier Inheritance
  • 1.8 The Lost Mine
  • 1.9 The Plymouth Express
  • 1.10 The Chocolate Box
  • 1.11 The Submarine Plans
  • 1.12 The Third Floor Flat
  • 1.13 Double Sin
  • 1.14 The Market Basing Mystery
  • 1.15 Wasps' Nest
  • 1.16 The Veiled Lady
  • 1.17 Problem at Sea
  • 1.18 How Does Your Garden Grow?

The narrator in all of the stories is Captain Hastings and between them they create a history of his connection with Poirot both before World War One and after the war.

My rating: 4.4

Check out the following

• my list of 155 short stories
• Agatha Christie novels - my list 
• Agatha Christie Reading Challenge

Review: THE LYING ROOM, Nicci French

• this edition published by Simon & Schuster 2019
• ISBN 978-1-4711-7924-2
• 417 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

Neve Connolly looks down at a murdered man.
She doesn't call the police.

‘You know, it’s funny,’ Detective Inspector Hitching said. ‘Whoever I see, they keep saying, talk to Neve Connolly, she’ll know. She’s the one people talk to, she’s the one people confide in.’

A trusted colleague and friend. A mother. A wife. Neve Connolly is all these things.
 
She has also made mistakes; some small, some unconsciously done, some large, some deliberate. She is only human, after all.
But now one mistake is spiralling out of control and Neve is bringing those around her into immense danger.
She can’t tell the truth. So how far is she prepared to go to protect those she loves?
And who does she really know? And who can she trust?
A liar. A cheat. A threat. Neve Connolly is all these things.
Could she be a murderer?

My Take

A stand-alone from Nicci French, well worth reading.

After 20 years of marriage, 3 children, one about to leave for university, Neve Connolly's life has become predictable in fact you could set your clock by her. And then she has an affair with someone who makes her feel valued and special. When she gets a message on her phone to meet as soon as possible, she doesn't question who it is from, or where to go, she just gets on her bike and leaves.

What she finds on her arrival turns her life upside down.

Neve's reaction and what she does next has the reader questioning how she/he would react in the same circumstances. We read on to find out how Neve will fare. The book is a compulsive page-turner, and readers will discover elements that they share with Neve.

My rating: 4.7

I've also read
4.3, BLUE MONDAY
4.5, TUESDAY'S GONE
4.7, WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY
4.7, FRIDAY ON MY MIND
4.4, DARK SATURDAY

Review: THE RIDDLE OF THE THIRD MILE, Colin Dexter - audio book

• format: audio from Audible
• Narrated by: Samuel West
• Series: Inspector Morse Mysteries, Book 6
• Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
• Unabridged Audiobook
• Release date: 10-05-17
• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Digital Audio 

Synopsis (Audible)

The thought suddenly occurred to Morse that this would be a marvellous time to murder a few of the doddery old bachelor dons. No wives to worry about their whereabouts; no landladies to whine about the unpaid rents. In fact nobody would miss most of them at all....

By the 16th of July, the Master of Lonsdale was concerned but not yet worried.

Dr Browne-Smith had passed through the porter's lodge at approximately 8:15 a.m. on the morning of Friday, 11th July. And nobody had heard from him since.

Plenty of time to disappear, thought Morse. And plenty of time, too, for someone to commit murder..

My Take

This is another cunningly constructed mystery, plenty of red herrings, so many that we lose sight of others who have disappeared, in our focus on one person. Eventually Morse gets help from a surprising quarter, which throws a very different light on his investigation.

These books are superbly read by Samuel West, and there's a literary quality to them that is rarely found in crime fiction.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read
4.3, INSPECTOR MORSE: BBB Radio Collection
4.5, THE SECRET OF ANNEXE THREE -audio book
4.6, THE WENCH IS DEAD- audio book
4.3, SERVICE OF ALL THE DEAD - audio book
4.4, LAST SEEN WEARING  - audio book

Review:A NOISE DOWNSTAIRS, Linwood Barclay

• this edition published by Harper Collins Publishers 2018
• ISBN 978-0-06-284564-1
• 520 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (Booktopia)

Paul Davis forgets things. Why he walked into a room. Who he spoke to, and what they said. What he promised his wife he'd do. Sometimes it's too much, and the panic takes hold.

But he wasn't always like this.

Eight months ago, Paul was attacked - left for dead after seeing something he shouldn't have - and has been piecing his life back together ever since.

During the days, therapy helps. But at night, he hears noises that no one else can. That nobody believes. Sometimes he thinks someone is in the house. Other times, the sounds are far stranger.

Either he's losing his mind - or someone wants him to think he is. Or maybe something even darker is waiting downstairs...

My Take

Before "the incident" Paul had thought his marriage had gone a bit flat, and that his wife might even be thinking of leaving him. But since he was attacked Charlotte has been very supportive. It is now 8 months on and he he seeing a therapist, battling PTSD, and depression, and is yet to return to work.

He has become anxious to understand what led his colleague to commit murder, which was what led him to attack Paul with a shovel. Central to the whole thing is a typewriter which Paul thinks is the one which his colleague owned. The typewriter is sitting in Paul's study and at night it appears to deliver messages from his colleague's victims.

A truly creepy and very readable novel.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
4.5, FEAR THE WORST
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY
5.0, TRUST YOUR EYES
4.7, NEVER SAW IT COMING
4.4, BROKEN PROMISE

Review: WHAT YOU PAY FOR, Claire Askew

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2035 KB
• Print Length: 352 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton (22 August 2019)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group (AU)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07KFK9TGF
• Shortlisted for McIlvanney and CWA Awards
• #2 in DI Birch series

Synopsis (Amazon)

DI Helen Birch faces a terrible choice - family or justice? - in the gripping second novel from the author of All the Hidden Truths

DI Birch joined the police to find her little brother, who walked out of his life one day and was never seen again. She stayed to help others, determined to seek justice where she could.

On the fourteenth anniversary of Charlie's disappearance, Birch takes part in a raid on one of Scotland's most feared criminal organisations. It's a good day's work - a chance to get a dangerous man off the streets.

Two days later, Charlie comes back. It's not a coincidence. When Birch finds out exactly what he's been doing all those years, she faces a terrible choice: save the case, or save her brother. But how can you do the right thing when all the consequences are bad?

As she interrogates Charlie, he tells his story: of how one wrong turn leads to a world in which the normal rules no longer apply, and you do what you must to survive.

From one of the most acclaimed new voices in crime fiction, What You Pay For is a brilliantly tense and moving novel about the terrible disruption caused by violence and the lines people will cross to protect those they love.

My take

A gripping tale told alternately by two narrators - one is Helen Birch, the other is her brother Charlie.
Birch's tale is what is happening in current time, Charlie's brings us up to date with what he has been doing for the past 14 years and why he has come to her.

Birch should turn Charlie in  - he has committed more serious crimes than you can count on both hands. But she desperately wants to make sure he will be safe, but it really comes down to a choice between her career and his freedom. She can't have both.

My rating: 4.5