Two Heads Are Better Than One

This was a very enjoyable and addictive read.

Amber and Nick’s marriage has been in trouble for a while. Amber meets a new man, Richard, on the internet and eventually they meet and then decide they want to live together. This means Amber selling her and Nick’s house and moving miles away with her two young sons to be with him.

She is not getting any interest in her house so the estate agent suggests an open house. She is not keen at first but decides to give it a try.

On the day of the open house she watches the viewers go in through her doorbell cam. 13 potential buyers. She watches them come out again. 12 come out. Who is the 13th person and is he/she still in the house?

Barb, the mother in law, does not want her family to move from the house she once owned and lived in with her husband and sons, Nick and Tim.

What is the real reason Barb does not want the house to be sold? What secrets is the house keeping?

Without giving away spoilers that’s about the most I can say! There are many twists and turns throughout the book and a whole lot revelations at the end!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon books for a review copy of this book. Due for release 10/12/20

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book which was released on 15/10/20.

What a thriller!

Matt and Amy are due to be married in two weeks when Matt disappears. He is not answering his phone or any texts and Amy is distraught. After a day of worrying she reports him missing to the police.

To her horror, another woman reports her boyfriend missing at the same time. It is the same man.

When Amy is arrested for his murder, her daughter, who has always disliked and not trusted Matt, begins digging into his unknown past via Facebook to try to prove her mother is innocent.

Years old secrets are uncovered which Amy has tried hard to hide forever. What happened on the day her teenage sister died 23 years ago and what does it have to do with her fiancé going missing presumed murdered?

Great plot had me reading way past my bedtime to finish it!

Devoured in a matter of days. Cally Taylor’s first psychological thriller for the Young Adult market.
Also suitable for older adults!

Six teenagers have known each other since they were born, holidaying together with their parents over the years. This year is slightly different. One of the parents has paid to hire an try island off Thailand and a guide for a survival week for an 18th birthday present.

Their parents stay behind in an hotel, and the teenagers begin their survival week by travelling to the island in their guide’s boat .

All is going well until they try to leave the island to get help for one of the group who has fallen seriously ill. The rope to start the engine has been cut so they are stranded. But who has cut the rope? Is there someone else on the island with them? There is no way to escape so they will just have to wait until the alarm is raised when they don’t return.

They are having a drinking session around the fire on the first night and they all tell their phobias. Over the next few days, one by one their phobias become real. They just need to survive for a few more days until they are rescued. But with tempers fraying and fallings out within the group it becomes more difficult to stay together.

Most of them have had a traumatic experiences in their lives and their stories are told by going back to the events.

Great setting for a thriller which had me hooked from the title and the author, who never fails to come up with a top notch psychological thriller.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Harper Collins for an ARC.

This is the first of Robert Bryndza’s books I have read and am wondering why it has taken me until now to discover this author!

So this is book 2 in the Kate Marshall series, but we are provided with sufficient back story to fill in everything we need to know for this second book, although I’ll be going back to read the first book. This lady has been through a lot. An ex police officer who discovered her boyfriend who was also her boss was the Nine Elms serial killer she had been hunting. She left the police force, pregnant with his child, and spiralled into alcoholism. She could not cope with a baby so her parents took him in and now Jake is 16. Kate is a lecturer in criminology and has her life back together.

Kate and Jake have recently gained a diving certification and decide they will do a dive at the local reservoir where there is an underwater city. They find more than they bargained for when they come across the body of a young boy.

The police are quick to rule his death as suicide, but when his mother gets in touch with Kate to tell her the boy was a champion swimmer and she does not believe he could have drowned, she asks if Kate will investigate his death and Kate agrees without hesitation. What if it had been her son?

She joins forces with her fellow lecturer friend Tristan. Then a girl they know goes missing in the fog one afternoon as she is taking photographs and investigating myths and legends for her class.

The main two characters, Kate and Tristan, are written in a good amount of depth. We are given a lot of information on their characters and get to know them quite well.

Without giving any spoilers away there are plenty of heart stopping moments!

I raced through this book in 2 days. I will definitely be recommending it.

Thank you to the publishers Thomas & Mercer and to Netgalley for an ARC of this book to review. PUBLICATION DATE 3/11/20

A creepy atmospheric thriller perfect for fans of both Agatha Christie and locked room murder mysteries.

The setting is an old abandoned sanatorium high in the Swiss Alps which used to used to treat TB patients. The sanitarium has been converted to a luxury hotel although has retained the clinical look and feel of its original purpose.

Elin and her boyfriend Will are invited to the hotel to celebrate the engagement of her estranged brother Isaac and his girlfriend.

Elin is currently on leave from her work in the police force following an incident which has left her traumatised. She is hoping to take this opportunity to confront her brother and at last find out what happened the day her younger brother died. She was 12 when Sam died, and his death has affected her throughout her life, making her always on the search for answers. She has flashbacks to the day it happened and is convinced Isaac caused the ‘accident’.

The weather is going downhill rapidly and a decision is made to evacuate the hotel. Unfortunately the only road down the mountain becomes impassable and a few hotel guests and staff are left stranded at the hotel.

Isaac’s fiancée disappears and then
a woman’s body is found in the outdoor swimming pool, weighted down by sand bags. Elin offers to help the local police out as they are unable to reach the hotel to investigate the murder. They agree to her collecting evidence and asking basic questions but what she begins to uncover makes her dig further.

Are the murders connected to the hotel, as there was a lot of opposition to its building or is there another motive? Will Elin find out the truth of what happened the day Sam died?

And THAT ENDING!! There has to be another book!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more from Sarah Pearse.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for an advance copy of the book to review.

Release date 18th Feb 2021

I had to finish this book last night before going to sleep. Problem was the ending was so fast paced it took me a quite a while to get to sleep after finishing it! You are warned.

Grant Fletcher is an ex Royal Marine. His wife died in a car accident and although he has a daughter he has taken to the life of a mercenary.

When FBI agent Quadrado’s best friend is brutally murdered, and she is tied up with a case, she contacts Fletcher for his help in finding the killer. She has very little faith in the local police. Fletcher has some history which is known to the FBI and they are keen to use him as an off the books asset. They just need a case for him to prove his abilities and this ticks the box.

With no backup and very little access to background information other than through Quadrado, when she has time to reply to him, and with the promise of his past being kept under wraps by the FBI should he solve the case, he sets out to the farm in Wisconsin to begin his investigation. The girl has #1 carved into her forehead by someone who obviously knows how to use a knife. Could this be the first killing of a serial killer? Have the recent attacks on local farms tied to the killing?

This is the second in the Grant Fletcher series and although I haven’t read the first (yet!) there was enough detail to read as a stand alone although I do think I would have preferred to know the background of the relationship between Fletcher and Quadrado before reading this. I will definitely be reading the first book.

Action packed. Fast paced. Great style of writing. Looking forward to the next outing for Grant Fletcher.

Thank you to Bookature and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for a review.

Another fantastic five star read from the very talented Michael Wood.

This is book number 6 in the DCI Matilda Darke series. I have read books 4, 5 and 6 in the series so far and will be reading the first three. There is no need to have read previous books as although the characters are much the same, the back stories are explained where required.

14 year old Jodie leaves her 9 year old sister Keeley eating an ice cream as she calls in to the co-op for some shopping for her parents. Jodie tells her sister not to move but when she leaves the shop her sister has gone. Her mother receives a phone call with a ransom demand for the girl, not that there is any way the family could pay the £50,000 requested.

DCI Darke is to head up the investigation. This is a tough case for her as the last time a child was kidnapped in Sheffield, she lost him and the case went cold. She blames herself as she took the ransom money to the wrong place, having just lost her husband and her mind not being clear.

At the same time the girl is kidnapped, a boy goes into a police station in France saying he is the boy who was kidnapped.

The story had my interest from beginning to end. Action all the way and a few heart in mouth situations! I feel all the characters are well developed and all feature strongly throughout.

And in true form to Mr Wood, we are left with wanting to read the next book!

Thank you to Claire Fenby at One More Chapter and NetGalley for an advance copy of the book.

Publication date 2/10/20

Wow what a book! This is the first book I have read by Anne O’Brien and I will certainly be reading more.
I have to say it took a while to get into, as it is written by way of letters to and from Cecily and also to and from different people, entries into England’s Chronicle by persons unknown, prayers and the odd recipe here and there.

The book is written from the point of view of Cecily Neville, Duchess of York. We begin in 1459 when Henry VI is on the throne.
We follow Cecily through family losses, the Wars of the Roses and we end with her son, Richard III being crowned king.
What a life she had, and she maintained her dignity and strength of character throughout.

Through this book which is based around actual events, my knowledge of that period of time has increased substantially!

There are a lot and I mean a lot of characters in this book and I would recommend writing them down as I did struggle a little to follow them, especially as their names and titles tend to change as the book progresses.

Loved it!

Thanks to HQ and NetGalley for a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Wow what an edge of the seat thriller! Grabbed me from the first page and kept me gripped until the end.

The book is set around Edinburgh.

When Elspeth Dunwoody disappears, leaving her shoe behind to show she was taken, the case becomes all hands on deck as she is the daughter of the head of a global tech company with many political contacts.

Connie, an American forensic psychologist, is employed by the police to provide a profile of Elspeth’s kidnapper. She joins DI Baarda who is investigating.
As they are following leads, a young girl is kidnapped from outside of her school and it becomes clear to Connie that it is the same kidnapper.

I don’t want to give anything further away with the storyline but it is a dark and addictive read which will have you reading well into the night!

Highly recommended.

Many thanks to Avon and NetGalley for an advance copy in return for an honest review

What a cracking good read!

This is the first Nicci French book I have read and certainly won’t be the last.

Had me gripped from the first page to that shocking ending! It was one of those books I looked forward to picking up and then couldn’t put down.

Tabitha finds herself on remand in prison after a body is found in her shed and she is the prime – and only – suspect. It turns out there is history between her and the deceased.

Having mental health issues, she is unable to remember the full details of what happened that day.

She believes her solicitor thinks she is guilty, so she fires her and decides to represent herself. With no experience in law!

She is sent piles of evidence to wade through, plus CCTV footage from the village shop. She demands somewhere to work in prison on her own and is given access to a tiny cupboard.

I really liked Tamsin and loved her little outbursts in court, and her ‘sorry I don’t know how I should act’ excuses.

I just had to read it until I finished it today!

Thank you to Simon and Schuster UK and NetGalley for a free copy of this brilliant book in return for an honest review.