Two Heads Are Better Than One

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.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Sadie, a 16 year old, goes missing one night. Her friends and her twin brother decide the police are not doing enough and form their own search party. They pack their backpacks and head for the woods.

As they get deeper into the woods it gets dark and they decide to camp for the night. One of the girls thinks they are being watched and then they all become concerned with who may have followed them.

Will the friends find Sadie or will the police solve the case?

The story is told between one sided interviews with the children, which is a bit odd to read, and also from the point of view of the policeman who is leading up the investigation.

I enjoyed it enough to read to the end. The story was quite nicely wrapped up.

I’m sure lots of people will enjoy the book, it just wasn’t for me sadly.

Aww Emmie Blue! You had me giggling one minute then heartbroken the next, and then you kept doing it over and over. I needed tissues more than once!

Emmie is spending her 30th birthday with her best friend Lucas, whom she met when he found the balloon she had released at school in England, when she was 14, miles away on a beach in France. Lucas had recently moved to France with his parents and brother, Eliot and needed a friend, just as Emmie needed a friend all those miles away. It seemed like fate.
They strike up a very close friendship following his initial email to her, and they eventually meet. She becomes like one of the family, visiting Lucas and his family every year so they can spend their birthday together.

Her own life is quite difficult, not knowing who her father is and having a mother who is not interested in her and disappears off to festivals at a moments notice.

She is secretly in love with Lucas and is hoping he feels the same as he has told her he has something big to tell her on their birthday. The thing is not quite what she expected.

We follow Emmie through the highs and lows of the following months, get to know her hilarious friend Rosie, and Louise the elderly lady she rents a room from.

Emmie is such a well written character I felt I knew her and was sharing her ups and downs. And just hoping for a happy ever after for her.

I’m so glad I saw a tweet from the author about her book being available on NetGalley and took a chance on it.
Thanks to NetGalley, Trapeze Books and Orion books for an advance copy of this gorgeous book in return for an honest review.

What a magnificent story.

The author has written this book with a truly fascinating amount of depth to the settings, the characters and the historical facts. Every time I picked it up I was immediately transported into the worlds of Eleanor and Amber. My heart is still thumping at the race to finish it this morning! It is going to stay with me for a long time.

The story is written along two timelines, in the 1500’s with Henry XIII on the throne we enter the life of Eleanor who at 17 has lost her father, and then her male cousin moves in to take over her home with his family, marrying off Eleanor to an older man who’s wife has died in childbirth. She has to move to his home which is a very long journey on horseback. She takes with her some crocus bulbs and a huge amount of knowledge given to her by her friends at the monastery she visited frequently. Her intention is to grow the crocus bulbs and produce saffron. She is terrified of this new life which has been decided for her but is strong willed and intends to make it work.

The second storyline is set in 2019 where Amber has recently lost her baby and come to stay with her grandfather in Saffron Hall to catalogues his hundreds of books, many of which have been untouched in the hall for hundreds of years.

She finds what she thinks is a diary, sitting on a shelf in a room which is never used and wrapped in some very old fabric. It appears to have been untouched for years. She begins to read it and becomes obsessed with translating the Latin and uncovering the secrets it holds. As she translates the entries we are taken back to Eleanor and the circumstances surrounding the entry. Amber believes Eleanor is asking her to do something before she can finally be at rest, often feeling Eleanor’s presence.

This is a must read for fans of historical fiction based around known facts.

Thank you very much to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for an advance copy of the book in return for an honest review.

Just wow!

Having not heard of Sarah Alderson (and why haven’t I?!) I saw this book on NetGalley from Avon and as I usually really enjoy anything they publish thought I’d give it a go. And I was not disappointed!

Kate and Orla have been friends for many years and spent many a weekend away together. Their latest weekend is to Lisbon although Orla has reservations about leaving her baby. Kate is going through a divorce so she felt she owed it to her best friend to make the effort. They arrive at their Airbnb apartment and meet the owner who just happens to live in the apartment downstairs. He’s a bit creepy.

After a night out they both get very drunk and meet two handsome men in a bar. Kate invites them back to their apartment even though Orla argues it is not a good idea as she is not interested in cheating on her husband.

The next morning Orla wakes up to find her friend missing. As the hours pass, and she gets no reply from her many phone calls, she gets more and more concerned. She goes to the police who are not too interested and tell her to return after 24 hours. She gets in touch with the Uber driver who took them to the bar to see if he had taken her back, and he proves to be a huge help over the coming days as Orla tries to piece together what happened that night.

Loved the setting in Lisbon, loved the way the characters were written, was totally engrossed from the beginning to the last page and now I want to know what comes next in Orla’s life!

Very happy to have found this author and happier still she has already written many more books.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of the book, which will be published on 23rd July.

I just had to stay awake last night to finish this book.

It was quite a quick and easy read I whizzed through in a few sittings. There are only a handful of characters so it is easy to follow.

We begin with serial killer Brody evading capture from the police and finding a derelict boarded up house to hide in. He has a look around and finds a filthy mattress to sleep on whilst he decides what to do next. Bored, he sees the trap door to the attic and goes up for a look around. He is thrilled to see he can access the attics of 4 of the houses in the terrace.

Hungry and thirsty, he goes into each of the houses to find food, and to look for his next victims.

He becomes obsessed with a young couple who live in one on the houses. He can see them in their bedroom through a hole in the ceiling. He decides they will be next but he has to wait until the time is just right. He prides himself in being able to wait and build up the excitement. When they go to work he begins to toy with them by moving objects and making them start to have doubts about each other. He finds out secrets about them which he intends to make them tell each other just before he kills them.

How long can he wait?

The story is all told from Brodie’s point of view, plus there is a conversation going on with the voice in his head. We get to know about Brodie’s background and what turned him into a killer.

Once I got into this book I was hooked but it was not one which had me from the first chapter.

Thank you to NetGalley and Serpent’s Tail / Profile Books. I received a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest unedited feedback.

Wow! I love a book that has me hooked right from the beginning and this one ticked that box! I read it in 2 days. What an extremely well written debut. I will be reading more from this author.

Paul returns from work to find his house in darkness and his front door open. He finds his wife, Alice, huddled on their bed, covered in blood, and a dead man in the bathroom holding a piece of wire. Alice has killed him.

Alice is in shock so Paul has to take the decision of what to do next. As a judge, he knows what would happen if the police got involved so he decides to dispose of the body and clean the house to get rid of any evidence. They have no idea who the man is or why he came to murder Alice.

Alice becomes more and more depressed and paranoid as time goes on, finding it increasingly difficult to live with what they have done. She begins to suspect her husband is having an affair.

The police come calling about what appears to be an unrelated case, the murders of three other solicitors who may have had a connection to Paul.

Can their marriage survive such a huge lie?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Orion for a free copy in return for an honest review.