Two Heads Are Better Than One

Firstly my thanks to Canongate Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. Publication date 20th August 2020.

Nora Seed is at the lowest point in her life. Her parents are dead, her brother no longer speaks to her, her best friend has moved to Australia and she has just lost her job. She sits in her dingy flat and decides she has no reason to carry on living. She takes an overdose.

She ‘wakes up’ in a library. The librarian is her old school library teacher, Mrs Elm, who was always very kind to her. Mrs Elm explains this is the midnight library which exists between life and death; where every possible alternative life can be tried out to see if there is one Nora wishes to carry on living. Nora is handed her ‘book of regrets’ where she can read everything she has regretted in life. Perhaps she can choose a life where she can alter that decision she now regrets.

We are taken along with Nora to experience many of her alternate lives.

Will she find one she is happy with and decide to carry on living before time starts to move on and the library disappears forever?

Anyone who has read or knows of Matt Haig will know of his struggles with anxiety and depression. He makes no secret of the fact he almost took his own life. This is a man who knows life can get better and it is never too late to change your future.

There are many paths we can take in life and we must not focus on the grass being greener. We need to make the most of and enjoy the life we are living.

I’m going to give this book my 5 star rating. I have to admit that I almost gave up on it until around 10% in as the beginning is really very depressing. But please bear with it. Don’t stop reading. Finish it and it will be a book which stays with you for a very long time. I know the moral of the story will certainly stay with me and I will be recommending this book.

PS have tissues to hand if you tend to be emotional! I went through a few.

What a read!

Non stop action from beginning to end. Just how I like my books.

So many twists and turns and every chapter ends on a cliffhanger so you just need to read the next one! I devoured it within a couple of days and will definitely be reading more from this super talented author.

Ash Carter is asked to assist with investigating a helicopter crash in which two men have died. He quickly realises it was not an accident and his search for the killer, the missing third nan from the helicopter, begins.

Who is BlackJack, the killer who is judge, jury and executioner?

Is it Jeremiah, the twisted head of a strange commune hidden deep in the woods? Or one of his small army of ex military men?

Ash must find a way to be accepted into the commune to find his answers.

I challenge you to guess the killer!

Thanks to NetGalley, Murray Bailey and Heritage Books for an advance copy to review.

Thank you so much to Sophie Eminson from Canelo for the opportunity to read and review a super early copy of Marion Todd’s third book in the Detective Clare Mackay series. Due out in June 2020.

Having read Marion’s first two books in the series – See Them Run and In Plain Sight (I have now given all three books 5 stars) this one went to the top of my pile!

Although it is the third book in the series, each one can easily be read as a stand alone.

Mackay finds herself investigating the murder of a university student and at the same time she is involved in keeping a witness safe who will be giving evidence against her husband in a high profile case.

There appears to be a leak coming from the police as the location of the safe house has been compromised and the witness has to be moved to a new safe house, the location of which also appears to have been leaked. Gayle Crichton, an ethical hacker, has been called in by the police to investigate the leak. She has told Mackay she must not speak to anyone about the investigation, she must trust no one.

Could the leak be her best friend Diane who works in the IT department? Or could it be her boss? Or any of her other colleagues who she regards as friends?

Just as I was with the other two books, I was hooked from the first chapter. Non stop action. Brilliant police procedural with an ending you won’t see coming!

Thank you to NetGalley for a review copy of the book.

When I first heard about this book through Twitter I could not believe anyone would at this time want to read a book set in such a scary situation we all now find ourselves. Far too close for comfort. However a few weeks into lockdown and I got my reading mojo back (I couldn’t read at all initially) and I became intrigued as to what, if any, similarity with the situation we are now in would the book have, having been written but not published 15 years ago.

There are a few similarities. The PM catches the flu and ends up in St Thomas hospital at the beginning of the story being just one, but there are also sufficient differences to read this as purely fictional. And a very good read it is.

Although titled Lockdown, the main storyline is about the murder of a child which has happened as London is locked down with a serious flu pandemic. No-one is allowed outside the M25 and soldiers are guarding the outer limit with rifles ready to shoot anyone trying to leave.

As builders are about to fill the foundations of a huge new overflow hospital, one of them notices a bag in a ditch. When opened it is found to be full of human bones. Police are called in and an investigation begins. The investigating officer is due to retire the following day but promises himself he will solve this case before he does.

Full of non stop action and shocking scenes which will have you gripped until the last page.

The fact that this book has taken me much longer to read than it would have under normal circumstances is not a reflection on the book – just of the situation we are currently living in. Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for an ARC of the book.

This was my kind of book.

The opening chapter had my heart in my mouth and that was me gripped and looking forward to the rest of the book.

Michael North. Ex agent of The Board. Shot in Afghanistan and still has the bullet in his brain. Could die any second. Killed the men who ordered the assassination of his lover.

In Berlin, he is rescued from a rigged card game which has turned into a life or death situation, by Hone aka ‘the one-eyed man’ – an MI5 agent. Hone had tracked North down to ask him to protect his niece, Esme,who happens to be the wife of genius head of Derkind Tobias Hawke. She was attacked in her home by an intruder who tried to murder her.

Hawke has invented a highly advanced form of AI, he calls Syd, with the support of the government. The AI he has developed is decades ahead of anything else invented, being able to not only reason but apply common sense. Hawkes’ wife has reservations and does not want Syd to be let loose on the world yet she feels Syd could be a danger to humanity. Syd is due to be unveiled imminently at a gala to be held at the British Museum.

Although not keen on taking the job, North receives a plea for help from his friend Fangfang and arranges to be smuggled back to the UK……in a coffin!

What follows is a race to stop Syd from connecting to the world.

Add to the mix a dodgy Home Secretary, an escape through the sewers of London and a giant pet man eating octopus and we have a must read!

Published in Hardback 2nd April 2020.

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

I had seen this book a lot on Twitter and was looking forward to it.

What a great premise – a deaf family who do not know there is an intruder in their house. This, and the amazing cover, had my interest!

Sadly it is a baby who has been murdered. A BSL interpreter is called in by the police. When she arrives it turns out she knows the family so is torn between telling the police and needing the work. She decides her need for the work wins over and her job interpreting at the scene, and the ensuing interviews with the family. The interpreter and her visiting deaf sister take it upon themselves to do their own investigation into the murder, landing them in danger.

There are just a handful of suspects and they are cleverly written so they all appear to have possibly been the murderer.

This is a decent debut and I am interested to see more books by this author.

Thank you to Joffe books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I had read an amazing Joy Ellis book a few months ago, which is not part of this series which was just brilliant (Beware the Past) so I was super excited to see a new Joy Ellis book available on NetGalley.

This one is 11th in the series, although as it is the first I have read and I don’t feel I have missed out on any background as Joy added those little bits of information to this book.

A lady begins to receive strange pagan ‘gifts’ (or threats?) on her doorstep. She is quite knowledgeable of Wicca and Pagan rituals so it would appear they are left as some sort of sign.

The police visit to begin an investigation.

Around the same time, on the same property, a review of the land which has been requested by the owners in order to plant the best trees for the area is being carried out by Tamsin who stumbles upon a derelict cottage the owners do not know exists. My interest in the book went up a few notches when a skull stopped down from the chimney!

The police begin their second investigation on this property. They find a tens in the cottage and some biscuits which says someone has been there recently. Further investigation of the property reveals a satchel with photographs of a girl under the floorboards.

A family hiding secrets. An old case of a missing girl. A current case of a missing girl. Many intertwined plot lines which had me thinking I knew what was happening, only to turn the page and find a new twist!

An enjoyable read from a talented writer.

4 out of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Books and Alison Gaylin for an advance copy of this book.

I enjoyed the way the book was cleverly written using two timelines. 

In 1976, 15 year old April Cooper is given an assignment at school to write a letter to her future self which would be posted out to her by her teacher in the year 2000. She decides to write a letter to her future daughter. The letter was never handed in as Alice never went back to school.

On her way home she hears gunshots coming from her home and finds her boyfriend, Gabriel, has shot and killed her stepfather because he did not want them going out together. But where is her little sister? She is forced by her boyfriend to hold the gun and fire another shot at her stepfather therefore having her prints on the gun. Gabriel says he has her sister somewhere safe and she has to go with him or she will never find her. And so they both go on the run, and carry out further murders. April continues to write letters to her future daughter explaining what is happening during her time on the run. 

Fast forward to the current day. Quentin is a podcaster who is working on a podcast he will call ‘Closure’. He is looking for the truth to the story about April and Gabriel. Gabriel died in a fire alongside a family, his body was identified, and there was a girl’s body next to him, presumed to be that of April. But was it or is April Cooper still alive? Why did she stand by and allow Gabriel to murder so many innocent people that day at the petrol station?

This was a very well written book which kept me turning the pages to find out what did happen to Alice. Devoured over just 2 days. 

Well thank you NetGalley for letting a novice reviewer like me read what is probably going to be one of the best books of the year. I could say it was none stop thrill a minute but with the quality of writing shown by Tony Kent you can keep your readers captivated by the skill alone. There is plenty of action but Tony uses his word skills to provide the reader with a book that will keep you reading past midnight, and start again when woken early the following morning by the latest storm to hit these shores.
This is the third outing for Dempsey but you do not need to read the others to enjoy this one. In fact when you read a book and think I wish there were more, well, if you have not read the previous two, there is, and you can read them without waiting until May when this book goes on sale. Political intrigue and terrorism provide an explosive mixture in a story that keeps you gripped from the opening page to the last.

Rattled.
First of all I would like to thank Fiona Cummins for writing this book, and Net Galley for letting me read it. If you have not read Fiona’s Bone Collector series then you are missing out, and if you have you will not be disappointed when you read this one.
Your two best friends,sisters live next door, and their parents, the local GP and his wife are strict disciplinarians. Their childhood is not a happy one, but your mother is terminally ill so neither is yours. Then early one morning your whole world is turned upside down as the two sisters are taken away by the police after their parents are brutally stabbed to death.
Twenty or so years on and the story is about to break again, you have moved away, making your own way in life with those events a distant memory, except you are now are journalist, and are sent to the village of your childhood to report on it.

Fiona was a journalist with the Daily Mirror before she started writing books, so you would expect her to know a good story when she sees one, and she has one here.
The story is told from one of the sisters prospective and also the journalist’s. The sister is living under an assumed name, a new life given to her after her release from juvenile detention, which is about to collapse like a house of cards.
You feel for the characters.The story develops, being told in two time frames, then and now, allowing you to learn about them as children and also as adults.

Would I recommend you read this book? Absolutely, it is well written, totally believable and has characters you empathise with.