Two Heads Are Better Than One

Janet’s review of

I Dare You by Sam Carrington
Read December 2019

A gripping story told over a dual timeline.

1989. Two young girls, Bella and Jodie, are playing ‘knock knock ginger’ (postman’s knock). Jodie pushes a very reluctant Bella to knock on ‘Creepy Cawley’s’ door. Her mother has told her never to go near his bungalow as he is dangerous.

2019. Anna, as Bella is now known, receives a distraught phone call from her elderly mother, dragging her reluctantly back to the small village where she grew up but has not returned to since leaving many years ago.

2019. Lizzie grew up in care. Now an adult, she receives a letter advising Cawley has been released from his 30 year prison sentence for the murder of a young girl. This drags Lizzie back to the same village where she lived before going into the care system.
Who was Lizzie?

The story goes back and forth between the two timelines as bit by bit the secrets held by the small closely knit village begin to reveal themselves.
Was Billy Cawley guilty of the crime? Who is nailing parts of a doll, with hidden messages tucked inside, to Anna’s mum’s door and what does this mean?

This brilliant book will have you glued until all the secrets are finally revealed.

Loved it!

This is the 4th in the DCI Matilda Darke series. I did not know it was a part of a series until I had finished it and looked to see if a follow up book was out as what an ending!

So you don’t need to have read the others in the series to enjoy this book.

DCI Matilda Darke is yryimgvto get her life back together after losing her husband which also caused a huge setback in the case she was working on at the time.

Set in Sheffield, a serial killer is taking the law into his own hands. A vigilante, hanging those he feels have not paid sufficiently for their crimes.

The police enlist the assistance of a criminal psychologist who suggests the killer is probably known to DCI Darke. She is put under pressure by the newspapers and her boss to find this killer quickly as the public are losing confidence in the police force and her job is on the line.

The killer is contacting a young journalist to tell him when and where his victims are. Initially Danny, the journalist, is happy to have the scoop but as time goes by he begins to get scared, especially when he thinks the killer has set up a face to face meeting with him.

Fast paced, action packed page turner – just how a good crime novel should be.

Simon Kernick is one of my favourite authors so when the opportunity came up to review an advance copy of this book I didn’t hesitate and it went right to the top of my pile.
Thank you so much to Cornerstone Penguin Random House UK for approving my request via NetGalley and allowing me to be one of the first to read this brilliant book.

Brief synopsis of the story :

This is the third in The Bone Field trilogy but can easily be read as a stand alone. Simon fills in the character backgrounds.

The short, tense prologue was just brilliant and had me completely gripped to want to read the rest of the book immediately.

DI Mason is in prison for killing some very bad people although there is a story to this I shall not spoil which is explained in the book. He has a large price tag on his life and is living with the expectation an attempt on his life is imminent. He keeps himself fit and ready for such an event.

During a prison riot he is hurt and is transported to hospital but the vehicle is intercepted en route and he is abducted. He is made to agree to assassinate a high level MP, Alastair Sheridan, a nasty, sadistic, murdering piece of work with a history which involves Mason. During the assassination attempt Mason realises he has been tricked into killing the wrong man and contacts his ex partner, Tina Boyd, for help.

His new mission is revenge – for the people who tricked him and for the murder of a 13 year old girl 30 years ago.

My opinion :

Another excellent thriller by Simon Kernick. Fast paced, action packed, gripping and will keep you up until the early hours to finish it.

Highly recommended the book will be released on 28th November 2019 so get those pre-orders in, or ask your local library to get hold of it for you.

CRIME THRILLER

I give 5 stars to this exciting debut novel by an author to watch.

Thanks to NetGalley and Canelo Publishers for allowing my request to read this brilliant debut and first in a series.

Set in Scotland, DI Clare Mackay finds herself investigating a hit and run which turns into the first of a series of killings, linked by a series of cards left with each victim bearing a number. Beginning with a ‘5’, number ‘4’ follows quickly.

The victims appear to have one thing in common; they all go out on a Thursday evening but no one knows where they go or why.

The case moves forward when there is a witness to one of the attempted murders, and the victim survives.

Thoroughly enjoyed it and will be looking out for book 2.

Read by Janet October 2019

Synopsis:

‘I am going to use cheese wire on you’ That’s what he says. 

And so the story begins on a Wednesday afternoon when Alice answers the office phone to a distorted voice. 

Is it a prank? Does someone hold a grudge against her? Then something happens the following Wednesday which makes her believe she is the target of some sort of stalker.

Can her skills as a reporter help her track him down?

 

 

Janet’s review:

 

Having read ‘I am watching you’ by this very talented author I was very excited to have the chance to read her new book via Net Galley.

I enjoyed the story very much. The ‘then’ and ‘now’ storyline gives us the background on the perpetrator and why he is doing what he is doing, not wanting to give any spoilers!

Very well written, good depth to characters and a good pace to the story.

Would definitely recommend this book.

Over 30 years ago Debbie is on holiday with her husband, son and new baby and also their friends Nathan and Monica. Debbie disappears one night as does Nathan. Have they ran away together to start a new life or has something else happened to them? Debbie was having problems with depression following the birth of her baby, Annie, and felt she was not a good enough mother.

30 years later Anna (as she prefers to be called) has never given up hope of finding what happened to her mother, keeping a small scrapbook and a box of memories Debbie made for her. Out of the blue an an email arrives from her mother and then a new volunteer starts working in her charity bookshop with the same birthdate as her mother. Anna decides to employ a private investigator to try to find what really happened all those years ago.

The book was a bit depressing for my liking but the story was well thought out and the characters well written so I’m sure it will appeal to others.

We are Tim and Janet, we are married (to each other) and we both love to read. Janet is a chocolate eater and coffee drinker and Tim is a pretty good thrower of Tunnocks teacakes but that’s another story!! We travel around the North East of England (and further afield – furthest so far has been Dublin!) meeting authors at book events and book signings.

The main genres we read are crime thrillers, mysteries and psychological thrillers but we read a wide variety of books and are always open to reading something completely different. For example, Janet recently read and reviewed ‘Under Pressure’ by Richard Humphreys which was a true account by the author about his time living and working on a nuclear submarine. 5 stars by the way it was a fascinating read.

Some of our favourite authors include Simon Toyne, A A Dhand, Shari Lapena, T M Logan, Mark Edwards, Joy Ellis, Howard Linskey, David Baldacci, Barbara Erskine and C J Sansom. The list grows daily there are so many excellent authors releasing amazing debut novels. The latest debut Janet read was Through the Wall by Caroline Corcoran and it was a corker.

We like to read actual books although we do sometimes read on Kindle – it has its place! We have a mountain of books and are always buying more as well as borrowing from our local libraries to help keep them open – please join your local library if you have not done so yet.

We will update our blog as often as we can and link it to our Twitter profiles where we talk all things book related with other bloggers, readers and authors.

We find bloggers on Twitter have some fantastic recommendations and we would like to join in with the book love which is the reason we decided to start our own blog and get recommending to the world out there.