Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train

If you haven't already ready read this (after all it's had a fair bit of hype) your summer holiday, beach book is totally sorted.

I read this last month, but I thought it worth me still reviewing it.

rather annoyingly I've had to start watermarking my pictures
as I've noticed a couple of websites/blogs stealing them and not giving me credit 

The Plot: Rachel commutes past her old house every morning, the house where her ex-husband now lives wife his new wife and baby. As her train waits at stop signal she is able to peer into the garden of two strangers, who she nicknames 'Jason and Jess', she fantasies about their lives and she starts to feel like she knows them. One day she sees something shocking out of the window, and feels the need to intervene, soon she is embroiled in missing person's investigation, and is no longer just a passive observer.

Rating: 4.5/5  

C J Sansom, Lamentation

C J Sansom's Tudor mystery series always end up on the best sellers list when they come. They are both popular, and well received by critiques and he is highly regarded as an author of historical fiction. Can't help but think he gets more respect that authors of the genre as he as in man in a category dominated by women... but that's a whole other argument and this is meant to be a review post.

The Plot:   The sixth book in the series, Matthew Shardlake lawyer/investigator returns to unravel plots and intrigues of the Tudor royal court. Henry VIII is dying, and is concerned about his legacy, and religious tensions threaten civil harmony. Catholics, Reformers, Anabaptist and Lollards are all Christians, but their differences regarding the holy communion are leading to unrest, charges of heresy and murder. Catherine Parr, the wife of the king, has had a potential inflammatory and heretical memoir stolen, Lamentations of a Sinner, so she calls on her long-term friend Shardlake to retrieve it, before it is made public.

Rating: 3.5/5    

Tom Rob Smith, Child 44

Crime isn't really considered to be a highbrow genre, and I am also guilty of looking down on it, I think it's partly because there is a lot of really crap crime-fiction out there (Martina Cole, I'm looking at you).

Popular authors tend to bash them out, sticking to a tried and tested formula, which enables the reader to solve the crime before they've even completed the first chapter. Good crime-fiction though is truly impressive, the ability to spin a tangled plot and eke out clues and suspense is a rare and beautiful thing.

With Child 44, Tom Rob Smith gives crime-fiction a decent attempt, and manages to deliver on some fronts.

The Plot: 1933 Russia, near dead from starvation Pavel hunts in the nearby woods desperate for a meal, absorbed in his task he is unaware that he is also been hunted. 1953 Moscow, Leo is an investigator for the MGB, it his job to root out dissidents and enemies of the state, a task he performs ruthlessly and without question. When a colleges' son is found dead, Leo is sent to remind the grieving parents that murder does not officially exist in the Soviet Union. However, Leo's loyalty to the party and the country is tested when his own wife is investigated for crimes against the state. The bodies of mutilated children are discovered, and Leo begins to question is blind obedience and his role in the MGB.  

Rating: 3.5/5

Lee Child, Never Go Back

I'm starting the year of with a complete trashy read, Never go Back. 

The Plot: Jack Reacher is a loner. Ex-military he is a rootless vagabond who hitch-hikes around the USA, who manages to run into trouble wherever he goes. He arrives in Virginia hoping to rendezvous with Major Susan Turner, commanding officer of his former unit, who he has spoken to a couple of times of the phone. She is not there, her arrest is soon linked with Reacher, has he charged with a crime from 15 years ago.      

Rating: 1/5

library haul

Although I've currently got heaps of unread books on my shelves, I really didn't fancy reading any of them. Instead, I picked up an old faithful Song of Achilles, which is one of my favourite books of all time. 

To get me out of a reading slump I took a trip to my local library and gathered the following:-

Lyndsay Faye, Dust and Shadow

Seems ages ago that I did a proper book review- so allow me to present Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye....

The Plot: A serial killer is on the loose, dubbed The Knife, he is murdering, then mutilating street-walkers in Whitechapel. Unable to solve the case, the metropolitan police engage the help of a renown crime-fighting duo, Dr Watson and Sherlock Holmes. It isn't long before suspicion falls on Holmes himself, and the private detective may well have met his match with Jack the Ripper.  

Rating: 3/4

Emma Healey, Elizabeth is Missing

Elizabeth is Missing, début novel from Emma Healey left me with a heavy feeling in my heart, but it deserves all the hype

The Plot: Maud is suffering from dementia, she writes notes to herself to remember not to cook, not to leave the house and not to buy more tinned peaches. Her memory is splintered, and time is non-liner. She often relives the disappearance of her beloved sister, Sukey. Now her friend, Elizabeth, is also missing. Maud is desperate to piece together the fragments, find Elizabeth and solve the historic disappearance of her sister.  

Rating: 5/5

full review

M.R.C Kasasian, The Mangle Street Murders

The Mangle Street Murders was kindly recommended to me by Tiziana. I'm really grateful for her suggestion, as it turned out to be a really good read, set in  one of my favourite eras, the late 19th Century. 

The Plot: Sidney Grice, priggish and pompous, is a 'personal' detective, well-known for solving grisly cases. His ward, March Middleton, recently bereaved and new to London, is determined to assist Grice in his investigation, despite his objections. A young woman has been found stabbed over forty times in her own sitting room, her husband, William Ashby, stands accused of her murder. Grace Dillinger is convinced of her son-in-law's innocence and pleads with Grice to discover the real killer.

Rating: 3.5

Elizabeth Haynes, Into the Darkest Corner

When photographing this book I was quite tempted to find the darkest corner in my house, but then realised that was a daft idea.

Into The Darkest Corner won Amazon Best Book of the Year 2011, but I missed the buzz. I read about in on a blog (sorry can't remember who) recently and thought it sounded worth a try.

Trigger warning: rape, domestic violence, OCD, post-traumatic stress, death, torture, compulsions, crime

Into the Darkest Corner - photographed not in a corner
ISBN: 9780956251572

The Plot: Catherine is young, bold and up for a good time. Happy to be single, she is is smart enough to realise what a great catch Lee is when she meets him on a night out. Charismatic and good looking Lee has soon won Catherine over, but soon is becomes apparent that Lee is darker and more dangerous than he first seemed. Several years later Catherine is struggling with OCD but otherwise managing to cope, that is until she receives a phone call that puts her into a further tailspin.  

Rating: ««««¶ (4/5)

Martina Cole, Two Women

I'm so ashamed to admit I've read this, it's absolute trash and not even good trash like The Other Boleyn Girl or funny trash like Twilight. There is nothing redeemable about Martina Cole's Two Women. 

The Plot:  A victim from childhood, Susan Dalston becomes notorious when she murders her violent husband with a claw hammer.

Rating: ¶¶¶¶¶ (0/5)

trigger warning- violence, rape, domestic abuse, incest 

I was after a easy read and fancied a detective story or a thriller, so God knows why I picked this up at the library. I was mislead as it was in the crime section and claimed to be 'the no.1 bestseller'. There's no mystery to be solved, and its basically a fictional misery memoir. If books like A Child Called It etc. are your type of thing you'd love this, but it's really not for me.

It is poorly written and predictable. The plot is just a series of cliches and stereotypes and I quickly became desensitised to the many, many, many tragedies of Susan's life. I've spent quite enough of my time on this crap book, so am finishing my review here. Save yourselves some time, and don't bother with this book at all.

Ben Aaronovitch, Moon over Soho

I picked up Moon over Soho in a recent library haul. Its the second in a series of books called Rivers of London, the first of which I read ages ago, so I've been meaning to read this for a while. I was initially attracted to the series thanks to the intriguing quote on the front cover, "what would happen is Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz". 

The Plot: Peter Grant, met officer and trainee wizard, investigates the suspicious deaths of Jazz musicians in Soho. 

My thoughts and views are under the cut (warning may contain spoilers):-

There was salad and chocolate on the top shelf

"There was salad and chocolate on the top shelf, old rice and curling bacon on the bottom, and - squeezed on its side on the middle shelf- a severed human head, lips drawn back, veins poking from the frayed flesh and pressed against the frosted glass. One eye socket was empty, the other was hidden by a jar of Tesco Value peanut butter"

- Belinda Bauer, Rubbernecker 

currently reading

With the nights drawing closer, and only a few days left to Halloween, I've been scaring myself silly with crime and horror novels- reviews coming soon!

Gillian Flynn- Gone Girl

No doubt Gone Girl will be in in a lot of people's suitcases this summer, so my older sister bought me a copy as she thought it would be a good one to review.

 I've read most of the big summer blockbusters in previous years (The Da Vinci Code, The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Fifty Shade of Grey etc.) out of curiosity, but without any high expectation. On occasions I've been pleasantly surprised, but often I don't understand the hype. I remember when on a tacky post A-level holiday to Zante everyone around the pool was was reading The Da Vinci Code. There was also someone with a rather unfortunate Da Vinci related tattoo (bet he regrets that now).

Anyway, Gone Girl fell into the category of nicely surprised, I'd recommend you reserve some room in your hand luggage.  

 

quick thanks to my smallest sister- who I had to cajole into letting me nest a book in her hair for this pic

The Plot: When Nick's wife, Amy, goes missing on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary he becomes prime suspect for her disappearance. As the media circus intrudes and the police investigate, Nick and Amy's relationship is revealed not be as perfect as it first appears. Gone Girl is a fast paced thriller about relationships and deceit. Just how far can you trust the person you marry?

Please see after the cut for a full review