Motel by Shawn Raiford.

Motel is a short horror story about homeless Ana, who for a change tries to get into a roadside motel.

WOW! What a short story and Ana loves to play! The dialogue is spot on and Ana is a delight who has a shave before she plays! This rocks! Shawn ticks all the boxes in his short story that has focus, excellent editing and a gripping thrill. Atmosphere is tops and the characterization is spot on. This is a brilliant lunch time read that will get you back to work wondering who may walk into your workplace next. This is what a short story should be, the thrill of a full length novel condensed into a lunch time read. To do this requires great talent and Shawn clearly has this under his belt. This is a genuine 5 star read and I can find nothing wrong with this great short story.

Motel is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2015.

Encryption by Bill Ward.

Chris Hammond, the Financial Director of a software company is murdered and his brother Peter tries to find out why.

I enjoyed reading this crime thriller that involved murder, betrayal, the work of the intelligence services and a hint of romance. This is a current day novel, set mostly in the UK. Although people nowadays love social media where they share their lives with the whole world through the internet, there is a demand to keep some data secret. This book taps into the wish for governments to be able to read all data and the lengths they will go to get their access.

I liked the plot of Encryption and loved the way Bill told his story. Slowly the story unfolded with dramatic revelations of the workings behind the scenes. This is a Spooks drama that shows how vulnerable society can be to attack from all corners. It was a pleasure to read and asked questions about how far you would go in your workplace.

I liked how Bill told his story on a strict need-to-know basis. Governments love keeping the public in the dark and Bill taps into this by making Peter’s quest awfully difficult. There is no freedom-of-information request here, just a case of work your contacts with the people you trust.

Bill leads you to suspect different bad guys as his story progresses and at the end you think “Oh dear, some people are just…”. Encryption has a good plot, asks lots of current day questions and is a pleasure to read. I found this novel to be a 5 star read and as good as another Brighton based author Peter James in delivering top product to his fans. Encryption is a great book for lovers of crime fiction and if I had to pick holes, it would be Peter’s problem with car rental. Through the course of this novel, Peter hires two cars but no mention is made of his return of these cars to the hire shop! The charges must be mounting and the cars either attracting parking tickets or spotted on the network of ANPR cameras that blight our road junctions. But will Peter give Jenny the Christmas present she really wants or will it be the one Jenny offered Grant? Ho! Ho! Ho!

Encryption is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.

Army of Israel - righteous deadly army of God by Charming Graphomaniac.

This book is about the Israel Defense Forces and how it operates. I downloaded a copy of this book out of sheer nosiness.

I found this book to be absolute rubbish and wondered if it was a spoof. It is written in Pidgin English and the author is very clearly a fan of the Israel Defense Forces, in his mind they can do no wrong. He comes across as a madman and I wondered if he was a character created by the Jewish actor, comedian, and screenwriter Sacha Baron Cohen. His writing is appalling and comes across as an uneducated religious fanatic. For example…

From front and side windows of Mercedes were heard shots colonel “Jonathan” and sitting near commando fucking kill drive-by style cocksucker sentinel from pistols “berretta” with silencers,

...He puts looks of photos into his book with some helpful captions. One I particularly liked was of soldiers dressed in combat gear with the caption…

Caps of weird design, reason there is nothing symmetrical in nature, this from has deforming concealment, very hard to notice from distance.

...For all his macho talk, he is not a misogynist and regards Jewish women soldiers as heroes, especially the snipers…

Women have increasingly acute perception systems, in particular, the potential increased night vision, hearing and smell. They instantly fire combat intuition, initially incorporated nature. Women are incredibly observant.

...I found the sections on snipers quite interesting but overall this book is absolute rubbish. The writing is appalling, with bad grammar, Pidgin English and very little content. He certainly has not given away any state secrets! This book is a joke and a bad joke at that, written by a buffoon. It’s value is very low and I am glad that I got a free Kindle copy from Amazon. This book has now been withdrawn from the Amazon Kindle Store which is no loss to the book reading public. This book gets the minimum score of 1 star from me and a warning not to waste your time reading this rubbish.

Army of Israel was available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was published in 2015.

Cold Girl by R.M. Greenaway

Cold Girl is her first novel and was the winner of the 2014 Arthur Ellis Unhanged award. Kiera Rilkoff is the lead singer of Fling and she has suddenly gone missing. Has she run away because of musical differences or has she become another victim of the Pickup Killer? Follow the RCMP as they try to solve this mystery in snowbound Canada.

I really enjoyed reading this book and it did not matter that I have never been to Canada, because her writing was so descriptive that I could picture the scene in my mind’s eye. Greenaway managed to convey the harshness of the weather and the terrain so well that her book will appeal to any reader throughout the globe. She puts you clearly in the scene and includes the language and multi-culturalism running in the background of BC.

There was a lovely diverse range of Police Officers working the case. What made this novel so good was that these Police Officers were not the best, they had their failings but did what they could. There was none of the glamour of wonderful, high achieving detectives just modest officers trying to play their part.

The plot was very good with great attention paid to the small details which hung everything together. Only at the end did all the little details explain what had actually happened and why. Character development was good and I liked the way each chapter centered on a different person.

I got a lot of pleasure from reading this book. It gives you a feeling of hope that nothing bad has happened to Kiera and that she will pop up somewhere alive but cold and tired from a trek across the snow.

A lot of work has gone into this book, it is a very good story and the quality of writing is first class. She not only ticks all the boxes but gives you such pleasure as your thoughts change about what has happened to Kiera. I could find nothing wrong with this novel and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Dundurn for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

The Woman in Blue by Elly Griffiths.

This book is the 8th in the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. This story is set in Walsingham, Norfolk and has two murders plus some threatening letters. Follow DCI Harry Nelson and his close friend Ruth as they get to the bottom of the mystery.

I have not read any of the other Ruth Galloway novels but each book is a stand-alone, so I had no difficulty in jumping in at number 8. I found this book a soft, easy read. Although there are two murders, the police investigation is quite low key with no specialist work, just routine policing. The whole story is told in a very jolly and British way with the dynamics of the characters taking centre stage. I liked how Elly used the religious history of Walsingham in her story and her handling of the contentious issue of women priests. She has a diverse range of clergy and from my past experience, thought her portrayal of them was very accurate, especially when they went out to dinner! Atheists will enjoy the religious mumbo jumbo played among the characters.

The Woman in Blue is NOT a gritty crime drama, it is a people story. A story of how people live, love and relationships develop. The plot was okay with a good range of suspects that were steadily given the wink. There was enough mystery to keep me interested and I found this a pleasant read. When I got to the end, my lasting thoughts were that this novel was very much like an episode of the very successful and popular television drama Kingdom, starring Stephen Fry and also set in Norfolk. I think The Woman in Blue is a GOOD READ, a book that you can enjoy in a soft, lazy sort of way. It is comfortable, like an old pair of slippers and does not challenge the reader in any way. I came across nothing new in this book, there was no WOW! factor, just a warm cozy read that I will vote 4 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Quercus for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.