Liar, Liar by Nancy Boyarsky.

Liar, Liar is the 3rd mystery in the Nicole Graves series but it can be read as a standalone. This time Nicole has a new job as a Private Investigator and has been given the task of  babysitting a witness, the victim of an alleged rape.

Liar, Liar is told in the same style as The Swap and The Bequest with Nicole being the focus. Nicole meets a diverse range of characters as the story unfolds. The story is set in and around Los Angeles and Nancy describes her scenes very well indeed. Her novel does not dwell on the glamour and glitter of Hollywood but covers the whole region including the poor, low income parts and ethnic minorities. I loved the diversity within Liar, Liar.

I found this novel to have a very strong social message. It is all about how easy it is for everybody to simply not tell the whole truth. We are not talking about out and out criminal bare faced lies but those statements we can make were the whole truth is not spoken. Leaving out those little bits, lying by omission, is an easy mistake to make and is key to this novel.

So rather than have a regular plot were Nicole solves a mystery, Liar Liar is more like a catalogue of omissions that lead to the outcomes of this tale. I found Liar, Liar to be a GOOD read and I love the brand Nancy has developed with her character Nicole. However, I did not enjoy Liar, Liar as much as I enjoyed The Swap and The Bequest solely because the plot is not as intricate. I loved how we got the whole life of Nicole rather than just her workplace self. It was good to read how her day job affected her relationship with her boyfriend Josh. Again there was no gritty or steamy sex to read through and I found Liar, Liar to be an entertaining read that gets 4 stars from me.

The Bequest by Nancy Boyarsky.

The Bequest is the 2nd mystery in the Nicole Graves series but it can be read as a standalone. This time Nicole goes to find a workmate who is missing and finds him murdered in his home. Later she finds out there was a bequest in his will leaving everything to her. Nicole was not a close friend to this workmate and does not know why he was murdered or why he left all his wealth to her.

I enjoyed reading The Bequest because of the writing style Nancy employs. The Bequest has one very strong focus, it is Nicole. Everything is about Nicole and how she interacts with the world around her. This whole tale is told solely from Nicole’s point of view. Although Nicole is a young female, Nancy writes her tale with such skill that the reader takes on the personality of Nicole and walks in her shoes. It was simply a pleasure to enjoy this novel as though I was actually Nicole searching around Los Angeles looking for answers in this mystery.

I enjoyed the plot of The Bequest and all along I was wondering if Nicole should trust this or that character who may not be telling the whole truth. The story really played along with the issues of trust, that can so easily be taken for granted. Just as in the first novel, there was some romance along the way. Yes, Nicole did make love with this character but there is no gritty, steamy sex scenes to read through. There was no sexual tension in this novel but there was plenty of warm, romantic emotional feelings along the way.

So piece by piece Nicole got to the bottom of this mystery. Nicole travels around Los Angeles in her search for the truth and Nancy, as a local, put all those lovely details into her story. I have NEVER been to America but I loved how Nancy described Los Angeles and the surrounding area. This gave so much added value to her novel. Of course, a novel set in America written by an American, can miss the spot with some readers in other English speaking countries. I had no difficulty at all reading this book with its American cultures etc - I simply enjoyed being in Nicole’s shoes as she solved the mystery. There was just the one word though - “busboy” - what is that? I am familiar with “bus spotter”, those guys in the UK who take photographs of buses and coaches but have never come across a “busboy”. A quick check on the internet brought up this North American term.

I enjoyed The Bequest and liked how it played around with the dynamics of the workplace. Even when workmates are simply polite and tolerate each other, sometimes things are not said but one worker may be blissfully obsessed with another and their affections are taken silently to their grave.

So I find that Nancy has done it again and has written another OUTSTANDING read that gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

Execution of Faith (Danny Pearson Book 1) by Stephen Taylor.

Ex-SAS soldier Danny Pearson now works as a security guard. He does not take the easy, sit in a hut jobs but the dangerous close protection etc assignments. Stephen sets the scene when Danny stops a knife attack before moving onto his deployment in helping to prevent a terrorist attack from Islamic fundamentalists.

Execution of Faith is an action packed thriller involving the terrorism threat to our country. It is full of drama as the reader follows Danny in his race to stop the terrorist plot.

I was disappointed reading Execution of Faith. It was all comic strip action with our hero Danny being super butch and fighting his way around. There was lots of violence and many deaths in this very average plot. Character development was shallow and I did not develop an empathy for Danny. Missing was an exploration of the ideas behind Islamic fundamentalism, it was as though the bad guys were not religious fanatics but anti-social hooligans having a firework party.

This story lacked realism as Danny, our security guard hero, got access to all areas, supplied with guns etc, joined our intelligence services simply because someone put in a good word and went on international adventures on the trail of the bad guys.

Danny’s collection of contacts were always happy to do things at the drop of a hat, it became so frustrating to read. Calling in the odd favour can be permissible in fiction but to have people constantly at your beck and call is silly.

I found Execution of Faith to be a POOR read that only gets 2 stars from me. It was Stephen’s debut novel and I shall NOT be bothering with his next. This was not an intelligent OR entertaining read and is more like a comic without the pictures.

Execution of Faith was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

No Way Out (DI Adam Fawley #3) by Cara Hunter.

Okay, this is the third book in the DI Adam Fawley series but it can be read as a standalone. You do not need to know what happened in the other books. This is a good move by Cara Hunter. Yes, the old characters from the other novels who work in or for Thames Valley Police are carried forward and this continuation simply added further pleasure to my enjoyment of this book.

No Way Out is a police procedural set mostly in Oxford. There is a fire at a house in Oxford and it looks like arson. Sadly people were inside and the Fire Service begin the search for survivors or fatalities. Who would start a fire on this family home? DI Adam Fawley and his team at Thames Valley Police are on the case to solve this mystery.

I enjoyed reading No Way Out. You get this story from two sides, the Thames Valley Police and the family who live at Southey Road. It felt odd that I knew more about what was happening with the family than the police did but that is the way Cara chose to tell her story. And boy, can Cara tell a story, YES she can!

What I liked most about No Way Out was all the finger pointing that Cara does. Lots of people have strong motives to set fire to this family home, time and time again they have the finger pointed at them. There is a good range of characters in No Way Out and anyone of them could have started the fire. The tone of this novel is very different to most crime thrillers. Generally the reader develops a sympathy for the victim but with No Way Out, the police view the whole family as suspects. As a reader your sympathy lies with the police, who have an extremely difficult investigation, simply because the dead don’t talk.

The plot within No Way Out was very, very good indeed. It was of the same high standard we get from Linwood Barclay and Harlan Coben - yes, the premier league of crime fiction. At the end, all those little bits of detail added up and the arson of the family home made sense. Of course, if I spot a person sat on their own in Pizza Hut, my suspicions will be on alert! Some details just stick with you!

I got a lot of pleasure from reading No Way Out and I feel that Cara has done it yet again. I found No Way Out to be an OUTSTANDING read and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

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

Trick of the Dark by Val McDermid.

Follow psychiatrist Charlie Flint as she solves the mystery surrounding the death of a groom on his wedding day plus other deaths that maybe linked.

Although this novel involves Val McDermid’s trademark storytelling about profiling offenders, Trick of the Dark is a standalone.

I found Trick of the Dark to be a good mix of offender profiling, psychology, mystery, authoring skills, characterisation, attraction between people, love and lesbianism.

I loved how Val explored the psychology of offenders and the challenges they pose to profilers. So many things can go wrong and although Charlie Flint acted in good faith, she got the blame from the media. I quickly developed an empathy for Charlie as she does her level best, believes strongly in justice and is willing to get to the bottom of this mystery.

I liked how Val told her story. One of the central characters is called Jay and to tell her backstory, is writing her memoir. This is a nice move for 2 reasons - it threads background into the mystery AND explores the authoring skills used to produce a memoir that may have some tweaking of the truth to make it a better read.

I loved the range of characters in Trick of the Dark. Don’t get hung up on gender as there is only one man in this story, a friend of Charlie’s. So apart from Nick, Trick of the Dark is ALL about women. But don’t let that put male readers off, women are not from a different planet, they just like shops. All the women’s characters are fully developed and there are more lesbians than you can shake a stick at. Val fully explores how lesbians get psychically attracted to each other, how their love grows and the many problems that can occur within lesbian relationships. Lesbianism plays a big part in Trick of the Dark and I liked its openness to a lifestyle that can be misunderstood by the ignorant.

As a hetrosexual male, I was not discouraged by all the lesbianism in Trick of the Dark because I understand how two people are attracted to each other and can fall in love. There was nothing uncomfortable or vulgar about the lesbian scenes within this story. The Prusik loop was NOT used in the bedroom but whilst climbing on the Isle of Skye. There are no cheap sexy thrills in Trick of the Dark but a mature understanding of what makes people tick.

There are some nice snips of humour along the way, for example…

She gestured with her knife towards a large padded envelope by the bowl where Charlie’s two Weetabix sat. ‘Postman’s been. Still don’t know why you gave up cornflakes for those,’ she added, pointing at the cereal bars with her knife. ‘They look like panty shields for masochists.’

...Sorry folks but once you have read that, you can’t get the image out of your mind!

The plot of Trick of the Dark is a good one and I enjoyed it far, far more than The Last Temptation. I found Trick of the Dark to be a GOOD read and it gets 4 stars from me.

Trick of the Dark was written in 2010 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Last Temptation (Tony Hill & Carol Jordan #3) by Val McDermid.

It has been 9 years since I have read a Tony Hill & Carol Jordan book by Val McDermid. I read and reviewed Beneath the Bleeding, the 5th book in the series and my friend John commented “I can recommend "The Last Temptation" by V McDermid. I read this book back in 2003 whilst on a government paid excursion in the sun and was enthralled plus a little shocked by the graphic detail of the sexual mutilation of the bodies. “

So here I am in 2018 reading and reviewing a book written in 2002. What did it have to offer me?

The Last Temptation explores the relationship and workplace dynamics between Tony and Carol. This time it is an international quest and they both travel to Germany. It is a steady mix of people, psychiatry and police work. Tony is his usual self and is profiling a serial killer. Carol has gone undercover to catch a criminal mastermind involved in human trafficking. It does not matter if you have not read the previous 2 Tony and Carol books, as this can be read as a standalone.

I found The Last Temptation an okay read. The serial killer’s method of murder was unusual and their signature was very obscure. There was lots going on in this novel with lots of characters to follow. The characterization of all the characters was good, including the serial killer. There were plenty of bits to spice up this novel, for example having lesbian police officers and the need to debrief Carol as she was working undercover, by holding their meetings naked in a sauna.

I followed these 2 lines of enquiry by the police with the help of Tony and Carol. But as the novel went on, my enthusiasm waned. All the details were laid out and the story then became a regular joining up the dots. The entertainment value of this novel then began to drop. My empathy for the characters dwindled and the only shock I got was when Carol got caught up in a tight spot. My normal reaction would have been of abhorrence at the situation Carol was thrown into but because of my dwindling interest in the story, coupled with my reducing empathy for her, made me feel glad she had this rough experience. For me to feel happy about Carol’s experience made me feel rather uncomfortable, yes this is only fiction but I can’t condone the actions of another character towards Carol. I felt Carol got what she deserved working undercover but feel ashamed because I do.

Overall I found The Last Temptation to be an okay, 3 star read. I would not recommend it to anyone but it is a bread and butter read. This is NOT one of Val McDermid’s better books, I enjoyed both Beneath the Bleeding and The Distant Echo far, far more.

The Last Temptation was written in 2002 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Swap by Nancy Boyarsky.

Nicole Graves engages in a summer long house swap of her Los Angeles condo with a strangers’ house in London. What could possibly go wrong?

The Swap is told from Nicole’s point of view, an American staying in Britain. In her own style she forms opinions of the British way of life and her spelling is American English. So it was quite funny for me being British, living and working in Britain, reading a book set in Britain BUT written by an American, centred around an American character using American English spelling! Still, I would NOT allow the cultural and spelling differences to spoil my enjoyment of this book. So I started this book with an open mind. And WOW! Right from the start, this book is a cracker!

The Swap is a psychological thriller, not only is Nicole having doubts about everyone around her but these doubts niggle the reader big time as warning flags fly up on every page. Who can be trusted and can Nicole muddle through her summer in London?

I really engaged with this story and it got my mind buzzing. Everybody Nicole came into contact with, including her husband Brad, had my suspicions raised. Was everybody in this tale dodgy?

I found the pace of this novel good and the plot was very involved indeed. I liked all the little hints here and there, this doesn’t seem right and that doesn’t seem right. The story made me alert to all those little details as Nicole muddled around.

I found it nice that Nancy has done her homework on London and has used real locations for her story. It is one of my pet hates when authors use real place names but invent the local scenes.

Many things within the story made me chuckle for example…

She took the tube to Harrods. By the time she got there is was almost 3:30 p.m., and she remembered she hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She sought out the escalator and headed up to the enormous dining room. The sign read “Afternoon Tea; £29.” Why not?

...Gosh! Woman, £29 for an afternoon tea! Why not live like a local and pop into Greggs or Wetherspoons?

...And also this brought back memories…

The she remembered what Muriel had explained in one of her messages. The car had a choke she was supposed to pull out as she started the engine. Or was she supposed to push it in? She stared at it a moment, then jumped at the sound of someone tapping on the car window.

...Oh that brings back memories, old petrol engined cars with a manual choke. I doubt if there are any petrol cars in London nowadays so old that they have a manual choke fitted to a carburettor, as most petrol cars are now petrol injected. Things have come on a long way in the last 30 or 40 years. I remember the old days when you used to push the cold start button in on the right hand side of the injector pump to start a Ford R114 coach - these turbo powered diesel engines produced 140bhp - don’t laugh, they were always better to drive than a Bedford YMT.

...Then I found an American expression that we do not have but would be more word efficient for us to use…

On the other side, the card offered a twofer coupon for an Indian restaurant.

...Ah? A “twofer” - oh, yes, I get it now, a two for one coupon!

The Swap is a contemporary novel set in present day London, however…

In the kitchen, she sat down at the table and dumped out the contents of the purse-her wallet, makeup case, a few loose coins, a pack of Kleenex. Next, she emptied the wallet, pulling out her dwindling supply of pound notes, receipts, credit cards. No slip of paper.

...Sorry Nancy, but pound notes were withdrawn from circulation in 1988. But that would be nitpicking and takes nothing away from my enjoyment of The Swap.

I loved reading The Swap and found it a pleasure to read. I can find nothing wrong with this book, so it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

The Swap is Nancy’s debut novel and she ticks all the boxes for me. I look forward to reading another novel from her as she clearly has the talent to write an engaging and well plotted novel.

The Swap was written in 2017 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Mort (Discworld #4) by Terry Pratchett.

Mort is a young lad who gets a job as an apprentice for Death on Discworld. This is the story of how he gets on as he learns his craft.

I have NEVER read a Terry Pratchett novel before and was curious to find out why he had become a top selling author. Fantasy novels are NOT my regular reading genre but like Real Ales, I like to try different ones to see if I like them.

There are 40 novels in the Discworld series, they do NOT have to be read in sequence and are all stand-alones. Why did I chose Discworld #4 as my first book? Unashamedly, it was on special offer for just 99p and the price was right!

Mort was written in 1987, so I wondered what a book written over 30 years ago has to offer. Well, Discworld is a fantasy planet, so very different from Earth. Discworld is flat and rides on the back of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of the enormous star turtle Great A’Tuin, and which is bounded by a waterfall that cascades endlessly into space.

Mort is a fantasy tale involving wizards, magic and spells. There are 5 central characters in this tale, the main being Mort, a young lad moving into the world of work. Death is his boss and the tone of his speech is one of authority and appears “IN CAPITALS”. His daughter also has a role to play, so has a princess and a wizard. There is one animal taking a vital role, it is a horse. This is not any old horse but a special horse that belongs to Death which can fly into the air to travel extensive distances across Discland at great speed. This horse has great power and is very strong because later in the story Mort, Death’s daughter, the princess and the wizard climb onto its back and fly away! Oh yeah, whatever, this is a fantasy.

No time period is mentioned but the feel is of the dark middle ages. There is no mention of technology or modern infrastructures, far far away from our modern obsession with social media, smartphones, cars and CCTV. Yet the dialogue and attitudes between characters is relatively contemporary. For example…

The piercing blue eyes glittered at him. He looked back like a nocturnal rabbit trying to outstare the headlights of a sixteen-wheeled artic whose driver is a twelve-hour caffeine freak outrunning the tachometers of hell.

… Terry Pratchett uses an extensive vocabulary in this novel, it is NOT a children’s book and he uses some obscure and very old words. For a fantasy novel, this range of vocabulary makes for an intelligent and articulate adult read.

Terry creates his scenes with great skill and has a talent for great storytelling. For example…

Ankh- Morpork is as full of life as an old cheese on a hot day, as loud as a curse in a cathedral, as bright as an oil slick, as colourful as a bruise and as full of activity, industry, bustle and sheer exuberant busyness as a dead dog on a termite mound.

….There are odds bits of dry humour scattered through this book, for example…

‘It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever,’ he said. ‘Have you thought of going into teaching?’

…So Terry wrote this novel and how did I rate it as a reading experience?

Ah, I thought a change from my usual genres of reading would be a refreshing and delightful change. I found Terry’s writing talent was GOOD but this story LACKED DEPTH. I think Mort is a lightweight tale, which if it was on TV, people would have one eye on the screen and talk over the whole programme. I did not get much out of reading this book. I found the entertainment value was POOR and just continued reading to the very end because that is the type of guy I am. For such a top selling and popular author I was disappointed. I think that Mort is a POOR read and only gets 2 stars from me. I am glad I only paid 99p for this book and that I now know what pleases some people.

Mort was written in 1987 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Darkest Lies (The DI Hogarth Darkest Series Book 1) by Solomon Carter.

Follow Detective Inspector Joe Hogarth and his team as they investigate a murder at a Southend nightclub.

Right from the start, I felt at home with this book. It has an easy to get into British feel, like watching the hit drama Line of Duty on television. Solomon’s writing is sharp and includes ALL the extra details that give so much added value to his story.

I liked that some of the chapters were from the killer’s point-of-view. No clues to the killer’s identity were given, just what they observed and thought.

I liked the range of characters in this book, the police officers, support workers and members of the public who could all be the killer.

It was good that the killer avoided their actions appearing on CCTV, making the police work very hard to catch the bad guy. There were lots of suspects who ALL had valid motives to kill the victim.

I thought the plot was quite good and the pace was fair. However, later on my initial enthusiasm dwindled because the killer struck again when they could have walked away, leaving the police with an unsolved crime. From then onwards the book took on a familiar police chase against the clock and proved quite routine to the end. But I still think that The Darkest Lies is a GOOD read, so gets 4 stars from me.

The Darkest Lies was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Malevolent (Cases of Lieutenant Kane #1) by E. H. Reinhard.

Follow Lieutenant Carl Kane of the Tampa homicide squad as he investigates an unusual killing.

Malevolent is a regular police procedural crime thriller and it breaks no new ground. Usual range of characters making up the ranks of the police force. Regular use of the killer’s actions and motives are told through alternate chapters.

So Malevolent is quite ordinary except the method of murder employed. I found Reinhard’s writing style quite tabloid. There was nothing sharp that made me think “this is good”. Yes, there is action but I thought “so what”. I did not engage with the detectives or the killer. I found it frustrating to read that the killer could have stopped their crimes and remained a free person. The story lacked realism and became a drag to read.

There was one creepy observation, that of a victim who survived but that in essence, was more like the plot of a B-movie.

There are odd bits of humour scattered through this novel, the best being from the killer when he asks “How is my wife? Was she still watching the television? That’s all that bitch ever did.”

I was disappointed with Malevolent, I thought it was a POOR read and only gets 2 stars from me.

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

The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French.

This book can be read as a stand-alone but follows very nicely on from In the Woods, the first novel of the Dublin Murder Squad series. The author’s voice remains the same and this is another tale told in the first person, only this time it is from the point of view of Detective Cassie Maddox.

A man walking his dog finds a body and calls the police. The victim looks very much like Detective Cassie Maddox and she is persuaded to work undercover to find the killer.

I liked the tension of this novel and what psychological effects working undercover had on Cassie. I liked the dynamics of Cassie living alongside the suspects and how she grew to like them, making you wonder about the Stockholm syndrome.

As the story progressed I wondered who the killer was and if Cassie had been sent on a wild goose chase. I liked how the other detectives interviewed people and the games they played to wear suspects down. There were some nice rivalries explored between urban and rural people. The importance of having close friends and a secure home was given centre stage with a lot of philosophy to back this up.

I liked the writing style of this novel, it was exactly the same as with In the Woods. Reading The Likeness straight after the first novel was very cosy for me. The change of central detective made no difference to me and I still felt part of the team. I found this novel very engaging and the story was great to run along with. For a crime novel, this was at the character driven end of the scale. Solving the case was not by specialist technical police work but by building strong relationships between people to understand what makes them tick.

I got a lot of pleasure from reading The Likeness and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me. I think it would make a great television drama.

What She Gave Away by Catharine Riggs.

Follow Crystal, a plus size woman, as she takes revenge on Kathi, the skinny wife of a bank’s president. This thriller is set in California and is about not only about Crystal’s revenge but size issues, lifestyle choices, workplace politics, corruption, misuse of power and banking.

I liked how this story is told in alternating chapters, so you get the story from both Crystal’s and Kathi’s sides. The main timeframe is just 2 years but frustratingly Kathi includes backstory from her old notebooks along the way.

I liked how Catharine created her character Crystal to be fat. So many novels dwell on thin women and fail to represent the demographics of contemporary society with its increased levels of obesity. Readers like to relate to the characters and having a fat lead character is a bonus.

The characterization of Crystal and Kathi was good but the timeframe switched about a little too much for my liking. Although Crystal was supposed to be the bad guy, I liked her more than Kathi, probably because of her attitude. For example, in Crystal’s chapter she writes…

He glances at my belly with a question in his eyes. I know what he’s thinking, I carry a lot of weight in my gut. But he’s taken his HR classes. He knows the rules. That’s a lawsuit waiting to happen. I do my best to sound earnest.

...Or it could just be me, as I find fat women more fun to be with?

I think this novel should appeal to both genders and I was not put off by it having two female lead characters.

I found the plot average and the pace plodding. By the end of the story, I got to know Crystal and Kathi really well. I liked how the book explored lifestyles and how people relate to one another.

What She Gave Away was an okay read, it was like meeting someone in passing and enjoying the conversation you shared. As a novel it was NOT outstanding but it was pleasant to read. This is Catharine’s debut novel and it shows that she has a talent that should grow. I found this book a WARM read, so it gets 3 stars from me.

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

Truth and Lies (DI Amy Winter #1) by Caroline Mitchell.

Follow DI Amy Winter in this psychological thriller set around London and neighbouring Essex. This novel is a mixture of Police procedures, cold case reviews, the quest for justice, kidnapping, murder, identity and psychopaths ALL within the murky borders of Truth and Lies.

I really enjoyed reading Truth and Lies. It is very different from your usual crime thriller because of it’s very strong psychological aspect. Having said that, it is also very different from most psychological thrillers too. Generally with psychological thrillers, the characters are having their minds disturbed as they try to cope with their situations. In Truth and Lies, the reader is having their mind disturbed as warning flags spring up ALL the time, forcing you to second guess what is going on. Caroline really engages the reader as her plot unfolds. I thought the plot was great and when I got to the end my head was buzzing - but in a good way, as I thought “if only”.

I liked the way Truth and Lies was told, with short chapters and from different points of view. Characterization was spot on with everyone involved. Many issues were explored to make Truth and Lies a FULL story, not just a plot driven thriller. I liked how recovered memories were used and how our brains can distort reality. I liked how the psychopath gave their insight to normalize their behaviour.

What was really OUTSTANDING was the exploration of the concept of Truth and Lies. We now live in a world of fake news and this novel highlights how murky the gap between Truth and Lies can become. People can accept things as fact and the psychological workings of our beliefs are complex.

Truth and Lies was a pleasure to read because of it’s complexity. I really engaged with the story and think it would make an ideal TV drama. Caroline is clearly at the top of her game and I can find nothing wrong with this book. Truth and Lies is yet another 5 star read from Caroline Mitchell.

Thanks to NetGalley, Thomas & Mercer and Amazon Publishing UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.

Portraits Of The Dead by John Nicholl.

19 year old Emma Jones is reported missing by her mother. Emma is a student at Cardiff University and is living in a shared house nearby. Detective Inspector Gareth Gravel of West Wales Police is on the case to find Emma, in case she is in danger.

Portraits Of The Dead is told from 4 points of view. Detective Inspector Gareth Gravel, Detective Sergeant Rankin, Emma Jones - the victim and the bad guy. I liked how the story was told from multiple points of view.

I thought Portraits Of The Dead got off to a very good and creepy start. The tension was there and I feared that Emma may not get out of this story alive. However, as this story progressed, my enjoyment slowly and steadily dwindled.

Frustrations began to rise as I progressed through this novel. The police find that Emma has left her flash new phone behind in her shared student house. This gives the story a contemporary feel but then the dates are woven into the plot. May 1998 - but why? These modern fancy, flash smartphones were not around in 1998, which is a problem and I think that new books should be set in the current day. Who would want to buy a new book that is set 20 years ago? Okay, making his story 20 years old allows John Nicholl to ignore smartphones and social media but he could so easily have claimed that Emma chose to be off the grid.

Another problem I had was the use of the fictitious town of Caerystwyth where the police station is that DI Gareth Gravel worked from. The rest of the book included the real locations of Cardiff and real places in Carmarthenshire like Ferryside, Llanelli and Llansteffan. However, Caerystwyth Wood, Trinity Fields, Jobe’s Well Road and Castle Lane, Llansteffan are all fictitious and do not exist. This was very frustrating for me as I have lived in Cardiff since 1991 and for our holidays we rent a Sea View Chalet at the Carmarthen Bay Holiday Resort, near Kidwelly. I love walking my dog along the Gwendraeth and pottering all around Carmarthenshire. I could imagine the scene of Caerystwyth Wood actually taking place at Penybedd Wood, which is a lovely short stroll for Charlie the Pug. Why of why did John Nicholl not use real locations to add value to his novel? It is so blindingly obvious that Caerystwyth should be Carmarthen. It is as obvious as reading Heddlu and straightaway knowing the Welsh organisation involved - and I was born in England.

I thought the characterisation within Portraits Of The Dead was fair. I thought the plot was okay. I did like the explanation of the bad guy’s motives from his point of view. However, I feel this novel does drag on a little and there is nothing special about it.

At the end I felt a little cheated, crime thrillers are generally solved by the police but not this one. The ending did make me smile though!

I thought Portraits Of The Dead was an okay, 3 star read. It passes the time but I could not recommend it to anyone. This is the first of a proposed series but I shall not be bothering if John Nicholl writes another book.

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

Toxic by Jacqui Rose.

And welcome to Essex, all human life is here. In Toxic we have a range of characters who are NOT the most law abiding in the county. We have a gypsy lifestyle with their mobile home site, some criminals involved in drugs and theft, plus an ex-prostitute and ex-wifes thrown into the mix. What we have is one violent but very exciting thriller about people who live on the wrong side of the law.

I found Toxic to be a refreshing change from your average British crime thriller. In Toxic you only read about the bad guys. There are no good guys in this story AND the police do not get involved as these people look after their own.

Toxic is a violent novel and Jacqui has chosen her title well. She sets the scene straight off and the torture will make your eyes water. There is no please or thank you in these conversations, they are vulgar as the characters believe actions are stronger than words.

The dialogue used in Toxic is local which adds to it’s realism. How Jacqui managed to write paragraph after paragraph of conversation between characters with the same poor grammar, is a wonder. Each character says “me” instead of “my” when they speak! I also loved the Cockney slang sprinkled throughout this novel, my favourite being…

“Ten per cent is just a sniff of a cockerel’s arse.”

...I also loved the attitude of this book, my favourite comment from one of the characters was…

He didn’t impress anyone. Women wanted real men. Flash cars and a bit of bling not a gutless muppet and a pub lunch with a ten-year-old Ford Focus parked outside.

...Although Toxic is written by a woman, Jacqui tells a great misogynistic tale from a man’s point of view. Henpecked husbands are going to love Toxic, where the male characters are strong and put their women firmly in their place. I liked the humour of the man’s world and could engage with the resentment many of the men felt towards women.

Toxic was a refreshing and thrilling read. There were many shocks as the nitty gritty of gypsy life was revealed. Toxic created a big impression with me as the characters lived a life far away from the mainstream. Toxic was violent but in your own private pleasure, simply a joy to read. I thought this book was a great escape into another world and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me. I have NOT read a Jacqui Rose novel before but after reading Toxic, count me in!

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

The Tattoo Thief by Alison Belsham.

Buzz!!! Buzz!!! and the tattoo machine inks another person having given their consent to the tattooist to make their mark. However, there is a thief about who steals tattoos off people, leaving them for dead.

This crime thriller is set around Brighton and in her debut novel, Alison Belsham gives the case to newly promoted DI Francis Sullivan. What is nice about this police procedural, is that there are separate chapters from the point of view of the 4 main characters. DI Francis Sullivan and DS Rory Mackay give their view as the case progresses plus you also get chapters from tattooist Marni Mullins and the bad guy who is stealing the tattoos from the victims.

I enjoyed reading The Tattoo Thief and liked all the bits that Marni told the reader about her job as a tattooist. Most crime thrillers dwell on the job of the police officers and it was very nice to have detail about a very different day job. This gave The Tattoo Thief added value. Characterization of Francis, Rory and Marni was good and I liked the chemistry that built between the 3 of them.

I thought the plot of The Tattoo Thief was okay but found the ending with all it’s racing action disappointing. Getting the location of where the bad guy may be living, chasing there page after page followed by more charging around was rather tiresome and lacked a WOW! factor compared to finding the first victim in the beginning. The final chase for the bad guy did not grab me at all, although the thought of Marni naked did brighten my mood.

I liked The Tattoo Thief and thought the beginning, the structure and the character development and chemistry to be good. For a debut novel Alison Belsham has done very well and I think her book is a GOOD read that gets 4 stars from me.

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

Black Canyon by Jeremy Bates.

Brian is 11 years old and goes camping with his parents to visit the Black Canyon within the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. This novella tells the story of how Brian got along on this lovely trip with his mam and dad.

I really enjoyed reading the Black Canyon, which is odd because it is narrated in the first person by Brian who is only 11 years old. But this novella is told in a very adult fashion. Jeremy Bates is rather clever because he starts his novella from the viewpoint of Brian looking back on his family camping trip in Colorado. This allows Jeremy the scope to write Brian’s story in a very adult way, using the understanding of our world and an extensive vocabulary that an 11 year old would not be able to deliver. Nice one Jeremy, which means we can get a child’s story without it being childish, sugary sweet or Disney-like.

There is some lovely subtle humour in this novella, for example…

My mom kept calling one of the women she worked with a skank. I wondered if maybe she meant “skunk.” Sometimes when she was drinking she didn’t always pronounce her words correctly.

… So we have a nice camping trip with mam and dad. What could go wrong? Slowly doubts are thrown into the story and you begin to wonder how 11 year old Brian is enjoying his trip with mam and dad. Then little doubts develop about Brian’s personality and his relationships with people around him. I loved how Jeremy weaved these little doubts into the story which made me suspect what may happen. I thought it was great how Brian explained in his own words just why things had worked out the way they had.

I am NOT a fan of novellas as I prefer a BIG read that can last me for days on end. That way I really get into a story, live the book and type up a review during my weekly rest period. However, the Black Canyon is an EXCEPTION. I thought this novella was BRILLIANT and the plot was very well thought out indeed. I loved this book and it was simply a joy to read. Well done Jeremy, you have written a wonderful novella with no boring bits or padding out of the tale. I think the length of this story is spot on and what is nice is that the location, although real, is not the key, it is the event of a family camping trip. Although the Black Canyon is a SHORT read, it certainly packs a punch and I can find nothing wrong with it, so it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

The Catacombs (World’s Scariest Places #2) by Jeremy Bates

The Catacombs are a network of tunnels beneath Paris which are said to extend more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) and reach depths of 30 meters (100), too deep for phone coverage. Follow 4 characters who go on an underground adventure to explore hidden treasures etc in this hidden world beneath the streets of Paris.

I thought this thriller from Jeremy Bates was okay. The structure of this novel is similar to his previous book, the Suicide Forest and offers the same huge vocabulary that helps make this story such an adult read. Jeremy manages to capture the atmosphere of the catacombs very well indeed when he writes…

I tried to imagine what it would be like to walk alone in utter blackness, with only your hand on the wall to guide you, your mouth dry from dehydration, your throat and lungs burning from the rank air and the countless hours of screaming for help, your feet weeping with blisters, your legs jellied with exhaustion, nothing around you but tunnels and more tunnels, ad infinitum.

Yes, it is clearly very scary being lost in complete darkness within 300 km of tunnels below Paris knowing that nobody can hear you scream. I felt Jeremy explained these fears very well indeed as our 4 characters tried to exit the nightmare they had become trapped within.

The plot of The Catacombs was okay and was a regular urban legend of a hidden community. The main problem I had with The Catacombs was that I read it straight after Suicide Forest. I thought that Suicide Forest was a GOOD 4 star read and in comparison The Catacombs was simply not as good. For me The Catacombs was an okay 3 stars read because it lacked the wonder threaded within the script of the Suicide Forest.