The Second Wife by Sheryl Browne.

Nicole gets married for the second time having had very bad experiences in her first marriage. Her new husband Richard, has a daughter called Olivia and their marriage gets off to a bad start. Nicole confides with her best friend Rebecca and when tragedy strikes, Rebecca picks up the pieces in this psychological thriller.

I loved the format Sheryl has chosen for her novel. Each character has their own chapters where the story is told from their point of view. So this book progresses with alternating chapters as each character is skillfully developed. Nicole has an extensive backstory for the reader to take onboard and as you did into it, more and more doubts spring into your mind.

Sheryl has the gift of writing her novel in such a way that doubts easily but steadily form in your mind as you work through the pages. Time and time again you are forced to think “something is not right here”. There is a lot of tension in The Second Wife and you just hope nobody or either of the family pets get hurt.

Sheryl clearly understands the dynamics of marriage and the many challenges presented when taking on step children. It is fine for me now that the step children have left home but this book brought back very clearly memories of the early years of our marriage.

I found The Second Wife to be a very entertaining psychological thriller. Not only were the psychological games being played between the characters but Sheryl plays games with the readers’ mind too. There were hints of interesting sex to follow which was just cream on the cake with this OUTSTANDING read. The Second Wife gets the top score of 5 stars from me.

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

Fatal by Jacqui Rose.

Fatal does follow on from Jacqui’s last novel Toxic but it can be read as a standalone. This time her story starts in America before returning to Essex. Some of the old characters continue, the attitude and storytelling remains the same plus fresh challenges including a naive teenager called Alice Rose.

Fatal is a violent novel involving gangs of criminals who become hell bent on revenge. There is plenty of action along the way and the story moves along at a fast pace.

For such an adult novel, the inclusion of Alice Rose, a 16 year old naive God bothering girl is frustrating. This is NOT Harry Potter and this child clearly has no place among these violent adult criminals guarding their patch. Despite this, Jacqui does write a good story which is easy to follow. The plot of Fatal is NOT as involved as the plot in Toxic. But the dialogue between characters is still sharp, for example…

‘Enough. I know there’s a story of how that Jesus bloke chatted away happy as Larry with them leopards and accepted them for what they were.’

‘Lepers, not leopards. It’s not The Lion King, Lola.’

...I found Fatal is be a GOOD entertaining read and while it is in a very similar mode to Toxic, the reduced intricacies of the plot and the frustrations of Alice Rose being a part of the story, made this a 4 star read for me. I did not enjoy Fatal as much as I enjoyed Toxic. Looking at the ending, Alice Rose should clear off and her next novel should continue with the criminals of Essex enjoying their life of crime.

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

The Wych Elm by Tana French.

Toby goes out with his friends for a drunken night, later he gets a nasty bump to his head. Recovering from his injuries he goes to stay with his uncle Hugo, when things turn for the worse.

The Wych Elm is a standalone novel set in Dublin and is told from Toby’s point of view. It is a mystery that is very slowly revealed, why Toby got that nasty bump to his head and the secrets held within The Wych Elm, a tree in his uncle Hugo’s garden.

I found The Wych Elm to be an awful read and dreadfully slow. It drags on and on with very little happening indeed. I developed no empathy for Toby at all. There was no bite to this story and the whole text just padded out the tale giving the impression you were stuck in a huge balloon of cotton wool. There was nothing entertaining about The Wych Elm and I took nothing away from this book.

Toby’s cousin Susanna did brighten up this story a little but even her contribution was painfully slow and was like trying to get blood out of a stone. The writing quality of this book was POOR, nothing was fresh or engaging, it was the same as when you hear a knock on your front door and encounter a God Botherer who you let speak for 60 seconds before you tell them to go away. The only part I thought Tana handled well was the death in hospital of a family member and their funeral. That part was spot on and brought back memories of my own mother’s death.

I have read ALL six of Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series, giving each book the top score of 5 stars, except The Secret Place #5 which I was very disappointed with and gave 2 stars. If I had not enjoyed Tana’s other books, I would have given up The Wych Elm after 30 minutes of reading, snapped off a quick review stating Did Not Finish and explaining why. I have never started a book without finishing it before but The Wych Elm would have been my very first Did Not Finish - however, I thought I should take one for the team.

Sadly I found The Wych Elm such a BAD read, I can only give this book the bare minimum score of 1 star. This for me is clearly a book to AVOID which is a shame as I really enjoyed five of her other books.

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