Beneath the Watery Moon by Betsy Reavley.

Annabel is 23 years old and has been discharged from Redwood hospital in Suffolk where she had treatment for manic depression. Can she turn her life around, maybe a holiday in Southwold can help?

The cover promises “A psychological thriller with a stunning twist” but I was neither thrilled OR found anything stunning, never mind a twist. I found Beneath the Watery Moon to be a tiresome drag of a book. I very quickly lost any empathy for Annabel and when a gardening tool came into “play”, I could not care about her anymore. I thought this debut novel was a dreadful read and if ALL books were of such poor quality, then I would take up another hobby.

I found the shifts between dreams and reality were frustrating. The writing was dreary and became a drag. Betsy rambled on and on about nothing, making your head feel like cotton wool. The story lacked focus, the plot was amateur and the ending was bad. I think this book is RUBBISH and is a book to be AVOIDED.

I vote Beneath the Watery Moon the minimum score of 1 star and I shall not bother reading another of Betsy’s books.

Beneath the Watery Moon was written in 2014 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

A Carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road by Christopher Aslan Alexander.

Christopher Aslan Alexander worked for 7 years with Operation Mercy, an NGO setting up a carpet workshop in Khiva. Here is his story about his life and work in Uzbekistan, with the odd visit to neighbouring countries in Central Asia.

I thought this book was a wonderful read as it has the magic to take you to a very different world from the comfort of your armchair. I loved how Christopher explained the culture and history of Uzbekistan. He made easy work of informing you about the contrasting cultures alive in Uzbekistan with it’s vibrant mix of politics and religion.

There are lots of great detail within this book, like using dog fat as a popular medicine for flu and onion juice as a common cold cure. Christopher got across the great passions people get from their workplace and explained in ways that are easy to understand, how silk worms produce silk, how carpets are made and how natural dyes can be used.

This book is full of amazing anecdotes about the people Christopher meets along the way. Anecdotes that will make you smile and remember them, about old grannies in a madrassah, toilet paper, bribes, donkeys, Breast feeding, vaksal/Vauxhall station, phone tapping, corruption and workplace fiddles,

His story is told in a light and entertaining way, for example…

Russians joked that if you wanted to see heaven on earth you should watch Uzbek TV - and to see hell on earth, you should actually visit.

...Of course the locals loved their television and became obsessed with a Brazilian Soap Opera. Christopher managed to convey the feel of Uzbekistan and how it is to live and work there. He became an active part of people’s lives in Khiva and was NOT a bystander snapping the odd photo. I loved how he described the nitty gritty of daily life in Uzbekistan and the many challenges he met doing the warp and weft in the carpet workshop.

I thought A Carpet Ride to Khiva was simply a joy to read. I loved the epilogue and the handy glossary at the end. The book seemed very real and I felt as though I had been there too!

It is great when someone tells you about their day job and you hear all the tricks of the trade and the moving trends. After a while you think “this guy loves his job” and so it is with Christopher and his carpet workshop.

I feel that A Carpet Ride to Khiva works really well as a book. It educates, entertains and has the magic to take you into another world without the hassle of accomodation, cost, employment or visas. I have no hesitation in giving this book the top score of 5 stars, even though I can’t get the thought of those poor donkey’s out of my mind.

A Carpet Ride to Khiva is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2010.

Broken Dolls by James Carol.

Follow Jefferson Winter, an ex-FBI profiler as he helps solve a case in England for the Metropolitan Police.

Broken Dolls is a great tale about the profiling of offenders. I liked how Jefferson explained to the reader how profilers worked and how offenders have signatures to their behaviour. I loved all this detail, not just in the profiling of offenders but how people think in general. I loved how James used real locations in his story and how he used real life crimes to build the advice Jefferson was putting forward. There were some great social observations throughout this story. I loved all the extra details that were thrown into this story which made it such an absorbing read. I really enjoyed this book and loved the parts when I wondered if Jefferson and the Police were simply getting it wrong and barking up the wrong tree. The joy I got from the detail and the great plot made Broken Dolls a very entertaining 5 star read.

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

Chemical Flowers by Ian Woodhead and Suzanne Reeves.

In the fictitious British small town of Sedgingly, there is a problem at the factory and a chemical spill causes big trouble.

I found Chemical Flowers to be a FUN read. It was AMUSING and read like the script for a B-Movie HORROR film. This is EASY reading and does not make the reader think or work hard. You can let this story wash over you as nothing is serious. The writing is PUERILE and quite raunchy in places with a fair bit of vanilla casual sex. The plot was SIMPLE and should be a warning to gardeners everywhere.

This book is NOT to be taken seriously but I found it to be an okay 3 star read. There is some humour thrown into the story apart from the sexual observations, the best being…

Maria pulled on the doors. “These are locked! How are we supposed to get in?” she sighed. Harry pulled out his wallet and took out a card. “I used to work here, I still have my key card” he smiled “They didn’t notice that I had handed in a Sainsbury’s Nectar card.”

Chemical Flowers is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was published in 2012.

Frost and Ashes (Daniel Trokics Series Book 2) by Inger Wolf.

Follow Police Lieutenant Inspector Daniel Trokic and his team in Denmark for this crime thriller which starts off when an 8 year-old boy is found dead in a stream running through the village of Mårslet. He has been strangled with a fish line and has severe burn marks on his hands.

Although this novel is set in Denmark, the locations made no difference whatsoever to my enjoyment of this book. The culture did not even feel Danish and this novel could have been set in any country within the Western world.

Frost and Ashes is the second book in the series but can be read as a stand-alone. I am pleased that Detective Lisa Kornelius has her part to play again in this story.

I enjoyed reading this book and thought the plot was very good. The pace of this story was spot on and what came across most was just how very difficult it is for the police to solve a crime. The usual lines of enquiry were drawing blanks and the usual suspicions were not holding up. The mystery element Inger has woven into her story is very good.

I liked the Afterword that Inger included at the end of her story that explained her research and the inspiration for Frost and Ashes. It was then as I walked Charlie the Pug and reflected upon the book, that I thought how creepy yet excellently told the story was. My lasting impressions of Frost and Ashes were very strong and it made me wonder just how common the backgrounds explored in the story are in the Western World. Inger took a risk with the content of one paragraph on page 204 of her novel. Once you have read it, the scene will haunt you. I feel that Inger was right to include that paragraph as real life police officers have to deal with scenes of that type and deal with the emotional effect it will have on them.

I think Frost and Ashes is a GOOD read and am pleased that it is very different to the first novel, Dark September. Both books get 4 stars from me.

Frost and Ashes was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Girl on Camera by Morgan Dun-Campbell.

Follow Rory Stevens who is 26 and wants to appear as a contestant on a television reality show. This first person narrative is set in contemporary Britain. What could possibly go wrong?

I found that The Girl on Camera worked well being told in the first person. As the lead character Rory had a decent back story and as she chatted to other people, their characters were subtly revealed. As the story unfolded, character development was very good. Good and bad parts of their personalities were shown as the tension in the filming location increased. I thought Morgan drafted in a good range of personalities unlike the usual wannabe contestants for this genre of television programme.

I liked how Morgan made this a full story, from Rory making her application to the aftermath after the programme finished. I liked how the psychology of strangers living together was explored together with the dynamics that occur within groups when they witness an incident. The ugly topic of bullying was explored but for all the youth and physical attraction of the characters, there was NO sex within this novel.

I loved the Afterword by Morgan at the end of this story when the motivations about writing this book were revealed.

I thought the plot of The Girl on Camera was reasonable. The problem is that television programmes within this genre can be very inane. They broadcast like a televised version of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with a flood of short, sharp sound bites. If you are a fan of these reality television programmes then you could enjoy this book. But as an ordinary book reader, I found The Girl on Camera to be as dull as the television programmes in this genre. For me this book is a bread and butter read that is okay, so I vote it the middle score of 3 stars.

The Girl on Camera was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Either Side of Midnight (The Midnight Series) by Tori de Clare.

19 year old Naomi Hamilton falls in love with Nathan Stone and they get married. But on their wedding day, things go terribly wrong for Naomi. Follow Naomi as she struggles through this psychological thriller.

I really enjoyed this British psychological thriller set around Manchester and the Lake District. Right from the start you know things are not right and although Naomi blindly falls in love, the reader spots all the warning flags from the beginning. Naomi trusts a lot of people but this story is so well told well that you have big suspicions about ALL the characters.

I loved how this story developed, character development was very good and the plot was brilliant. I liked how Naomi was not a shallow lead character as her upbringing was explained together with her education and her piano playing. There were some lovely details about music, practice and performance with different piano’s.

I loved the quality dialogue between the characters and one witty line still makes me chuckle…

‘And I have a cat called Tess. Once I’d named her, my sister named her cat Tickles. She still finds it hilarious when my mum shouts the cats one after the other.’

… There is a lot of drama in this story and the ending is brilliant, leaving a tear in my eye. I found Either Side of Midnight a pleasure to read and it ticked all the boxes for me. I can find nothing wrong with this novel and it gets the top score of 5 stars from me.