The Secret Child (DI Amy Winter #2) by Caroline Mitchell.

This is the second book in the DI Amy Winter series but it can be read as a stand-alone. It is set around London and features child abduction. Can DI Amy Winter and her team bring back 4 year old Ellen quickly to the safety of her home? Will Amy drill down to the bottom of this mystery? Get ready for another British crime thriller from Caroline Mitchell.

I liked the research that Caroline has done to build the plot of her latest novel. I liked how she used the tale of the Little Albert Experiment from 1920 and the use of drugs like Methylphenidate to bring a sinister side to her story.

I liked once again how Caroline captured the cultures within the police service, the interview techniques they use and the procedures involved complying with PACE.

I found it lovely that Amy’s pet, Dotty the Pug was included as part of her home life. However, I did not find Amy’s private life as interesting as in the first book, Truth and Lies. Once again there was dialogue between Amy and her birth mother Lillian Grimes but this became a frustrating drag and I thought just why does Amy, or for that matter, Caroline bother?

Oh and onto pet hate time. Frustratingly this novel went back and forth between 1984 and the present time. Caroline even mentioned boring Brexit to give it an up to date feel but then chapter after chapter she floated back to 1984. Then you are in the situation of knowing more about the background to this story than DI Amy Winter and her team investigation the child abduction.

With Amy and her mother Lillian droning on and on about their past, I started to loose empathy with Amy. Nothing exciting really happened in her private life and I feel her character has become a little tired.

I have read 4 other books from Caroline Mitchell, including Truth and Lies which was the first DI Amy Winter novel. Each of those books for me was a 5 star OUTSTANDING read. However, although I found The Secret Child to be a GOOD read, I did not enjoy it as much as the others, so it gets a highly respectable 4 stars from me.

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

Give It Back by Danielle Esplin.

Give It Back is a debut novel focused on the story of three women, Ella and her elder sister Lorraine, who employs an au pair called Lexy. Slowly Ella gets to the bottom of the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Lexy and Lorraine’s son called Logan. The story is set in Seattle although Lexy comes from London.

I found Give It Back to be a frustrating read as the time frame keeps switching backwards and forwards. Each chapter is from the point of view of either Ella, Lorraine or Lexy and I quickly became confused. This was not helped by some chapters detailing things that that in later chapters had not happened yet. In the early pages it was very easy to get Ella and Lexy mixed up as their names at a quick glance can be mistaken and the author’s voice sounded the same for both characters. In a character-driven novel it is important to have strongly different voices for each character.

I thought the plot was poor, which led to further frustration. Give It Back became quite a jumble for me as there were no clear story lines. It was like trying to recall conversations after a drunken night out with a large group of friends.

At the end of the book, the title Give It Back comes into play. This was a disappointment but dwarfed by the very end, which was simply daft. I was left with a strong feeling of just what was going through the author’s head that made Danielle tell her story in this way. This mystery could have been told from very different angles so that it developed with a linear time-frame and engaged the reader with eclectic characters rather than these samey women.

Making allowances for Give It Back being a debut novel, I still think this is a POOR read and just gets 2 stars from me.

Give It Back was written in 2017 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

The Bone Keeper by Luca Veste.

All over the country, children are warned away from certain areas, with tales of horror and the bogeyman. These stories are told to keep the children safe until they become street-wise. But what if those stories told to control children were true and the bogeyman really did exist?

The Bone Keeper is a mixture of horror and your regular, police procedural crime thriller. The story features real locations around Liverpool and Merseyside. As Luca puts it…

“All the locations found in this book exist; however, some minor details have been changed or expanded to better tell this story.”

I liked how this book started with the song chanting among children…

The Bone Keeper’s coming. The Bone Keeper’s real.

He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t feel.

He’ll snatch you up. And make you weep.

He’ll slice your flesh. Your bones he’ll keep.

… echoes of this song repeat throughout the book and they had a creepy, taunting effect on me. I stop reading the book and the song suddenly springs into my mind. I found the song both catchy and haunting at the same time. The Bone Keeper’s home and patch is in the woods, any woods that are dotted around urban landscapes. These haunts are very easy to picture anywhere in Britain and are very popular with dog walkers like myself. The Bone Keeper is very easy to relate to, especially when I am daydreaming with Charlie the Pug as we stroll through woods together.

I thought The Bone Keeper developed the urban legend really well. I loved how it played out a culture and a cult following. There was plenty of danger and horror along the way. I found it creepy with lots of feeling woven into the plot.

The central character is DC Louise Henderson but this is not your usual Police story. Character development of Louise was very good and there are many surprises along the way.

I found this book to be creepy and imaginative, yet for all the knife-wielding action it was still a fun, horror read.

The Bone Keeper has a great ending, all the seeds have been sown and if the homeless population appears to be shrinking, you read it here first! This urban legend was a great idea for a book, it was well developed and thought out. I think The Book Keeper is a GOOD read which gets 4 stars from me.

So you may think, I have listed all these good things about The Bone Keeper, how come I have not given it 5 stars? Simple, I found this book GOOD but not outstanding. Sometimes an author throws so much content into a book, it makes your brain buzz rather than simply entertain. Classic books get 5 stars and rightly so. The Bone Keeper is very worthy to read and would make a good film. I think Luca Veste has a lot of talent and I would be happy to read more from him.

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

The Stone Circle (The Dr. Ruth Galloway Mysteries #11) by Elly Griffiths.

Follow Dr. Ruth Galloway as she helps solve a mystery in Norfolk. Although this is the eleventh book in the series, it can be read as a standalone. Ruth is a forensic archaeologist and her skills are vital in getting to the truth.

I have enjoyed reading the Dr. Ruth Galloway series and the usual cast of characters return to this novel. This gives a very cosy reading experience as it is very much like watching the latest series of Cold Feet on ITV1 television. All the characters are well developed and grow older together. The whole feel of this book is one of friends and family with a work/life balance nicely woven into the story.

I like how Elly uses real locations in her books, it adds so much to the story. Not only do we have real locations but also local culture and legends to enhance her tale. For example…

‘It’s an old Norfolk tradition,’ says Tom Henty, the desk sergeant who has been at the station for as long as anyone can remember. ‘Three knocks on the door and, when you go to answer it, there’s nobody there but Jack Valentine has left a present, usually in a brown paper bag.’ ‘I’ve never heard of that tradition,’ says Clough, halfway through his second breakfast of the day, ‘and I was born and brought up in Norfolk.’ ‘It’s an east Norfolk thing,’ says Tom. ‘I was born in Yarmouth.’

Elly is a master at how she sets a scene and is very descriptive, making you imagine that you are there. For example…

Ruth’s cottage is one of three at the very edge of the marshes. Her only neighbours are an itinerant Indigenous Australian poet and a London family who only visit for the occasional weekend. The road is often flooded in winter and, when it snows, you can be cut off for days.

The Saltmarsh is a bird sanctuary and, in the autumn, you can see great flocks of geese coming in to hibernate.

I found The Stone Circle to be a cosy mystery which has some soft humour along the way. For example…

At least she has arranged to meet Cathbad and his son, Michael, and, after their swim, the children play in the circle of hell known as the Soft Play Area and the adults drink something frothy which may or may not contain coffee.

The Stone Circle was a GOOD read for me and having read other books in the series, felt like a session on Facebook catching up with friends and family. I found it warm, awfully British and very easy to relate to. The Stone Circle was a comfortable read and gets 4 stars from me.

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

Who Killed Anne-Marie? By C.M. Thompson.

Anne-Marie likes a drink and her anti-social behaviour is causing problems in her neighbourhood. One day Anne-Marie is found dead and everyone wonders who killed Anne-Marie.

This book is a mystery set somewhere in Britain. The author is careful not to reveal any locations, everywhere is generic, the city, the street, the park, the shops etc. This is a shame as the whole book is so obviously British, she could have had so much extra added value by using real locations.

Character development is very good. By the end of the novel you really get to know Anne-Marie and her husband Daniel. It is a shame about the book’s title because you know before you start reading that Anne-Marie will not make it to the end. But slowly the story develops and we learn how Anne-Marie and Daniel have been living and what sort of marriage they hold. Then when Anne-Marie dies, the mystery deepens until all is revealed very near the end.

I liked how C.M. Thompson explored the dynamics of marriage and how couples cope with the pet hates of their partners. I liked how she dealt with the problems that can be caused by alcoholics. I liked how she featured the love that can be shared within a relationship when partners are strongly aware of each others bad points.

I liked how her husband and wife appeared very real. They are not glamorous but refreshingly ordinary. It niggles me when female characters are beauty queens and faultless in their appearance and actions. Anne-Marie is your normal, ordinary, heavy drinker and it made me smile when I got to the part…

Anne-Marie has been wearing the same faded grey pyjamas since Tuesday; not last Tuesday or the Tuesday before, but over a month ago last Tuesday. She is barely wearing them anyway: she has lost so much weight, they hang loosely off her scraggly frame. She is vaguely aware that she smells. She knows her hair is in dire need of a wash and she has split ends on her split ends but she just can’t bring herself to give a flying fuck.

...Anne-Marie is not a celebrity model, she is dirty, scruffy and smelly! And her poor husband Daniel tries his best and when I got to this bit, I understood his plight and had great sympathy for him…

If he tried to watch TV, she would be there endlessly asking questions; if he tried to involve her, she would want alone time. If he cooked, she wasn’t hungry. If he ordered in food, then she was sick of take-aways. If something was left lying around, it wasn’t anything to do with her. If he tidied something away, she was using that, THANK you. Everything he did or said was wrong. Then he made the mistake of having a beer. He just wanted to turn off a little, it had been a hard day at work and he was very tired. He had tried to do it in secret but she had caught him. You would have thought he was hiding the crown jewels from her, the way she started. Then she wanted one. Just one.

...So Anne-Marie and Daniel bumbled along in their marriage enjoying many hours of drinking, over-eating and watching television. The three things we have shared in our marriage over the last 27 years!

I enjoyed reading Who Killed Anne-Marie? and I thought it was a GOOD mystery. There were plenty of suspects but the focus was on how Daniel was getting on and being a husband, it felt very easy to stand in his shoes as the pages swept by. I found this book a GOOD read, so it gets 4 stars from me.

Who Killed Anne-Marie? was written in 2018 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

In at the Deep End by Kate Davies.

Follow Julia who is 26 years old and is single. She lives in London but has not had sex for 3 years. Julia decides her dry patch has lasted for too long and jumps In at the Deep End to have some fun in her life.

I was really attracted to the cover of this book. It shows two red chilli peppers arranged together to let the reader imagine they were labia. In at the Deep End gets off to a great start from the first paragraph by informing the reader of Julia’s sex life.

The writing style within this book is jolly and the mild humour will make you smile. For example…

Staring into my eyes, he went to push himself into me. He missed. ‘Jesus. That’s never happened before,’ he said. He picked up his penis and guided himself in, frowning as though he was trying to assemble a particularly tricky piece of IKEA furniture.

I liked how this novel was not just about sex. Character development of Julia was very good and I found it very easy to enter her world of work, flat sharing, friends and family. In at the Deep End is Kate’s debut novel but it does not show. Kate is a great storyteller and her book is an intelligent read. I loved all the observations and social commentary. I found the novel to be very well written and although there was a fair amount of sex within the pages, there was no dumbing down of language or content. This is a quality read that I found to be enjoyable, fun and informative.

In at the Deep End guides you into a lesbian lifestyle and demystifies how women can find love. This book allows the reader to access a lifestyle they may have no knowledge about, it is a kind of Lesbians for Beginners. Kate’s outline of sexual acts are told with skill and were not gross and do not make the reader feel uncomfortable.

I loved the explanation of the lesbian lifestyle and it’s culture. I now know the importance of a toaster to lesbians. Because of my age, work, family and friends, I already knew there were many different types of lesbians but this book also mentions by name the different types. Going about your everyday life would you be able to spot the differences between butches, femmes, pillow queens and bull dykes?

I thought the explanation of polygamy within the lesbian scene to be very helpful to heterosexual readers. I thought polygamists were just greedy people who wanted lots and lots of sex, with one partner never being enough for them. I have NEVER strayed away from my wife and would not dream of it. But In at the Deep End does offer the opposite view which helped me to understand why some people are polygamists when Kate writes…

‘I wouldn’t want to limit myself to one woman. It would be like only eating cheese sandwiches for the rest of your life. Sometimes you just want pastrami, don’t you? Which is why I’m non-monogamous.’

...I loved reading In at the Deep End and found it a pleasure to read. Kate’s writing is so good that I just imagined I was Julia and thoroughly enjoyed playing her part in this story. For an author to make the reader feel they are the central character of a novel is really good. For a reader to identify with Julia because they are a woman, or in their 20’s or a lesbian is very, very good. For a 60 year old, heterosexual married man to feel as though he is Julia having all this fun, is absolutely BRILLIANT. I felt really included and could live out a lesbian sex life from the comfort of my armchair. I thoroughly enjoyed reading In at the Deep End, so it gets the top score of 5 stars from me. Only thing is trying to keep a straight face when moving past red chilli peppers in ASDA but I can live with that.

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

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.