Review - The Last Train from Paris by Suzanne Kelman

The Last Train from Paris by Suzanne Kelman

Publisher: Bookouture

Release date: 1 October 2026

Back cover blurb: Paris, 1943: Charlotte clutches the children tightly to her as they board the train. “Don’t worry,” she whispers to them softly. “I will get you to safety, I promise…”. Charlotte Villette watches in horror as the train leaves the station in a cloud of smoke. Five innocent children stare back at her through the glass, tears running down their cheeks. She promised to keep them safe but, now they have been separated by the Nazi guards, how can she protect them? For days, Charlotte searches for the missing children. They know the plan was to travel to her aunt’s village, but could they really find it on their own? When she finally arrives, she is overjoyed to see them. But joy soon turns to fear when she discovers the Nazis are already searching the property, and they must run for safety once more. When she meets Luc, a Frenchman with his own scars from the war, he offers to help them. As the weeks pass, Charlotte begins to trust him. Sitting with him in the candlelight once the children are asleep, she realises his quiet kindness and bright blue eyes have made her feel safe for the first time in years. But just as she’s wondering whether there can be light in the darkness of war, a Nazi officer she fears from her past steps back into her life, threatening everything she has fought to protect. How far will Charlotte go to protect those she has grown to love? And will she be brave enough to make the ultimate sacrifice to save them?

The Last Train from Paris is the last in a series of books about 'the Paris Sisters', which I did not realise when I started it. However, I did not feel that I didn't understand what was going on, and it didn't detract from my enjoyment, despite not having read the others in the series.

WW2, Paris, Charlotte Villette is responsible for Five children that are not hers. She must get them to safety across ocuupied France, otherwise they may lose their lives to the Nazi regime. 

Luc is bought in to help, he is reluctant at first. He has suffered the terrible loss of his wife and his daughter, and doesn't want to be close to the children, but deep down he knows that being in the resistance, and helping these kids is the right thing to do.

One of the Five, Kurt is a German Jew whose religious text falls out of his pocket at the train station and his life and Charlotte's are endangered as they lose the rest of their party. Is their journey over before it has begun?

Years later Sophie's (one of the five) daughter, Esther brings the survivors together as she believes it will help Sophie who is in the early stages of dementia. 

Of course she knows it will be difficult for them all, but she doesn't realise just how many secrets they might have been holding on to, and how trauma can make you misinterpret how things might have happened in the past.

Add in a local documentary maker who wants to showcase the past in a beneficial way to his own family, and it becomes difficult to understand the real truth...

The Last Train from Paris is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my requst via Netgalley in excahnge for an honest review.

Review - A Game of Cat and Killer by Jiro Akagawa [Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell]

A Game of Cat and Killer by Jiro Akagawa [Translated from the Japanese by Haydn Trowell]

Publisher: Quercus Books
Release date: 24 September 2026
Back cover blurb: Detective Yoshitaro Katayama is afraid of many things: heights, dark spaces, blood and . . . women. When a young female student is found murdered, he's given two choices - review the harrowing crime-scene photographs or head to Hagoromo Women's College to investigate - and reluctantly opts for the latter. But the murders don't stop, and soon Katayama has a different surprise on his hands: a calico cat named Holmes, orphaned her owner falls victim. Surely that's the last thing Katayama needs. Until Holmes begins to display some uncanny investigative instincts of her own . . . Introducing one the most iconic investigative duos in crime fiction - a hapless detective and his capable cat - A Game of Cat and Killer is a must for all readers of Japanese cat fiction and classic crime.

A Game of Cat and Killer is the first in Jiro Akagawa’s long-running Mikeneko Holmes series, originally published in Japan in 1978 and now translated into English by Haydn Trowell. 

Detective Yoshitaro Katayama, a rather unlikely Police Detective who has followed in his late Father’s footsteps is our lead protagonist.

Unlikely because it probably wouldn’t have been his own choice of career. Particularly as he is scared of heights, and rather inconveniently for a detective, blood.

He is also extremely nervous of the opposite sex. 

Unfortunate when he is about be the lead detective on a murder investigation at a women only college!

When a student at Hagoromo Women’s College is murdered, Katayama is sent to investigate. Before long the College Dean is also dead, apparently murdered in a room that has been locked from the inside. 

A locked room murder mystery if you will...

The Dean leaves behind his faithful companion, Mikeneko (calico) cat, Holmes, who attaches herself to Katayama and helpfully lends a paw to Detective proceedings. 

What follows is a complex set of murders that need urgently solving. Is there an intellectual serial killer on the loose, or is the truth closer to home?

I really enjoyed this book and look forward to hopefully reading more in the series.

A Game of Cat and Killer is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review - Seek Immediate Shelter by Vincent Yu

Seek Immediate Shelter by Vincent Yu
Publisher: Duckworth Books
Release date: 6 August 2026

Back cover blurb: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. One ordinary morning, in an unexceptional town, every mobile phone lights up with the same emergency alert. 

In this compelling, darkly funny and moving debut novel, each of Vincent Yu’s utterly relatable, flawed characters is given a choice: in the face of mutually assured destruction, do we reach for grace and mercy or do we hold on to hate and fear? 

Seventeen minutes later the town learns via text that it was a false alarm and the question changes. Can we forgive each other for what’s been said and done when the world didn’t actually end?

Seek Immediate Shelter - this is not a drill. 

What would you do if you got this message?

It's a theme explored brilliantly in a book I read last year, 59 Minutes by Holly Seddon. This tackles the same subject, but in a very different way.

I've seen some poor reviews of this book, which I actually think are unfair.

We know what we are going into when we start this, we already know that this is a false alarm, and that we are exploring the stories of different characters, some of whom whose lifes are entwineed, some not. 

Some have said it’s difficult to follow the different stories, but I don’t think it was at all. And I liked how they were intertwined with each other, sometimes without even knowing it.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this book was published on 6 August. The anniversary of the atomic bomb being dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. 

Something to really make us think about the horrific use of these weapons and the destruction and devastation that they cause.

The way that the threat of them terrifies people. Partly due to the unknown. And partly due to what we do know, about Hiroshima.

This is a thought provoking book that I actually really enjoyed. 

Seek Immediate Shelter is available now via Amazon online and all book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review - Liesel's War by Corin Burnside

Liesel's War by Corin Burnside
Publisher: HQ Digital 
Release date: 13 August 2026

Back cover blurb: April, 1945. Hamburg is a city on the brink of collapse, and Liesel Heinemann is caught in the storm of war. Once a promising student of translation, she is now a reluctant interpreter for the Nazis, her life irrevocably altered by the horrors surrounding her. Everything changes when she saves a British soldier who has lost his memory in a tank explosion. Naming him ‘Tommy’, they set off with Liesel’s two brothers on a treacherous journey westward, seeking refuge and the hope of finding their mother in England. With danger lurking at every turn and the realities of war weighing heavily on her heart, Liesel discovers that love can bloom even in the darkest of times. Growing closer to her British soldier against the war-torn landscape, Liesel must make tough decisions to keep her family alive. In a world torn apart by war, love and hope become guiding stars on their desperate journey.

Liesel is a young woman who has already seen too much. Her Mother has fled the country, her Father has passed and her too young brothers are at risk of being called into Hitler's army.

As the end of the War looms, and Allied troops enter her home town, Liesel is more concerned than ever for the family's future. 

German's across the world have been given a terrible name during the conflict, no matter what their belief or heritage.

But when Liesel sees a young man injured and left for dead just metres away from their apartment, she cannot stand and watch him die alone. So she does the unthinkable. 

She brings an injured party from an enemy country into their home.

She knows it is dangerous, and her Brothers are resentful of her actions. But Liesel knows it is the good and right thing to do. 

There is also part of her that feels a loyalty to the British, as their Mother is English.

The injured soldier is unable to remember his name, and so they agree to call him 'Tommy'. 

As Liesel nurses him back to health, she wonders if he could help the family to be reunited with their Mother, as so begins an unbelievable journey that continues to the end of the War.

Liesel's War is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review - Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham

Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham

Publisher: Sphere 

Release date: 29 September 2026

Back cover blurb: I look along the road and notice how many people are standing outside their houses or watching from doorways and windows. Staring. Studying. 'Do you think this town will ever forgive me?' I ask. 'Not in a million years.' Small towns are quick to anger and slow to forgive, but Arlo Hackett doesn't expect mercy when he emerges from a twelve-year prison sentence and makes his way back to Yulara, a waypoint on Australia's Great Southern Road. The last time Arlo was home, his brother Luke was charged with a terrible crime and Arlo was found guilty by association. His return to the former goldrush town is like cracking open a time capsule full of hatred and violence, along with memories of the people he loved - the ones he couldn't save. Yulara wants Arlo gone, or worse, but every insult and humiliation pushes him to confront what really happened all those years ago. The truth will shock you, surprise you, and break your heart.

Arlo Hackett is about to be released from prison, for a crime he didn’t commit. 

He is guilty by association. 

The true perpetrator of the crime his younger brother Luke, or so the court found. 

After twelve years, Arlo must return to his hometown of Yulara to be with his Mother, and take over the care of their family home.

Arlo knows that he won’t be welcome. Yulara is a small town, and people don’t forget easily. Especially when it concerns the rape and murder of a young girl.

But Arlo is surprised at the level of animosity that he receives. Especially when he tries to protest his and his brother’s innocence, which he is certain of.

It makes Arlo wonder if someone knows more than they are willing to admit. It would make sense, if someone was hiding something that they are so determined that Arlo leave Yulara for good. 

Preferably without asking questions.

But Arlo feels that he owes Luke. The younger brother that he failed to protect in his time of need. And if he upsets the people of Yulara whilst he’s searching then that’s just bad luck.

Tell Me Something true is a dark tale of small town life, whose characters will really get under your skin.

Tell Me Something True is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review - The Bestseller by Jenny Knightsby

The Bestseller by Jenny Knightsby

Publisher: Headline

Release date: 10 September 2026

Back cover blurb: Therapist Helena Salve knows that client confidentiality is the number one unbreakable rule of her job. But the constant stories of coercive control and threat she hears from her client Belle about her dangerous husband have been wearing her down. One night over too many glasses of wine, she tells her best friend Tala everything that Belle has told her. The problem is, Tala is a down-on-her-luck novelist who is looking for an idea for her new thriller. Months later, Tala is excitedly telling Helena that her publisher is saying this is going to be her biggest book ever. The story is Belle's story. Not only is Helena's job on the line, but if Belle's husband is as dangerous as she says, her life is too... Why would Tala do this to Helena? She knows what's at stake. Your friends are meant to protect you... aren't they?

I cannot tell you how much I loved this book! It is so so good. And bound to be a bestseller - no pun intended!

Therapist Helena Salve is no stranger to complex and difficult domestic abuse cases. Her latest client Belle is showing classic signs of being coercively controlled by her frankly evil sounding husband Julius. 

Belle is obvlious to this, and is only attending therapy sessions at the behest of her sister. 

Helena is affected more by Belle than she has been by any client before. 

Something about Belle’s case has really gotten under her skin, but she can’t figure out what. 

Helena has been best friends with Tala since University, they tell each other everything, and Helena would trust Tala with her life. So when she has a glass of wine too many and tells Tala about her latest client. depsite her breach of patient confidentiality she thinks nothing of it.

Until Tala's newest novel hits the shelves, detailing events that only Helena knows about. Her novel is very clearly about Belle, and her relationship with Julius.

Believing she is the victim of the worst kind of betrayal, Helena turns to her long suffering husband for comfort, and support. 

But what if the ultimate betrayal lies closer to home?

The Bestseller is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Review - To All the Men I've Killed Before by Katy Brent

To All the Men I've Killed Before
Publisher: HQ Digital 
Release date: 27 August 2026

Back cover blurb: If a man hurt your best friend – like, really hurt her – what would you do? Key his car? Or hunt him down and chop him into little pieces? Tough decision, I know. I’ve tracked this lowlife to LA and brought my little sister Antoinette along for the ride. I'm trying not to be irritated that she's found a taste for murder and is leaving body parts all over our hotel. Because this girls’ trip needs a Hollywood ending. And of all the men I've killed before, this one will be the sweetest…

Kitty Collins is not your average serial killer. She only kills men for a start. 

Bad men.

The dangeorus rapists, and mysogynists of the word. She usally kills alone. It's safer that way clearly. 

Lessens her chances of getting caught.

But now her step sister wants in on the act, after Kitty inadvertently reveals her criminal self to her.

So they find themselves off to Hollywood in search of Kitty's best friends ex. Who literally tried to kill her when she was cautious about having sex with him.

Rightly so, it seems!

Kitty is out for revenge, and it won't be pretty.

Unfortunately (for them), Hollywood is full of disgusting perverts, so Kitty's step sister decides to rid the world of a few whilst they are there.

I mean, why pass up the opportunity of a lifetime...

I love Kitty, she is awesome, and I can't wait for the next one in the series - that is, I mean, I'm hoping that there is one.

After all, she has a fan club now and everything...

To All the Men I've Killed Before is available now via Amazon online and all good book shops.

Thank You to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.