Review: CXVI Secrets Broken by Angie Smith

CXVI Secrets Broken by Angie Smith
Release date: 4 October 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Book II in the CXVI trilogy is not intended as a stand-alone read and should follow Book I, CXVI - The Beginning of the End. The frantic search for Detective Sergeant Maria Barnes is on. She’s linked to the murder of the former Home Secretary and is desperate to prove her innocence, but she’s trapped. Her captor, Freddy Williams, a ruthless serial killer, holds all the cards; including the one she cannot allow him to reveal. Barnes is forced to adopt a dangerous bluff and double-bluff strategy, which ultimately involves the Secret Intelligence Service and her former boss, Detective Superintendent Greg Woods, combining forces. But who will survive? And who can you believe? And just what is the relationship between Barnes and Woods? Perhaps her nemesis Faulkner-Brown holds the answer, but will he be the one who brings this reluctant heroine crashing down? Hold tight for a fast paced, edge of your seat thriller. Captivating, unpredictable and shocking.

CXVI Secrets Broken is Angie Smith’s 2nd novel in her CXVI trilogy and is not intended to be read as a stand alone novel however I don’t want to say too much about the previous novel in case anyone is yet to read it. Its conclusion though is dramatic, and we pick up the story immediately with no gaps (excellent).

For me Secrets Broken is much more of a ‘thriller’ novel than the first, which I felt was more of a ‘crime’ novel, but that only heightens its excitement.

Maria Barnes finds herself the victim of a kidnapping at the hands of serial killer Freddy Williams, certain she can’t trust him she vows to contact Woods, but Williams knows exactly how Maria’s mind works and does everything in her power to ensure that she is on his side only.

Meanwhile DSI Greg Woods is unsure that he can still trust Maria after she seemingly just disappears from a major crime scene leaving him to pick up the pieces. As he begins himself to investigate her disappearance (off the record) he is forced to delve into Maria’s past, and makes some unsettling discoveries.

As Barnes and Woods each grow closer to finding the other they find themselves in more danger than they could have imagined. Will either of them make it out alive? Or will the intelligence services get away with yet another brutal crime.

I don’t want to give anything away, so you must read this novel yourself to find out the truth. You won’t be disappointed!

I can’t wait for CXVI Desperate Measures!!

CXVI Secrets Broken is available from October 2015.

You can pre-order it now from Amazon online or via Angie's website.

  Thank you to Angie who sent me an advanced electronic copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Wreckage by Emily Bleeker

Wreckage by Emily Bleeker

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing

Release date: 1 March 2015

Rating: ***

Back cover blurb: Lillian Linden is a liar. On the surface, she looks like a brave survivor of a plane crash. But she’s been lying to her family, her friends, and the whole world since rescue helicopters scooped her and her fellow survivor, Dave Hall, off a deserted island in the South Pacific. Missing for almost two years, the castaways are thrust into the spotlight after their rescue, becoming media darlings overnight. But they can’t tell the real story—so they lie. The public is fascinated by the castaways’ saga, but Lillian and Dave must return to their lives and their spouses. Genevieve Randall—a hard-nosed journalist and host of a news program—isn’t buying it. She suspects Lillian’s and Dave’s explanations about the other crash survivors aren’t true. And now, Genevieve’s determined to get the real story, no matter how many lives it destroys. In this intriguing tale of survival, secrets, and redemption, two everyday people thrown together by tragedy must finally face the truth…even if it tears them apart.

So I love plane crash novels (and if you didn’t know that by now then you haven’t been reading my blog long enough!) and when I heard about Wreckage I just had to read it.

It wasn’t exactly the novel I was expecting, but then even now, I’m not sure what I was expecting.

A small private aircraft crashing is somewhat different to a large passenger jet of the novels I am used to, and its usually about the after effects of the crash, rather than their actual fight for survival.

Lillian Linden and David Hall are the survivors of such a crash, after finding refuge on a deserted Island they must fight to survive against all the odds thrown at them. And survive they do, for Wreckage opens with Lillian about to go on camera and be interviewed for a television show.

What happens between Lillian and Dave on the island is a closely guarded secret that the pair have deliberately kept to protect their families. But when the interviews start and the television crews begin digging for more information about their time on the Island, both Lillian and Dave become fearful for their futures.

I’ve read quite a few scathing reviews about this novel, and whilst I didn’t particularly agree with the ending of the novel, I did feel that other parts were believable. 

No one knows what they personally would do if they found themselves in a similar situation and there was an obvious attraction between Dave and Lillian from the moment that they first met. In fact the situation on the island, I have no trouble with, it’s their lives after that I found a struggle, and I think why I didn’t particularly enjoy the ending of the novel.

Overall Wreckage made for an interesting read, just maybe not the one I was anticipating. 

Wreckage is available to buy now from Amazon online.

Review: Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt

Little Girl Gone by Alexandra Burt

Publisher: Avon/Harper Collins
Release date: 24 September 2015
Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: A baby goes missing. But does her mother want her back? When Estelle’s baby daughter is taken from her cot, she doesn’t report her missing. Days later, Estelle is found in a wrecked car, with a wound to her head and no memory. Estelle knows she holds the key to what happened that night – but what she doesn’t know is whether she was responsible…

Estelle Paradise wakes up in hospital following a serious car accident to find police officers guarding her room. She was found in a ravine, just miles away from a town she can’t recall ever visiting with one of her ears missing and her fingerprints all over a gun she is sure doesn’t belong to her. But one thing is certain, her baby girl Mia is missing and Estelle has no idea where she is.

This novel has been constantly compared to Gone Girl building up to its release, but the only similarity I can see is the unreliability of our narrator, Estelle.

Estelle Paradise is a woman on the edge, a sufferer of post-partum psychosis that no one has diagnosed. She has been so convinced that there was something wrong with her colicky baby (other than colic) that she has neglected to look after herself. The accident is the final straw, husband Jack has reached the end of his tether with his wife and wastes no time in having her admitted to a psychiatric unit.

Estelle has amnesia as a result of the accident, but her Doctor at the psychiatric unit is a specialist in this area, he is adept at extracting information from people and doesn’t rush Estelle. Determined to discover the truth and help Estelle through her illness, he coaxes the information out of her slowly, but how much can he trust what she is telling him?

From the moment that we first meet Estelle until the moment she is released from the psychiatric unit, it is hard to trust that Estelle hasn’t harmed her own daughter. She herself thinks that she is a monster, her husband couldn’t get her in to the psychiatric unit fast enough and her neighbours think that she neglected her child.

Without giving too much away I do think that the novels conclusion is fitting, for this is not a fast paced hard hitting thriller, more a slow burning emotional journey through time to an unlikely yet believable end.

Little Girl Gone is available from 24 September 2015.

 You can pre-order it now from Amazon online and all good book shops.

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

Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Publisher: 4th Estate
Release date: 8 May 2014
Rating:*** and a half

Back cover blurb: Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure’s agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure.

I wanted to love this novel, I really did (and I thought that I would) and whilst I enjoyed it, it didn’t move me as I thought it might. I can see though why it has won the awards and literary acclaim that it has, as it is so beautifully written. Perhaps it just wasn’t for me. I felt like I was constantly waiting for something else to happen and I thought that Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfenning would meet much earlier than they actually did.

Our journey begins in 1944 with the shelling of Saint-Malo by the allies, to drive out the Nazi occupants. We switch back and forth both in time and between Marie Laure (the blind daughter of a museum locksmith) and Werner (a reluctant member of the Nazi party) from the outbreak of the Second World War until it’s end. Although this sounds confusing, it isn’t, the author does a good job of ensuring that the reader knows exactly who they are reading about, at exactly what time.

Although I adored both Marie-Laure and Werner, I think Werner was my favourite character, throughout his transformation from orphan child to reluctant soldier, he remains loyal to his sister and he has a good heart. I’m not sure at any point he truly understands the significance of the work he is doing until he meets Marie-Laure and understands that it is wrong that he wants to help her, but help her he must.

Strangely (as a book lover) I think All The Light We Cannot See would actually make an excellent movie, as I think it is a very visual novel that would translate well on to the big screen. Overall, I think there will be those that love this novel, and those like me, who sadly just didn’t ‘get it’. 

All the Light We Cannot See is available to buy now from 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: Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

Surviving the Angel of Death by Eva Mozes Kor and Lisa Rojany Buccieri

Publisher: Tanglewood

Release date: 15 October 2009

Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: Eva Mozes Kor was just 10 years old when she arrived in Auschwitz. While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele. Subjected to sadistic medical experiments, she was forced to fight daily for her and her twin's survival. In this incredible true story written for young adults, readers will learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil. The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis.Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working for causes of human rights and peace.



Eva Mozes was just Ten years old when she and her twin sister, Miriam arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Her parents and two elder sisters were never seen again, presumably they were taken immediately to the gas chambers following the arrival selection process employed by the Nazis at that time.

Eva and Miriam were only saved by their genetics, and were immediately housed with other twins to be ‘looked after’ by Dr. Josef Mengele, now more commonly known as the Angel of Death.

What they suffered during their time there was nothing short of brutal. Twins were subjected to all kinds of horrific experiments by Mengele whose ultimate goal was to create blonde hair, blue eyed twins without any flaws. A goal that was never achieved. When Eva is injected with a substance that leaves her fighting for her life, she is more determined than ever to survive – she will not let Mengele win.

Her bravery is nothing short of tremendous, bearing in mind her young age, it is a determination that led to her and her twin being able to survive Auschwitz alive, when so many weren’t able to achieve the same goal.

What I really loved about this novel, was not only the authors honesty, but her willingness to share her life after the war. So often these types of autobiographical novels only deal with the events of the time and leave us wondering the author’s fate.

Eva went on to marry and moved to Terre Haute in the USA, where she (with the help of Miriam) launched CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments Survivors) to try and find other survivors before going on to open CANDLES holocaust museum and education centre.

Eva is a truly inspirational lady and this is a must read.

Surviving the Angel of Death is available from Amazon online.

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

Review: Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes

Behind Closed Doors by Elizabeth Haynes

Publisher: Little Brown Group UK

Release date: 8 October 2015

Rating: ****

Back cover blurb: 'To begin with, nothing was certain except her own terror . . .' Ten years ago, fourteen-year-old Scarlett Rainsford vanished without a trace during a family holiday to Greece. Not being able to find Scarlett was one of the biggest regrets of DCI Louisa Smith's career and when Scarlett is discovered back in her home town after all this time, Lou is determined to find out what happened to her and why she remained hidden for so long. Was she abducted or did she run away?As Lou and her team delve deeper into Scarlett's past, their investigation throws up more questions than it answers. But as they edge closer to the truth about what really went on behind closed doors, it is more sinister and disturbing than they had ever imagined.

Behind Closed Doors is another gem of a novel from Elizabeth Haynes. Gripping from the start, the second novel in Haynes' DI Louisa Smith series is an emotional roller coaster of a novel.

Scarlett Rainsford is fourteen years old when she disappears during a family holiday to Greece. Did she run away? Was she kidnapped or worse?

Hers is a case that still haunts police ten years later, until they stumble upon Scarlett, now Katie in a raid on a local brothel. Where has she been all these years? Has she lived the life she wanted, the one her parents are sure she ran away too? Or has she suffered, taken under duress as the police suspected?

Told retrospectively from Scarlett's point of view and present day from Louisa's, Behind Closed Doors is at times a difficult read as we learn of Scarlett's ordeal. The relationship between Scarlett and her family is examined closely, as are possible connections between a local gang and the brothel where Scarlett turned up.

Pieces of the puzzle are slowly given to us during each chapter of this novel until its last stages where we can finally begin to slot them into place.

What I really love about Haynes' novels is the detail we are given behind the criminal investigations, as a former Police intelligence analyst she really puts the reader at the heart of it all, Behind Closed Doors is no exception.

Behind Closed Doors is available from 8 October 2015.
You can pre-order it now from Amazon online and Little Brown.

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

Review: the Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson Publisher: Faber and Faber Release date: 3 September 2015 Rating: ***** Back cover blurb: ‘Hello there.’ I looked at the pale, freckled hand on the back of the empty bar seat next to me in the business class lounge of Heathrow airport, then up into the stranger’s face. ‘Do I know you?’ 


                      The Kind Worth Killing has been shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Dagger Ward, you don't have to read very far into this beauty of a novel to understand why.

It's a novel that has been sitting on my ‘to be read’ list for a while, and as soon as I started it I could've literally kicked myself for not reading it sooner... Also any author who has had their work endorsed by the genius that is Nelson DeMille is surely worth a read.

The Kind Worth Killing opens with Ted Severson meeting Lily Kintner at London Heathrow airport both are waiting for a flight to Boston. From the outset Lily is charming, beautiful and manipulative; enticing details from Ted that you wouldn't normally impart to a stranger, yet revealing very little about herself. Once their flight is delayed, Ted finds himself opening up to Lily even more, and she is sympathetic to his plight.

Ted is a wealthy man whose wife is cheating on him with Brad Daggett the man who is helping them construct their dream home. Ted is angry, but unsure what he should do and jokingly hints as killing her. 
Lily thinks that Miranda is after his money, and is the ‘kind worth killing’, she is blasé about the subject of murder; "Truthfully, I don't think murder is necessarily as bad as people make it out to be. Everyone dies. What difference does it make if a few bad apples get pushed along a little sooner than God intended? And your wife, for example, seems like the kind worth killing."

What follows is a series of flashbacks, For those who love a twist, there is a brilliant one about mid-way through this novel which I didn't see coming at all, and it really added to my enjoyment of the novel.

The characters in this novel at sociopaths at best, psychopaths at worst, I should hate them all - but there is something very intriguing about both Ted and Lily and I would love to see another novel with Lily Kintner as a character.

 
The Kind Worth Killing is a must read for crime/thriller fans, and comes highly recommended from me! I'm off now to scout out Peter Swanson's first novel, whilst kicking myself for missing it...

The Kind Worth Killing is available to buy now from Amazon online and all good book shops. 
 
A huge thank you to Dead Good books for allowing me to receive a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. 

Blog tour: Sewing the Shadows Together by Allison Baillie

Sewing the Shadows Together by Allison Baillie
Publisher: Matador Books

Release date: 7 August 2015
Rating: *****

Back cover blurb: Can you ever really know someone? More than Thirty years after Thirteen-year-old Shona McIver was murdered in a Scottish seaside town, her brother Tom and her best friend Sarah meet again at a school reunion. The tragedy has cast a shadow over their lives, but when DNA evidence shows that the wrong man was convicted of the murder, their relationships and emotions are thrown into turmoil. In the search for the real killer, suspicion falls on those closest to them: Tom uncovers dark secrets, Sarah's perfect family life begins to crumble, and they are caught up in a web of death, love and deception before the truth finally comes to light.

Sewing the Shadows Together is essentially a murder mystery novel set in Portobello, Scotland, but it is really so much more.

Tom McIver returns to Portobello from South Africa after his Mother's final request that her ashes be scattered in Scotland. By chance more than anything else, he finds himself at a School Reunion where he meets Sarah, his sister Shona's best friend and her husband Rory Dunbar, an old school friend of his.

Shona McIver was murdered more than thirty years previously, and the locals have always believed that Logan Brodie was responsible for her death, until a local newspaper reporter learns otherwise. Brodie is soon to be released after new DNA evidence proves he cannot possibly have murdered Shona.

But if he didn't - then who did?

Sarah and Tom begin to question everything and everyone around them, drawn together by Shona they are determined to find the truth, no matter how hard it might be for one or both of them to bear.

Sewing the Shadows Together is a fairly dark secretive novel (my favourite kind) that really keeps you guessing until it's final pages. Who can you trust? Who was the murder? Are they still out there, or are they long gone?

An impressive debut, I look forward to the next novel from Allison Baillie...

About the author:

Alison Baillie was brought up in Yorkshire by Scottish parents. She studied English at St Andrews, before teaching English in Edinburgh, Finland and Switzerland. Now she spends her time reading, writing, travelling and attending crime writing festivals.

Don't forget to follow the rest of the blog tour;

Sewing the Shadows Together is available to buy now from Matador and  Amazon online.

    Many thanks to Mike Linane who sent me an advanced copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Honeydew by Edith Pearlman

Honeydew by Edith Pearlman

Publisher: John Murray Press

Release date: 27 August 2015

Rating: ***

Back cover blurb: Over the last few decades, Edith Pearlman has staked her claim as one of the great short-story writers. The stories in Honeydew are unmistakably by Pearlman; whole lives in ten pages. They are minutely observant of people, of their foibles and failings, but also of their moments of kindness and truth. Whether the characters are Somalian women who've suffered circumcision, a special child with pentachromatic vision or a staid professor of Latin unsettled by a random invitation to lecture on the mystery of life and death, Pearlman knows each of them intimately and reveals them with generosity.

Honeydew is a little difficult for me to review, having not really reviewed this kind of work before.

Honeydew is a collection of short stories, twenty in total; Tenderfoot, Dream Children, Castle, Stone, Her Cousin Jamie, Blessed Harry, Puck, Assisted Living, What the Ax Forgets the Tree Remembers, The Golden Swan, Cul-de-sac, Deliverance, Fishwater, Wait and See, Flowers, Conveniences, Hat Trick, Sonny, The Descent of Happiness, Honeydew.

Honeydew's stories vary in their length, but this is a book that you could sit down and either read in one go, or keep going back to, one story at a time. Each of the stories is lovingly written, and in the right time and place this would be a glorious collection. Unfortunately for me, it wasn't a collection that I loved. I didn't particularly warm to any of the characters, or their stories, but I think there will be plenty who will.

Honeydew might not be up everyone's street, but it will be a rare treat for those who do embrace it.

Honeydew is available to buy now from Amazon online.   Thank you to the publishers who approved my request via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.