Showing posts with label penguin random house. Show all posts
Showing posts with label penguin random house. Show all posts

Friday, 8 January 2016

Review: The Widow by Fiona Barton

The Widow by Fiona Barton
Publisher: Bantam Press
Release date: 14 January 2016
Rating: *** and a half
Back cover blurb: We've all seen him: the man - the monster - staring from the front page of every newspaper, accused of a terrible crime. But what about her: the woman who grips his arm on the courtroom stairs – the wife who stands by him? Jean Taylor’s life was blissfully ordinary. Nice house, nice husband. Glen was all she’d ever wanted: her Prince Charming. Until he became that man accused, that monster on the front page. Jean was married to a man everyone thought capable of unimaginable evil. But now Glen is dead and she’s alone for the first time, free to tell her story on her own terms. Jean Taylor is going to tell us what she knows.
 






The Widow is Fiona Barton's debut novel, but you wouldn't know...

Jean (or Jeanie) Taylor is a widow, her husband recently run over by a bus on a busy main road. But that isn't why she has reporters camped outside her door...

Jean's late husband, Glen Taylor was under the scrutiny of the police for the disappearance and suspected murder of Bella Elliott. Detective Bob Sparkes was about to re-arrest Glen when he learned of his death.

Jean has to decide whether she wants to tell her side of the story and get rid of the reporters once and for all.

The Widow is told through the perspective of several narrators, The Widow - Jean Taylor, The Husband - Glen Taylor, The Reporter - Kate Waters,  The Detective - Bob Sparkes and The Mother - Dawn Elliott.

This novel is a fascinating insight into the woman behind the accused.

We've all seen those women on TV standing beside or just behind their men outside the court when they are accused of hideous crimes. You often wonder if they knew? How could they not? Fiona Barton has really explored this and written an interesting novel.

From the beginning I was waiting for a big twist, possibly because the book is being described as a psychological thriller, as an avid reader of such novels.

I'm not sure it fits this description.

There is plenty explored from the psychological perspective, but it isn't a fast faced thriller. More of an in-depth exploration of the ultimate dysfunctional marriage, people's obsessions and how this affects those around them.

The Widow is sure to be a big hit and I look forward to Fiona Barton's next.

The Widow is available from 14 January 2016.
You can pre-order it now from Amazon online and Transworld Publishers

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

Tuesday, 7 April 2015

Review: Bryant & May- the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler

The Burning Man by Christopher Fowler
Publisher:
Doubleday
Release date: 26 March 2015
Rating: ****
Back cover blurb: London is under siege. A banking scandal has filled the city with violent protests, and as the anger in the streets detonates, a young homeless man burns to death after being caught in the crossfire between rioters and the police. But all is not as it seems; an opportunistic killer is using the chaos to exact revenge, but his intended victims are so mysteriously chosen that the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to find a way of stopping him. Using their network of eccentric contacts, elderly detectives Arthur Bryant and John May hunt down a murderer who adopts incendiary methods of execution. But they soon find their investigation taking an apocalyptic turn as the case comes to involve the history of mob rule, corruption, rebellion, punishment and the legend of Guy Fawkes.At the same time, several members of the PCU team reach dramatic turning points in their lives...  contd.


I was very kindly pointed in the direction of this novel by Sophie Christopher at Penguin Random House, and I am very glad I was.

The Burning Man is the 12th novel in the Bryant and May series, but the authors introductions to Bryant and May themselves at the beginning of the novel meant that it really didn't matter if I hadn't read another book in their series (I hadn't).

Bryant and May have a brilliant relationship, both inside and outside of their roles as Detectives for the Peculiar Crime Unit of the City of London police force. Theirs is the kind of relationship experienced by very few. Each has a deep mutual respect for the other, even if they wouldn't admit it!

But the truth is, as Senior decectives, they are seen as bumbling and ageing by many of those around them. Only their closest colleagues are aware of their true brilliance.

In the Burning Man, the crimes that the Peculiar Crime Unit are initially asked to investigate are brutal-but it's nothing Bryant and May haven't seen before.

With Londoners becoming increasingly scared of the rioters on their streets, Bryant and May must work hard to catch a serial killer who seems intent on destroying his chosen victims beyond recognition.

The ending of the novel both surprised and saddened me, and I would love to know if there is another Bryant and May release in the pipeline. In the meantime, I am trying to clear some room on my 'to be read' pile for the previous Bryant and May novels!
  

Bryant & May-The Burning Man is available from Amazon online and all good book shops.
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Thank you to Sophie Christopher who provided me with an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Guest post: Touched by Joanna Briscoe

Today I am thrilled to welcome to my blog, Joanna Briscoe, author of 'Touched' for a guest post.


1963: Rowena Crale and her family have recently moved into an old house in a small English village. But the house appears to be resisting all attempts at renovation. Walls ooze damp. Stains come through layers of wallpaper. Ceilings sag. And strange noises - voices - emanate from empty rooms.

As Rowena struggles with the upheaval of builders while trying to be a dutiful wife to her husband and a good mother to her five small children, her life starts to disintegrate. And then her eldest and prettiest daughter goes missing. Out in the village, a frantic search is mounted - while inside the house reveals its darkest secret: a hidden room with no windows and no obvious entrance. Boarded up, it smells of old food, disinfectant - and death...

Set in a world where appearances are everything, and nothing is as it seems, Touched is unsettling, claustrophobic, and utterly gripping.

Touched is beautifully written, and has everything you could want from a novella; crime, horror, love and much more and I am thrilled to be hosting this post today. 

Here Joanna talks about the process of writing a novella;

How I wrote this novella.
As described in my Afterword, it was a liberating experience writing a Hammer novella. I had never really thought about writing a ghost story before, and it was my publisher, Selina Walker who had the idea that I should. It did make me realise that there was that element in my fiction all along. But this was a new challenge, and it felt like a delicious, forbidden project that I couldn’t get on with until I’d finished a draft of my full length novel. I allowed myself a single afternoon to work on the idea, which came to me immediately as an image of a girl dressed in Victorian clothes on a village green. The supernatural element grew, as did my memories of childhood.

I also wanted to explore childhood in an earlier era, in which children ran free, and could encounter worrying characters.

I wanted to look at sibling jealousy, and the power of beauty, and at women’s roles in the early sixties, before feminism.

I wrote the novella in an intense, short period, working faster and more urgently than I ever had before. The edit took a lot of time and thought, but I had been shy, to an extent, of the supernatural element, and I had to bring this out more. It was the most enjoyable writing experience I’ve had to date. Writers only sometimes actually enjoy writing! This time, I truly did. I know where the setting came from; I don’t know where the plot or characters came from. They seemed to arrive pretty fully formed, and I raced to make notes on them, and started the novella that very first day, with children crossing a village green…
 
Touched by Joanna Briscoe, published in paperback by Hammer, 26th March 2015


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Thank you to Joanna and Phillipa Cotton at Cornerstone for allowing me me to host my first guest post!