Could You Survive Midsomer? - Simon Brew

 

Description

CAN YOU AVOID A BIZARRE DEATH IN ENGLAND’S MOST DANGEROUS COUNTY? 

All is not well in the beautiful county of Midsomer. On the eve of its first Villages In Bloom competition, a man lies slain, smelling of damson jam. Who could have done it? Well, that's where you come in. Step into the shoes of Midsomer CID's newest recruit, choose your own path and decide which way the story goes. Could You Survive Midsomer? sets off on an engaging pick-your-own adventure format to challenge the reader to solve a crime or succumb to the county's suspiciously high death rate. Set in television’s most celebrated and murderous county, the book allows readers to see if they can get to the bottom of the mystery and bring the perpetrator to justice, avoiding an untimely, and possibly bizarre death, along the way. Your task is to make the right choices, solve the case and – most tricky of all – stay alive! 

Review

This book is certainly a very clever concept.

I'm not a big a fan of the TV series Midsomer Murders, I've only seen it a few times. However, I do like a challenge and thought I would be able to pull off solving a murder.

How wrong I was! I failed miserably and my report card was marked as "still alive, not much of an asset" and it didn't read much better further on. 

The book is laid out so that you begin to read and then very quickly have to make a judgement about which course to follow from those suggested to you. A number is allocated to your choice and you find that in the book and carry on until you are told it's the end. You then read your fate at the end of the book, of which there are many and varied.

A real twisty red herring tale that had me guessing until the end. Of course because I didn't solve it I still wanted to know "whodunnit" in which case you can either retrace your steps or a sneaky shortcut can be made.

Hats off to the author for planning all this out, it must have taken a very long time.

I've giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Random Thing Tours for a copy of the book to review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Simon Brew is the former editor and founder of Den of Geek - the popular culture news and reviews website. He is the author of three books including Movie Geek, TV Geek and The Secret Life of the Movies. Simon is also the founder of the magazine and podcast Film Stories.

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

 

Description

'The Sun always has ways to reach us.'

From her place in the store, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities, watches carefully the behaviour of those who come in to browse, and of those who pass in the street outside. She remains hopeful a customer will soon choose her, but when the possibility emerges that her circumstances may change for ever, Klara is warned not to invest too much in the promises of humans.

In Klara and the Sun, his first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, Kazuo Ishiguro looks at our rapidly-changing modern world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator to explore a fundamental question: what does it mean to love?

Review

This story was just amazing.

Klara is an Artificial Friend and it is through her eyes the story is told. From her sitting in the shop window with her friend Rosa another AF and then when she is chosen by Josie to be her AF.

I loved the beginning of the book and seeing the world through the shop window with Klara. Once I began to think like her it all fell into place. I think it's a real feat to be able to convey the world through the eyes of an artificial intelligence and to do it so beautifully as the author has. It really made me think about so much we take for granted.

Once Klara is taken to live with Josie a new chapter begins for her and a sudden realisation for the reader. Is Josie's promise to keep her safe one she can believe in? I want to say more about what happens, but I think it would really spoil the discovery you would have on reading the book.

The ending is a little ambiguous. It keeps you guessing and wanting to re read to see if you think you missed something, or just take it at face value?

My thanks to borrowbox and the local library for the loan of this book.

The Woman in the Middle - Milly Johnson

 

Description

Shay Bastable is the woman in the middle. She is part of the sandwich generation – caring for her parents and her children, supporting her husband Bruce, holding them all together and caring for them as best she can.
 
Then the arrival of a large orange skip on her mother’s estate sets in motion a cataclysmic series of events which leads to the collapse of Shay’s world. She is forced to put herself first for a change.
 
But in order to move forward with her present, Shay needs to make sense of her past. And so she returns to the little village she grew up in, to uncover the truth about what happened to her when she was younger. And in doing so, she discovers that sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to find the only way is up.

Review

Wow! Milly has packed so much into this book. 

Shay is in the middle of it all. She cares for her Mother and her children even though they are now grown up and she cares for everyone else too. Unfortunately for Shay this isn't reciprocated by all of those people. I was incensed so many times by the way she was treated both in the present and the past.

The scenes with Shay's Mother were so reminiscent of  many a conversation I have had over the years. How much of what Roberta says is true and how much is romancing or a confusion between real life and a TV programme or a film. Shay is about to find out and then some.

I'm sure there will be someone in this book you can relate to. Milly has it spot on with down to earth and realistic characters. There are a few vile characters. They are penned so well that I was ready to take them down myself. I had a few cheers as karma caught up with them. 

The book has so many levels to it and such a well woven plot. I think this might be Milly's best book, it's certainly on a whole new level. Every word, gesture, character is so true to life I forgot I was reading a story.

I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for granting my wish to review this book.

Bright Lies - A A Abbott

 

Description

She thought she had the perfect stepfather. So why is she running for her life?

Emily longs to be an artist. So she’s thrilled when her famous and talented stepfather offers to act as her mentor. But when his teachings take a darker turn, she flees his fancy home.


Bad boy Jack has made good as a hot DJ. Then he sees thugs attack a rough sleeper, and shocking memories spur him to her rescue. He doesn’t know she’s only 15 and running from a deadly predator.


Emily’s hopes of safety are crushed when her stepfather hunts her down. Now Jack faces the hardest choice of all. If he protects Emily from the fiend who’s stolen her childhood, he’ll kiss goodbye to his future.


What would you sacrifice to save a life?


If you enjoy nail-biting suspense, slow-burning secrets and dark domestic noir, you’ll love AA Abbott’s chilling psychological thriller.


Read Bright Lies today to join Emily and Jack on their journey!

I'm on the blog tour today with Random Things Tours for this audiobook

Trigger warning :- Paedophilia, grooming, rape

Review

A difficult story but it had me gripped.

Only a few minutes into this audio book and I could sense where this story was heading and I was not comfortable with it. Thankfully the author has treated the subject with sensitivity and I was able to listen on.

The story begins at the end and I was unsure why. However it gave me some reassurance as the awful truth began to dawn on what was to unfold. There was also a twist which I didn't understand until later in the book and then it all became clear.

The tale is narrated first by Emily and she tells us of her new life with her Mother and Stepfather, and all the fabulous wealth he has and spoils on her. He's also an artist and takes a keen interest in mentoring her with her own artwork.

Running alongside this is the story of Jack and his unhappy life. When things get out of hand for Emily with her Stepfather she runs away and meets Jack. Hoping for the story to take a better turn of events I realised too late that this was not going to end well either.

It's certainly a chilling read with totally believable characters, and unfortunately only so easy to imagine happening. It's a book that has haunted my mind since I finished listening to the audio. I'm giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Random Things Tours for the invite to the audiobook tour.

Author

British crime thriller writer A.A. Abbott (also known as Helen Blenkinsop) loves to escape with an exciting and emotional read, and that’s what she aims to write too. Based in Bristol, she’s also lived and worked in London and Birmingham. All three cities feature in her pacy suspense thrillers. Her latest psychological thriller, ‘Bright Lies’, begins in North Somerset with a posh art exhibition in Bath. Young Emily meets the man who will change her life and cause her to run away to a squat in Birmingham, work in a nightclub and get further entangled in a web of lies.

To write ‘Bright Lies’, Helen has had advice from thirty beta readers on subjects as varied as police procedure, drug abuse, grooming, art, music, DJing and clubbing. She’s grateful to them and to her editor, Katharine D’Souza, for making huge improvements to the story.

Helen’s earlier 5 book Trail series is a lighter read focused on a vodka business. Snow Mountain is a premium vodka made in the former Soviet Union, and its owners have blood on their hands. The saga follows the fortunes of two families running the business and what happens when they fall out with each other and with a London gangster. Glamorous heroine Kat is the girl readers love to hate at the beginning of the series, but by the last book, she has won them over. Book research for the series included prison life, hotel research and vodka. Helen especially enjoyed a tour and tasting with the helpful folk at the Chase Distillery in Herefordshire.

Like 10% of us, many of Helen’s family are dyslexic. While she is not, she wants her books to be enjoyed by readers with dyslexia and visual impairment too. She publishes her thrillers in a Large Print dyslexia-friendly edition as well as the standard paperback and Kindle versions. (You can also adjust the font on your Kindle to suit your needs.) Audiobooks are definitely on the cards – watch this space!

Helen likes speaking to book groups, business networks and social circles, and reading thrillers and short stories at live fiction events and on Zoom. If you're a book blogger, litfest organiser, reviewer or simply adore books, she’d love to hear from you.

Helen is a member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, Bristol Fiction Writers' Group, and Birmingham's New Street Authors.

Find out more and get a free e-book of short stories at https://aaabbott.co.uk

 

Fortune Favours the Dead - Stephen Spotswood

 

Description

*CHOSEN FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOKCLUB!* 

The first in the brilliant new Pentecost and Parker series, FORTUNE FAVOURS THE DEAD is a hugely entertaining murder mystery set in 1940s New York City.

New York, 1946. Lillian Pentecost is the most successful private detective in the city, but her health is failing. She hires an assistant to help with the investigative legwork. Willowjean Parker is a circus runaway. Quick-witted and street-smart, she's a jack-of-all-trades with a unique skill-set. She can pick locks blindfolded, wrestle men twice her size, and throw knives with deadly precision - all of which come in handy working for Ms P.

When wealthy young widow Abigail Collins is murdered and the police are making no progress, Pentecost and Parker are hired by the family to track down the culprit. On Halloween night, there was a costume party at the Collins' mansion, where a fortune teller performed a séance which greatly disturbed Abigail. Several hours later her body was discovered bludgeoned to death in her late husband's office. Problem is, the door to the office was locked from the inside. There was no-one else in the room, and the murder weapon was beside the victim; the fortune teller's crystal ball.

It looks like an impossible crime, but Pentecost and Parker know there is no such thing...

Review

I love a good mystery, but the book made me wait a really long time to find out whodunnit.

We meet Will, who has run away from the circus, with a great set of skills that set her in good stead to be the sidekick of Lillian Pentecost - detective. After the initial introduction of how they met we skip forward a few years to their latest mystery. A dead body in a locked room after a séance. 

This book has a lot going for it. Set in the 1940s with a strong female lead (well two in fact) and a mystery to solve. Unfortunately it felt like a chore to get through it at times. Every so often I would wonder why they didn't just use their mobile phone and then remembered it was the 1940s. A little more scene setting would have made for it to feel more like the 1940s.

I thought I had this one solved early on but then events later in the book put paid to my theory and I was in the dark once more. I really liked the character of Will a go getter and up for anything. The writing was good on action but it moved too slowly for me overall.  I also liked the representation of different factions of society within the book. I could see this being great on screen.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC and I appear to have also bought the book from Amazon!

Everyone In This Room will Someday be Dead - Emily Austin

 

Description

Meet Gilda. She cannot stop thinking about death. Desperate for relief from her anxious mind and alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local church and finds herself abruptly hired to replace the deceased receptionist Grace. It's not the most obvious job - she's queer and an atheist for starters - and so in between trying to learn mass, hiding her new maybe-girlfriend and conducting an amateur investigation into Grace's death, Gilda must avoid revealing the truth of her mortifying existence.

A blend of warmth, deadpan humour, and pitch-perfect observations about the human condition, Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead is a crackling exploration of what it takes to stay afloat in a world where your expiration - and the expiration of those you love - is the only certainty.

Review

This novel deals with a character who has extreme anxiety/depression - it may not be for someone who can sometimes feel like this themselves.

Took me a while to get used to the depressing outpouring onto the page, skipping from one time line to another, one subject to another. Without warning hurtle into the unknown. Gradually I began to read it at speed and that seemed to help with the randomness of the story.

Dead pan comedy it does have and I did laugh out loud a couple of times. But in the main it is a bit depressing to be honest. I did get to quite like Gilda especially when she went on a few dates with a man she was set up with out of kindness. Gilda being a lesbian meant it was never really going to work out for her especially as she was already seeing someone. Most of the comedy does come from Gilda being too nice or inept most of the time to actually say what she means, or tell the truth, leading her to be out of her depth in most situations. 

I was hoping for more of a detective slant to the book from the book blurb.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.

The Cat Who Saved Books - Sosuke Natsukawa

 

Description

Grandpa used to say it all the time: books have tremendous power. But what is that power really?

Natsuki Books was a tiny second-hand bookshop on the edge of town. Inside, towering shelves reached the ceiling, every one crammed full of wonderful books. Rintaro Natsuki loved this space that his grandfather had created. He spent many happy hours there, reading whatever he liked. It was the perfect refuge for a boy who tended to be something of a recluse.

After the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is devastated and alone. It seems he will have to close the shop. Then, a talking tabby cat called Tiger appears and asks Rintaro for help. The cat needs a book lover to join him on a mission. This odd couple will go on three magical adventures to save books from people who have imprisoned, mistreated and betrayed them. Finally, there is one last rescue that Rintaro must attempt alone . . .

The Cat Who Saved Books is a heart-warming story about finding courage, caring for others – and the tremendous power of books. Sosuke Natsukawa's international bestseller, translated from Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai, is a story for those for whom books are so much more than words on paper.

Review

This book reminded me a little of Alice in Wonderland. There's certainly some life lessons within it's pages and the same need to suspend belief.

I love books and those set in Japan, but really this could have been set anywhere as only a few Japanese references are made. Rintaro lives with his grandfather in a bookshop. Sadly his Grandfather just passed away and so Rintaro must leave the bookshop and go to live with an Aunt he doesn't even know. That is until a talking cat appears in the bookshop, and asks Rintaro to go with him on several missions to save books from people who are mistreating their books. 

As Rintaro goes with the cat  each time, it becomes clear that he's not only saving books but he's saving himself too. He's also putting into practice some of the wisdom his Grandfather passed onto him that he's never really understood until now.

A magical book with that Japanese feel of an other unworldly realm. This is a book for adults but at times it read more like a YA novel and I think someone in that category could certainly read and enjoy this book. I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks to netgalley for the ARC to review.