Watching you - Arne Dahl

Description

‘Brilliant visceral writing with terrific pace, this book grips you like a vice from the very first line and never lets you go’ PETER JAMES

A brilliantly breath-taking thriller with twists you’ll never see coming. The start of a new series from international bestseller Arne Dahl. 

Someone is watching.

At each abandoned crime scene there's a hidden clue: a tiny metal cog, almost invisible to the naked eye. Someone is sending Detective Sam Berger a message, and that someone knows that only he will understand the cryptic trail.

Someone knows.

When another teenaged girl disappears without trace, Sam must convince his superiors that they’re dealing with a serial kidnapper and possible killer. As the police continue the hunt to find the latest kidnap victim, Sam is forced to unearth long buried personal demons – he has no choice if he is to understand the brute’s darkly personal message before time runs out.

Somebody is killing just for him.

Review

I was really intrigued by the premise of this book - a crime scene containing cryptic clues. Of course the book had to have some scene setting before the story began properly, but I was getting impatient to find out what the clues were and how they would be solved. Therefore the beginning for me was a little too drawn out.

I didn't have to wait too long though before a great plot unfolded. Sam is investigating the disappearance of a 15 year old girl and he is convinced it is tied to other disappearances. He thinks he has the lead he needs but it only leads to him becoming a suspect in the disappearances.

This books is o very clever with lots of little twists and turns along the way. The plot in some ways reminds me of a modern Sherlock Holmes story. The writing is so descriptive that I felt the tension at every turn, especially in the interview room. 

Once the story really takes off there was no stopping me - I was turning the pages as fast I could to try and second guess this story. However, it's so unusual that I had no idea where it was going to end. Which brings me to the end - what a cliffhanger. I don't do spoilers so I will leave you to read the book blind as I did - you will want more.

A distinctive author, I will be reading more of his books.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars - mainly due to the slow start.

My thanks to Netgalley for a copy of the book to review.

The Lying Game - Ruth Ware

Description

Four friends. One promise. But someone isn't telling the truth. The twisting new mystery from bestselling phenomenon Ruth Ware.

The text message arrives in the small hours of the night. It’s just three words: I need you.
Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her.

At school Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game. They competed to convince people of the most outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of secrets, something terrible has been found on the beach. Something which will force Isa to confront her past, together with the three women she hasn't seen for years, but has never forgotten.

Theirs is no cosy reunion: Salten isn't a safe place for them, not after what they did. It’s time for the women to get their story straight…

Review

This books reads very differently from the previous novel by Ruth Ware "The Woman in Cabin 10". It begins with Isa receiving a text saying "I need you" and that is enough for her to take off back to Salten where her old boarding school was.

We then have some flashbacks to how Isa met her three friends Kate, Fatima and Thea on the way to Boarding school and who basically became a version of mean girls, with their little clique and their "lying game". This aspect of the novel turned me off and I wasn't comfortable with some of the antics they got up to. Did I really want to read about a pack of spoilt brats.

However the book comes back to the present day and Isa now has a 6 month old baby Freya who I feared for whilst reading the book - she really has a few harrowing experiences as well as being hawked around on various trains and all manner of people looking after her. 

The tension of the book for me began to build when the friends realise that they may lose their careers over what happened 17 years ago and most of all that Isa could lose Freya. Coupled with the house they are staying in basically being swallowed slowly by the sea and sounding like something out of the Hounds of the Baskervilles with all the dark marshes around them.

Unfortunately because of the "lying game" I didn't have much sympathy for any of the characters and the book was beginning to drag on. Then suddenly there was a game changer for me and I actually needed to find out who did what and why. The book unexpectedly exploded with unspoken deeds from the past that began to shape a different path than the one I originally thought the book was taking.

I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars and my thanks go to Netgalley for a copy of the book for review.

Wrong Number - Carys Jones

Description

A missing husband. Mysterious calls. And the biggest lie of them all. 
Read with caution - you may never want to answer your phone again...

Will and Amanda Thorn are living the dream until, one day, their phone rings. Within 24 hours, Will is missing and Amanda’s world is shattered. Who was on the phone? Where has Will gone?

Amanda is determined to find her husband and is drawn into a world of drug dealers, criminal masterminds and broken promises.

As the truth becomes clearer, she has to face the terrible possibility that she may never have known her husband at all...

Review 

From the description this book appears to have all the elements to be a real page turner. It certainly started out like that but my interest began to wain slightly when the fact that her husband had disappeared dragged on and on with no seemingly way forward.

However, this did change around half way through the book as we begin to learn more about Will and his past and also that Amanda is not as squeaky clean and innocent as we first thought. She is in fact a hacker! This really forms the basis for how Amanda begins to be able to track her husband down.

The book then goes into the realms of fantasy a little but I stuck with it and it did once again become quite the page turner. Turn pages I did at quiet a pace as there is a lot of descriptive writing that really doesn't add to the story. There is also a sub story with Amanda and her ex-boyfriend who conveniently is a policeman and so this aids the story line.

I did struggle at the beginning of the book to decide if this was set in England or the USA, I like to set the scene in my mind. I'm not sure if Carys Jones is American but I would guess she is based on the fact that her Scottish character talks about driving a shift stick - which we would call a gear stick and also the "police precinct" another term not used in the UK. Minor points but grated with me.

Overall this book does have a good story line and there is now a sequel too.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a copy to review.

Big Little Lies - Liane Moriarty

Description

From the author of Truly Madly Guilty and The Husband's Secret comes a novel about the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

Jane hasn't lived anywhere for longer than six months since her son was born five years ago. She keeps moving in an attempt to escape her past. Now the idyllic coastal town of Pirriwee has pulled her to its shores and Jane feels as if she finally belongs. She finds friends in the feisty Madeline and the incredibly beautiful Celeste, two women with seemingly perfect lives - and their own secrets. But at the start of a new term, an incident involving the children of all three women occurs in the playground, causing a rift between them and other parents. Minor at first but escalating fast, until the whispers and rumours become vicious and spiteful, and the truths blur into lies. It was always going to end in tears, but no one thought it would end in murder . . .

Review

I've read a few of Liane Moriarty's books now and loved them, and this was no exception. Written in a slightly different style than her other books. It flips back and forth but also there are inserted into the story the viewpoint of witnesses perception of what they think happened on "the trivia night". This really adds to the tension of what on earth did happen that night.

The book counts down from six months before the night up until the night itself and then the present day. Through this time we get to know each of the characters and find out more than their so called friends do about them and their lives.

Liane paints such a realistic picture of the small community and how the parents all interact at the school. I found the Blonde bombs parents as they are nicknamed hilarious and I am sure true to life. The small minded busy bodies who begin with other parents to make life very uncomfortable for one of the parents after a playground incident - but did it really happen the way it seems to have done?

Although you know from the outset that there has been a murder I kept wondering who it was that was dead, and I never worked it out. A few twists some nice, some not so nice and it was a pleasant change not to have been able to see them coming.

I'm giving this book four out of five stars. Only because I felt it was a little long for my taste.

My thanks go to Netgalley for a free copy of the book to review.

The Snow Kimono - Mark Henshaw

Description

On the same day that retired police inspector Auguste Jovert receives a letter from a woman claiming to be his daughter, he returns to his Paris apartment to find a stranger waiting for him.

That stranger is a Japanese professor called Tadashi Omura. What's brought him to Jovert's doorstep is not clear, but then he begins to tell his story - a story of a fractured friendship, lost lovers, orphaned children, and a body left bleeding in the snow.

As Jovert pieces together the puzzle of Omura's life, he can't help but draw parallels with his own; for he too has lead a life that's been extraordinary and dangerous - and based upon a lie.

Review

Having recently been to Japan I have begun to be attracted to books associated with Japan. This book was recommended in an article, not realising it had won an award, I would otherwise have been wary as those books are often too "literary" for my tastes.

Overall I found this book very confusing - I decided to just go with it and read on not really understanding how sections of the book linked together. The story weaves back and forth across time and held my interest briefly with some of the narrative, but there was always the nagging doubt in my mind of how it related to the present day. There is also the "other wordly" side to the book for which you must suspend disbelief. When I finished the book I read the beginning again and this gave me some semblance of closure on the book. I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars.

Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method - Sara Alm

Description

Learn how to customize your clothes--designing new pattern shapes, style lines, and fashion details with Sara Alm's easy-to-follow instruction!

In Sara Alm's Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method, sewers learn a technique that opens up myriad possibilities for making one-of-a-kind garments. By using basic pattern blocks called slopers, Alm shows sewers how to design new shapes, style lines, and fashion details--creating patterns for nearly any piece of clothing they want to sew. Take a basic straight skirt pattern, for example, and convert it into any other skirt design. Change the hemline or the basic shape of a skirt from straight to A-line to full swing with multiple gores. Try adjusting the waistline placement or convert it from waistband to waistline-facing. Change the style and placement of the closures. The options are endless once sewers understand the basics of flat-pattern designing, which is explained in the book.

Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method is divided into sections: skirts, tops, and pants. While many of the same principles apply to each garment type, there are different techniques to take into account. As soon as sewers know how to design from these three slopers, that knowledge is easily transferred to designing dresses, shorts, jumpsuits, and outerwear. The principles and techniques taught are also easily transferable to designing children's clothes. By following extensive technique instruction in each of the three categories, twelve different garments are designed from each basic sloper and photographed on models so readers fully understand the process and the end result.

Thanks to Designing Clothes with the Flat Pattern Method, passionate sewers will be as skilled as Project Runway contestants in no time!

Review

I have been a dressmaker for over 40 years and was intrigued by this book as years ago I did make garments cut from other garments - hence flat pattern. However, this is not what this book is about really. The book shows you how to make a pattern from which you will make a muslin or shell as the author calls it. You will then use this as the basis for your other makes.

There is no basic pattern included, you must draw your own, either from scratch or an existing pattern you own. You can see this is not really a book for a beginner as you will need to have some understanding of how patterns work first.

Personally I have done this method without the need to make an actual paper pattern and am confident with adjusting patterns so found the book is maybe not for me. If you do purchase the book you will find it very comprehensive and all aspects of pattern making are covered.

I must say that it is a beautifully photographed book and I love the clean and simple layout of the pages. It is a lovely book to just flick through and be inspired.

Believe Me - Eddie Izzard

Description

Critically acclaimed, award-winning British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard details his childhood, his first performances on the streets of London, his ascent to worldwide success on stage and screen, and his comedy shows which have won over audiences around the world. 

Over the course of a thirty-year career, Eddie Izzard has proved himself to be a creative chameleon, inhabiting the stage and film and television screen with an unbelievable fervor. Born in Yemen and raised in Northern Ireland, Wales, and England, he lost his mother at the age of six and that has affected the rest of his life. In his teens, he dropped out of university and took to the streets of London as part of a comedy double act. When his partner went on vacation, Izzard kept busy by inventing a one-man escape act, and thus a solo career was ignited. As a stand-up comedian, Izzard has captivated audiences with his surreal, stream-of-consciousness comedy—lines such as “Cake or Death?” “Death Star Canteen,” and “Do You Have a Flag?” have the status of great rock lyrics. As a self-proclaimed “action transvestite,” Izzard broke a mold performing in makeup and heels, and has become as famous for his “total clothing” rights as he has for his art. In Believe Me, he recounts the dizzying rise he made from the streets of London to West End theaters, to Wembley Arena, Madison Square Garden, and the Hollywood Bowl.
 
Izzard is arguably one of today’s top comedians. At the time of publication, he is still performing his Force Majeure show—so far in more than forty countries worldwide and in four languages: English, French, German and Spanish. With his brand of keenly intelligent humor that ranges from world history to historical politics, sexual politics, mad ancient kings, and chickens with guns, he has built an extraordinary fan base that transcends age, gender, and race. Writing with the same candor and insight evident in his comedy, he reflects on a childhood marked by the loss of his mother, boarding school, and alternative sexuality, as well as a life in comedy, film, politics, running, and philanthropy. Honest and generous, Izzard’s Believe Me is an inspired account of a very singular life thus far.

Review

I've been a long time fan of Eddie Izzard so I was really interested to find out more about him and what happened in his life to make him such a unique artist.

I've been to see Eddie a few times and the book is very much like watching him live - it weaves back and forth and is written a lot of the time as if he is in a show. Great for a live show but not so much on the written page. I like books to be chronological or at least have some order, so it rankled a little with me when I thought we were done and dusted with a period in his life, only for it to be recounted again later with a new anecdote.

I never realised where Eddie "came from" and even now can't recall how I first heard or saw him, I was hoping the book would jog my memory. What it did do was provide a great insight into his early childhood and formative years. It also gave a glimpse of his total resolve in "getting things done" of which in recent years the marathons were a part of. His capacity to learn new languages and use them for stand up comedy is another of his many feats.

He really is a remarkable man and I am not sure after reading this book I really know a lot more about him, as I feel he is still a private person and only let the veil slip on parts of his life. If you love Eddie you will love getting to know more about him.

I'm giving this book 3 out of 5 stars. My thanks to Netgalley for a copy to review.