Steph's Books

The Girls in the High-Heeled Shoes is the second stand alone novel to feature Brass, Morgan and Gloria. I hadn't read the first book or any of the series featuring Professor Moriarty but I plan to do so very soon.
Morgan is a trusted employee of Brass alongside Gloria and Garrett. He is a struggling novelist who relies on his tact and wit to stay in employment. He isn't a New Yorker and doesn't understand the Broadway slang. So he is initially very confused when the team are asked to look into the disappearance of 'Two Headed Mary' and whether it is linked to the disappearance of Billie Trask and the murder of Lydia Laurant. Luckily Brass understood, and offered to help. They found that people were more willing to talk to them rather than the police.
I loved the humour throughout the novel, there are some cracking one liners, mainly from Morgan when he is describing the people of New York. The names of the characters as well, 'Pearly' Gates is just one of many. It's also very descriptive, I could imagine New York in the 1930s, recovering from the depression and prohibition. The theatre district and the bars/diners all feature strongly along with the people connected to both.
I loved this book, the author combines crime and humour very well.

I am very grateful to Titan Books for sending me this book to review, and to the introduction to an author I had never read before.

I first became aware of Viral when the opening line went 'viral' on social media. Reminiscent of headlines in the UK press a few years ago it tells a tale of how an all girls holiday to Magaluf was ruined by alcohol and drugs. And other people.
Su had never wanted to go on the holiday but was forced into it. She was the sensible one who would be able to make Leah behave. She gave in hoping that that the holiday would help repair the relationship, they had been very close when they were younger but now she felt that Leah resented her. At first she quite enjoyed it, amazed by the length of time it took to get ready for the pool and getting to know Leah's friends.
Su's life changed completely after the video was released on the Internet. She goes into hiding and tries to accept what has happened and the consequences on her life. She decides to try and make contact with her birth mother, something she had thought about doing before. Meanwhile Leah is trying to repair the damage and find her, along with their monster of a mother Ruth.
Whilst I liked and a had a lot of sympathy for Su, I found Leah easier to like. I loved her humour and the way that she handled Ruth, a woman it is impossible to say anything nice about.
I found it to be quite a refreshing read. It was sad at times but there was also humour. It's a horrifying storyline, but it felt very real. It's one that seems to rear its ugly head every summer, watching how a handful of teenagers behave on holiday and it ends up being headline news.

The Blood Strand is the first book in a new detective series that is set in the Faroe Islands. At the start of the novel there is a map showing the location of the Faroes and a guide on pronunciation. I was grateful for both, not knowing where they were and I am one of those readers that prefer to pronounce characters names correctly.
Jan had left the Faroes with his mother when he was very young and apart from a disastrous visit in his teens had no contact with his father. Neither had he met any of the other members of his family.
He had recently been suspended from his job with the British police but details are only hinted at, and his family in the UK encouraged him to make the trip to see his father.
He develops a good relationship with Hjalti Hentz, the investigating officer who is frustrated by the lack of interest shown by his supervisor. Jan offers advice and tells him how he would look at the case if it had occurred in the UK. The investigation into his father is only part of the story. Jan also wanted to understand why his mother left the islands but was struggling to get any answers. I have a feeling that more will be revealed in future novels. I thought I had solved the case but I was mistaken. There were quite a few twists that I hadn't seen.
Jan's account is told in the first person and the rest of the novel is told in the third person. I found it worked quite well, even when it switched frequently. I found the novel to be much lighter than Nordic Noir novels that I have read in the past. Maybe because it is told by an outsider's point of view.

I would like to thank Titan Books for the copy received for review.

The Life and Loves of Lena Gaunt is a novel that is completely different to my usual crime fiction. And I loved every bit of it. Even having the press release stating that it was a fictional biography I was still convinced that Lena existed. I was googling both her and the instrument that she played, the theremin. Think of the music that featured in Midsomer Murders.
Covering a period of eighty years, most of it set in Australia and New Zealand but also in Europe where Lena experienced her first really cold winter and America. She lived through both World Wars but was untouched by both. She lost both her parents when she was still young but was close to neither. But she suffered unmentionable loss later in life.
Her relationship with Uncle Valentine was lovely. Her closest family member who asked no questions and never passed judgement. She had a similar friendship with Cath during the 1940s and Mo, the filmmaker who she let into her past.
Every now and then I read a book that turns into something special. One that stays with you long after finishing it. I would like to thank Aardvark Bureau for sending me this novel.

The British Lion is the second alternative history novel that I have read recently. By far the better one but I still found it a difficult book to read at times. I have to admit that this due partly to my lack of knowledge regarding the people who were in power at the time and the events in the first few years after WW2. But it is also a very dark novel, full of characters who all had no hesitation at using violence and there were only a couple of characters who had any loyalty to others.
The author was fantastic at describing the darkness of England at the time. The level of mistrust, the bad weather and bleakness everywhere was very convincing and just a little claustrophobic.
It is the sequel novel and I hadn't read the first but it didn't matter. There were a few hints but no great spoilers.
With thanks to the publisher for the copy received for review.

Struggling since the death of her daughter and the collapse of her marriage Nan has concentrated on the only thing she has left, her career at the local university. She has a good relationship with her students and the staff. When they turn against her after the accident she is devastated. She is adamant that it was a deer she had hit and not Leia but starts to question her own innocence after remarks made about her drinking. But is not just her who suspicion falls on and when a series of sinister and upsetting events occur she is determined to get answers.
I did guess at who the culprit was but this did not stop me enjoying the novel. It is much more than a whodunnit. It's also about bereavement, addiction, control and learning to trust. I liked the style of writing very much. At times its claustrophobic, possibly due to the snow but also the isolation, paranoia and level of intimidation that Nan experienced.
A well written, very atmospheric introduction to Carol Goodman who I had heard of but never read before.
Thanks to Titan Books for the copy received for review.

First of all I have to say how good Alex Marwood is at creating characters that the reader will loathe. I have read books before where I struggled to like anybody but the ones in this book were the most despicable that I have ever come across. There were a handful that I liked. Mila, Ruby, Joe and Claire. Apart from Claire they were all children in 2004 when Coco disappeared.
The story covers two events. The weekend of Sean's 50th birthday party when Coco disappeared and twelve years later at his funeral. Mila has very reluctantly agreed to accompany Ruby to the funeral so they can say their goodbyes to the father they never really knew. Mila spends some of the time suspecting that she is more like him than she wants to admit. She questions why the friends she socialises with have been absent since the news broke about her father's death. She also enjoys the time she spends with Ruby who she hadn't really got to know.
The revulsion I felt towards the other characters was there all the way through but at one point I actually felt sickened by Sean. If you have read the novel you would probably be able to work out which part of the novel I mean. If you haven't you will just have to read it to find out. Another character was a manipulator who would turn the situation into something that would make them look wonderful and they could control everything.
It's a cracking read and very addictive. Each chapter focuses on a different character and covers both periods in time. You want to read another chapter so you can go back to the period that interested you to see what happened next.

I have read all the books by this author and this is my favourite one. Not the easiest topic to read but It didn't really focus on Coco and an investigation. It was more about the people who failed her.

I received a copy via netgalley for which I thank the publisher. I have since purchased the novel.

Having loved Anna Hope's debut novel Wake I was really looking forward to reading her second novel The Ballroom.
It is set in 1911 at Sharston Asylum on the Yorkshire moors. Charles is a doctor who has an interest in music. He gets a position there and his wish is to improve the lives of the patients. He decides to play in an orchestra every Friday evening, patients are selected to attend so that they can have a dance. It is the only time that they get to meet patients who are the opposite sex.
John and Ella are just two of the patients there, and they meet on one of these evenings. John was very reluctant to attend. He is at the asylum after tragedy affects his personal life. Ella has been admitted after breaking a window at the asylum where she had worked since she was eight years old. She had only wanted to see the sky. Both of them have good friends in Dan and Clem. Dan is a bit of a rebel, a seaman who yearns for his freedom. Clem is happy with her books and is one of the few who has family visitors. John and Ella start to fall in love and try to make contact away from the dance. They are helped in this by Dan and Clem. At the same time Charles has become obsessed with John and is also following with great interest the debate in Parliament regarding eugenics.

A fascinating book to read. I thought that most of the blame when disaster struck was down to Charles. A man, very unhappy in his personal life who couldn't be honest about his feelings. He feels under more pressure and gets vindictive with his decisions. I enjoyed the love story between John and Ella. Two people who shouldn't have been there and trying their hardest to be together. But the most fascinating character for me was Clem. I thought her role in the novel was amazing, I don't want to reveal why. To do so will be a spoiler but she will be the character who I will think about for a while. There was also all the minor characters, some who remained nameless but all essential to the setting and they all felt real. I liked the way it ended, it was a bit of a surprise but it worked and was very fitting.
I knew that people were placed in asylums that shouldn't have been, I was told stories throughout my teens about why people, especially women ended up there. Thankfully attitudes have changed.

With thanks to Alison Barrow for the copy received.

After You Die is the third book in the Zigic and Ferreira series and is one that I have been waiting impatiently to read since the cliff hanger ending in book two. It was well worth waiting for!
Unlike the first two books, which involved hate crimes against those from a different country this was about hate crime aimed at a disabled blogger. Holly was paralysed in an accident a few years previously. Her accident caused her parents marriage to breakdown, her mother was active on dating websites and she had very little contact with her father who blamed himself. When Dawn is murdered, Holly is left to die from natural causes in her bedroom.
Ferreira has just returned to work after a bad injury she suffered while on active duty. She is still affected by them, both mentally and physically but is determined to prove that she can cope despite concerns from her colleagues. Zigic is fighting to keep the case in the hate crimes department and is angered by restrictions placed on him when a potential witness needs to be interviewed. Nathan was an enigma, I kept on reading just a little bit more to find out what his past was and why Zigic was having to hold back.
A lot of people have views on the right to die issue. The topic was handled very well in the novel. I imagine that the abuse that Holly received via her blog was pretty accurate. She was a great character, one of the nicest and definitely one of the bravest people in the book. She had a big impact on Ferreira who was desperate to get answers into the killings.
Quite sad at times, especially the storylines with the younger people who feature. It was harder to feel any sympathy or warmth towards any of the other characters. The crime itself was very cold and calculating. Probably one of the most calculating that I have read for a while.
The Zigic and Ferreira detective series is one of my favourites. I've enjoyed each book, you get to know the main characters a little more in each one but their personal lives don't impact the main story. If you haven't read them I would recommend reading in order.

With thanks to the publisher and the author for the copy received.

Snow Blind was amongst my top ten books from 2015 so I was pleased that Night Blind was published just as I finished it.
It is set roughly five years later, with three books covering the period between the two still to be published. This did feel slightly unusual but both books could easily be read as a standalone or out of sequence.
Ari Thór is back in a relationship with Kristen and they now have a young son. I struggled to like her, and at times I thought that Ari felt the same. What he did love was being part of a family which is something that he had missed out on.
The claustrophobic atmosphere was still there but not as much, the little town wasn't as cut off from the rest of the country as it was when Ari first moved there. Even though he had now lived there for five years he was still considered to be an outsider. He found it difficult to accept that everybody knew him and his family but he didn't know them. I found this quite amusing and could imagine it being very accurate. It also made me smile how offended Tomas was when he noticed that changes had been made to his old home.
It was thinking it was a fairly 'quiet' read. Much of the novel focuses on the investigation into the policeman's murder but there were also some sinister diary excerpts from the 1980s. You aren't told who the diary belongs to and I couldn't work it. I was then taken completely by surprise by a couple of very convincing violent scenes, one in particular left me feeling a little bit tense.
I now have my second signed Ragnar Jónasson novel, but thanks to Karen Sullivan for providing a proof copy for review.

A great debut novel by Holly Seddon, Try Not To Breathe is an excellent read that you will not want to put down.
Alex is a freelance journalist whose life is a wreck. Her marriage had collapsed due to her alcoholism and both have a major influence on her life. The alcohol controls her life, she only works certain hours then she can be back home with nothing to disturb the drinking. Amy is the same age and from the same area but her life could not be more different. She was attacked fifteen years earlier and has been in a comatose state since.
Alex is trying to write her come back article in which she is looking at comatose patients and how they might be more responsive than people think and Amy is the patient on who she focuses.she starts to visit her, plays music that she knows she likes and tries to get get some answers on who attacked her.
I really liked Alex, she knew she had to get her life back on track and was trying her hardest to prove to herself and people around her that she would succeed. The addiction was fascinating, I've never read a book where it showed how controlling it could be. How she accepted the consequences that the addiction was having on her health.
The narrative switches between the characters and time since the attack. Amy's narrative was quite eerie, it showed that she was aware that her life was different, she knew who attacked her but she didn't know why she had no contact with most people she knew or how life had moved on.
It didn't go the way I thought it would, there were a few surprises during the read and I think i must have suspected most people who were in the book.
This was a really addictive read, yet another that is likened to Girl on a Train (I really wish they wouldn't do this). I found it nothing like, but it is a very strong novel and will probably be a huge success.
Thanks to the publisher for the review copy received.

Ari Thór Arason is a new police recruit who has just got his first position within the police in a village called Siglufjördur in Northern Iceland. He moves there, leaving behind his girlfriend Kristín. He feels lonely, both parents are dead and he misses his girlfriend. He isn't sure if their relationship will survive him being away from Reykjavik.
He accepts the nickname of the Reverend in good faith when he realises it is public knowledge that he studied theology before going into the police force. But despite the affectionate term he feels very much an outsider especially when the two cases that they have to investigate have taken place in a village where everybody knows each other and everybody insists that there are no secrets. But Ari refuses to accept what he is told and continues to dig into the past.
It's very claustrophobic. I can't really imagine how I would feel to be trapped in a town by bad weather. Where the only way in and out is through a tunnel and an avalanche has made inaccessible. A feeling that must be so much worse when you don't know anybody and don't know who to trust.
I loved the way Ari would think of something or ask a question and you didn't find out straight away what he discovered. Just a little enticement to read a little bit more. And I loved to read about the Icelandic tradition regarding books at Christmas. It sounds wonderful. It is beautifully written (and translated by Quentin Bates) and I'm looking forward to reading the second book Night Blind very soon.

My copy is a limited edition signed hardback (no 134). It will be treasured.

My first reaction to this brilliant novel was that I was so glad that I was no longer a teenager, even though when I was, I thankfully didn't know anybody like any of Sarah Pinborough's characters. Becca was the most likeable of them, she had her faults but she wanted to put things right with the people who mattered to her. I detested Natasha. Even though she had been dead for 13 minutes it was hard to feel any sympathy and liking for somebody who was so self obsessed. There were a lot of twists, I was only really convinced of one persons innocence. The level of cunning displayed by the culprit was chilling.
It's very clever YA fiction/ psychological crime that anybody who likes either genre should try.
With thanks to the publisher for the copy via netgalley.

Lost Girls is the third book in the series that features detective Kim Stone. I have read them all and this is the one that has made me feel more anxious than any of the others.
Two young girls are kidnapped. It has happened before and was handled by another team. Tragically in that case only one girl came home. Kim is determined that this wouldn't happen again. She feels under more pressure because one of the mothers has asked for her to lead the investigation, they knew each other when they were in foster care.
You are aware who the kidnappers are and they are very unpleasant. But you are not made aware of everything, an unidentified third person is hinted at but nothing more. The journalist is a thorn in Kim's side. The team have been ordered to keep the current kidnapping case away from the press but she is determined to get a story regardless of the consequences. But she did show that she was capable of humanity regarding another situation.
I loved the relationship between Kim and Matt, the negotiator who has been been brought in to try and get the girls home. I really hope that he is a character who appears in future novels. One of the strongest points of this series is the relationship between the team. Even though she isn't the easiest person to work for they are devoted to her.
I have always enjoyed a detective series, seeing the characters and relationships develop. Sometimes I've not been keen on the odd book and sometimes I have a break from a series and return to it after a few years. This is a series that I am now hooked on and I'm really looking forward to the next book.

The Silent Girls is set in Vermont and Rath, a former police officer, now private investigator is helping the local police look into the disappearance of a young girl. Part way through the investigation other disappearances are revealed that look similar and then a body is found. Rath has been raising his niece alone since his sister and her husband were murdered when she was a baby. That murderer is now up for parole. Both situations are affecting him deeply, combined with chronic back pain and not being able to get in touch with his niece at her university he starts to panic.

I did enjoy this novel. It was easy to read and the characters were believable. Rath wasn't the nicest person that you would ever meet in a novel but you could understood the reasons for why he handled things the way that he did. The different points of view were handled well, to reveal what these views were, would give away the main storyline and that I don't want to do. But it is a debate that is common everywhere.
There were a few loose threads, but I have noticed that there is a follow up. Hopefully they will be resolved then.
I did have one problem with this novel and that was with the amount of spelling errors and at one point a character's name changed. Just a little confusing.

Thanks to the publisher for the published book received for review.

When Scandinavian fiction was the thing that 'everybody should be reading' a few years ago I did so. Some I liked , some I wasn't keen on. The Hummingbird by Kati Hiekkapelto is the first book in a series that I know I'm going to love.
Anna is a new police officer in Finland. Almost immediately the team have two investigations. One concerns a young immigrant girl who makes an emergency call for help. The family insist is was a misunderstanding but Anna especially, feels that she could be in danger.
The other case involves the murder of a lone female runner at night. When other murders follow the team are under pressure to find the killer in a case where there appears to be no link.

Anna struggles to feel accepted by certain members of the team at first. Not Finnish by birth, she moved to Finland from Hungary as a child. Esko especially is quite nasty, openly racist and sexist but thankfully this lessens as they get to know each other.
She is also going through a downward spiral into an unhealthy lifestyle. Going from a healthy eating athlete into a junk food eating, smoking and drinking insomniac.
I did find some of the racism hard to read but I suspect that it was quite accurate. I liked the relationship development between the team members and that the reader would get to know about all the members of the team. Anna, like many leading characters in other novels has a troubled life. A family uprooted by a war, one brother killed in the war, another brother who is wasting his life and a mother who thinks she is failing because she hasn't married and had children.
I will be reading the second book very soon.