Hannah is miserable. Her love life is in ruins, her contract demands a sequel to her bestselling crime debut – and she’s out of ideas. After a mortifying TV interview, her agent ships her off to a sun-drenched Sicilian villa with a simple order: finish the book. No distractions. No excuses.
But inspiration doesn’t strike – murder does. When a night out ends in murder, Hannah finds herself at the centre of a murder investigation … again. The police want her out of the way, and the only person who seems to believe her is a young but charming Italian police officer. That is, until she doesn’t.
Soon Hannah is chasing suspects, fleeing crime scenes, and doing whatever it takes to avoid becoming the next victim. She came to write a crime novel. Now she’s trapped inside one. Dark, sly and deliciously atmospheric, Under the Blazing Sun is the second novel in the award-winning series featuring accidental sleuth and disgruntled literary author Hannah, whose pursuit of plot twists keeps turning dangerously real.
I loved the author’s first book in this series and I devoured this one in a day. Hannah is once again fretting over writing her latest book, disgusted that copies of the romance novel she poured her heart into is being ignored, while the crime novel she wrote in one month for a bet is a bestseller. Hannah is a brilliantly flawed character full of writer’s neurosis, hating that she is forced to write what will sell rather than the books she aspires to write. Again she’s on a deadline and as a last resort her editor Bastian finds her a quiet villa in Sicily with its own swimming pool. No distractions and plenty of time to unwind and write the novel she’s had an advance to produce. I love this character because she says and does the things I want to, but my inhibitions keep it inside. She has no such restrictions, happily saying what she thinks when she thinks it. Her disgust with the crime genre and Jorn Jensen in particular is so funny. I wonder if she has ever had a thought or need she didn’t express? She’s also totally unregulated and this is what lands her in trouble every time. She decides to walk to the village without thought about the heat, how far it is and which direction she takes. So when it comes to going back to the villa she has no idea which hill to take and ends up exhausted and on the verge of sunstroke on her way back. This is where she is found by Hans and Greta who take her to their incredible house to clean up and drink something. This turns into dinner, wine and a night spent in their house. It’s when she wakes up in a strange place that she and the housekeeper Lucette find a dead body. Greta has been murdered and Hans is nowhere to be found. Has he been kidnapped or could he be the murderer? Hannah seems to have an inability to weigh up a decision before taking action. There’s so much going on in her head that it’s very hard for her to remain in the present. I’m always wishing she’d slow down a minute and breathe, but the only times she seems to do this are in the water.
This hot Italian island couldn’t be further from Hannah’s Scandinavian home and is a great backdrop for a murder. Hannah is a fish out of water here and she notes the contrast between the cold and snow of her last case and the relentless heat and dryness of Sicily. The area throws up different obstacles too. There’s the rather sexist and misogynistic Sicilian police, aside from their one female recruit Carlotta. Hannah has to consider the local community and possible objections to people like Greta who are making money by bringing even more tourists into the area. There’s the possibility of corruption too with links between the Mafia, business and local government. We see the contrast of what the area is like for holiday makers and wealthy incomers, as opposed to the young people in the area who are struggling to find work and homes without moving away. The young police detective Carlotta wants to be the difference in the police force, banding together with Hannah on a couple of occasions and proving to be quite the distraction. Hannah is still in love with Margret and is dangling on an open ended waiting game. They’re not in a relationship until Margret can extricate herself from her marriage and make the best decisions for her children. Hannah isn’t always patient with this and doesn’t seem to realise that if Margret was in her life permanently so are her children. When she imagines them together I’m not sure the children feature in that picture. It was interesting to see her getting more than she bargained for and having the cheek to ask Margret’s police officer husband for help! He voices what many readers might be thinking when he tells her she’s the most annoying person he’s ever met.
The case is an absolute maze of connections and suspects and despite her aversion to crime as a genre, she’s just as caught up in the mystery of this murder as any reader would be. She’s utterly reckless, in a comical way and there’s a chase on a moped during the final chapters that is clumsy and hilarious to imagine. Sparks fly when Jorn Jensen appears, but she can’t deny he helps make things happen. His arrogance is brilliant and when he suggests they write a crime novel together I thought Hannah might hit him with something heavy. The creepy moment in the basement, including Jensen’s cardboard cut out made me laugh and worry about her safety at the same time. This is a dark humour that I love. Jorn’s statement that he has ‘enormous sex appeal’ and it’s that and not his wealth that attracts women shows what sort of brash and conceited character he is, but there’s no denying his bravery and quick thinking. They are quite the investigative team, despite her reticence about working with him. Hannah’s instincts are good. She won’t accept the police’s conclusion that Hans killed his wife, reasoning that he adored her and couldn’t have done it. Instead she follows the money, often blundering into compromising situations and dangerous people. If the conclusion teaches her anything it’s that people will murder for very unexpected reasons. This is a brilliant second instalment of Hannah’s adventures and I’m going to resolve to be a little more Hannah and say what I think here and there.
A dead judge. A silent defendant. And a courtroom full of liars.
When Leila Reynolds is handed her first murder case, she’s shocked at how high-profile it is: the murder of a well-respected, well-known judge. This shouldn’t be the kind of case she’s leading; it’s way beyond her expertise. But the defendant, Jack Millman, is clear. He wants her, and only her.
To make things worse, he’s refusing to talk. How is she supposed to prove herself on what appears to be an unwinnable case?
Losing is not an option. She must find the most persuasive argument. Trials aren’t won by convincing judges or fellow barristers – they’re all about convincing a jury.
Suddenly, Leila finds herself fighting not only to keep Jack out of prison, but also to keep her own secrets buried.
It’s true what they say – there are two sides to every story.
Guilty or not guilty?
Wow! This was a ‘devour in one sitting’ thriller in the high stakes setting of a barrister’s chambers and an incendiary case where two of their barristers have been requested; one in prosecution and one in defence. The defendant has requested Leila, an up and coming young barrister who has just heard she’s getting a mention in an exclusive legal publication. The man who’s keen to let Leila know she has him to thank for that mention, is her previous mentor Julian. As a pupil she had to work under Julian to complete her training and he’s now going to be her opponent in court. Even more complicated is the fact that they’re now husband and wife. This is a murder case and the victim was a high court judge, Anton Smythe, who died in a flat above a nightclub after being hit in the head with a doorstop. The accused is Jack, who works as security for the nightclub owner and lives on the premises. Leila is surprised that his solicitor has requested her because she has defended this client before, and lost. When they meet again for instructions, Jack tells her he will be pleading not guilty but offers no defence. She absolutely refuses to put him on the stand and his solicitor agrees. They should argue his case if he will trust them with the truth. Jack sticks to his guns, he will not say a word about his defence until he is on the stand. Could this be paranoia? Although to be a judge like Anton means you have powerful friends, maybe it is sensible to keep his story under wraps for now.
I’m a big fan of legal dramas like Silk and North Square so the setting in a barrister’s chambers definitely appealed to me. I loved Maxine Peake as Martha, she was Northern, intelligent, quick with a put down and nobody’s fool. Leila comes across as more of a gentle character than that, but definitely intelligent, determined and perhaps driven by a background that has its secrets. I intensely disliked Julian, but he is so well-written. There was a definite power imbalance between them, especially since she’d been his pupil. He must have seen her star quality and I had the thought that maybe he’d married Leila to keep her under him, both literally and figuratively. The layers of charm and ease soon fall away as the case starts.
“You want someone whose mind is in alignment with yours, but whose appetite for dominance will never exceed your own”.
When Leila is congratulated on her mention he makes sure to comment that without his influence it wouldn’t have happened. I noticed that his ex-wife seems to want to talk to Leila, something she’s avoiding but might be worthwhile. As lines are drawn in the court room there’s a definite misogyny in how Julian gangs up with the police witnesses against her, but because he can couch it in terms of prosecuting competently even though she’s his wife, it’s hard to narrow down his intentions. Is he just serving the best interests of his client? Or is he trying to rattle his wife and make her feel like she’s dependent on him? As the case continues their once calm married life becomes more fraught and separate. Leila isn’t sure whether it’s just the case and the distance needed to be opponents or whether something more fundamental is wrong. The other thing that struck me as odd is that it’s Leila who goes to spend Friday evenings having fish and chips with her mother-in-law Audrey who is in the early stages of dementia. Julian never goes with her. When she does have one lucid moment Leila asks what she thinks about her son. ‘You can’t trust him she says very quietly. Thats why he doesn’t come to see me. He hates women who can see through him.” Maybe Leila is just starting to see the real man she married. There is also mystery around Leila’s background, definitely a poorer area of the North East than Durham but she seems to have no family. It’s as if she has totally reinvented herself. She calls it a wretched life that’s left it’s mark:
“It’s the smaller, subtler things I’m now fiercely protective of, like feeling safe when I turn the light off before I go to sleep […] recognising my body is my own and I now get a say in who touches it. The things I had to do to get here you’d be horrified to know.”
It feels as if her relationships have been transactional even when she’s had a choice. Could Julian just be another rung on the ladder? It seems he wasn’t her first mentor and she wonders often whether this past will catch up with her. The twist is very good indeed. I had an inkling, but it is a proper ‘sixth sense’ moment where you’ll want to flick back through the book and see the clues you missed. This is a high drama, high stakes, legal battle and only one of them can win. The tension is unbearable as Jack takes the stand, it almost feels like a done deal but no one is expecting his testimony. The fall out is seismic. This is such a clever thriller with a cast of characters you won’t like but will be fascinated with. It’s very well written by an author who knows this profession and its pitfalls for women, particularly working class ones. It feels like social commentary – with the well educated, upholders of the law and all their status, against the ordinary, working class person who’s usually in the dock. Can the law be the great equaliser it seems or are some people more equal than others? This was a great debut with a fast pace and some brilliant ‘oh my God’ moments.
Meet the Author
Jo grew up in Teesside during the 90s when working class girls were told they probably shouldn’t try to become barristers. Thankfully, she ignored everyone. After studying Classics at Newcastle University, she went to law school and did just that. Jo was a criminal barrister before leaving the profession to look after her two children. She lives in North Yorkshire.
It’s been a very busy month with a reduced time for reading and reviewing. First my mum and I went to Liverpool to see Moulin Rouge which was brilliant. Then I was back less than a week later to see my stepdaughter graduate with a first class degree in Early Childhood Education. We stayed in the philanthropic village of Port Sunlight and I soaked up the arts and craft architecture for a few days. We also visited the Redbrick Market, a labyrinth of tiny craft and antique stalls in an old brewery complex in the Baltic Quarter too. Then I needed to rest up for a few days to give my body chance to recover I did some reading and lots of sleeping. As always but I’m very behind with reviewing. My favourites have mainly been thrillers, with a beautiful Irish fiction debut too. August is quieter with just one tour, so I’m setting aside a stack of novels I’ve been dying to get to for months. I try and have a mood read month twice a year, otherwise I think I’d burn out. So here’s what I enjoyed last month ❤️📚
Sugartown was one of the Squad Pod Collective’s featured books last month. I loved it and was really surprised to learn it had so many rejections before publication so it really does pay to keep plugging away. Now it’s up for a major Irish fiction prize. Our story follows Saoirse as she returns to her Irish town after trying out living and working in London. She’s come back to lick her wounds and hoped for a little grace from mum Màire, but she’s on her almost immediately, making sure she’s up at a reasonable hour and pointedly hoovering outside her room if she doesn’t. Màire is what Saoirse has always called her mum at her instruction. She absolutely refused to be called Mammy, but now that she has three younger daughters she’s a model mum. Saoirse sees how organised she is, getting all three ready for school in the morning with identical plaits and immaculate uniforms. All she can do is wonder why she didn’t do that for her? Saoirse only hears her mother’s criticism and there is plenty of it.
She insists that Saoirse takes a job and then finds one for her, even bullying her out of bed for the interview and driving her there. She’s very insistent that her stepdad shouldn’t have to keep her. To cope with the boredom of small town life and the job at a hardware store she goes out with her best friend Doireann, drinking to excess and trying whatever drug is going. Her dreams have shattered and she can’t see the point. It’s then she meets Charlie and there’s an immediate attraction, will this prove to be the love Saoirse needs or will her excesses prove to be her undoing? I remember being this age and I felt equally uncomfortable, having missed my uni place at Liverpool by one point I had to stay in my small town and grabbed a job in a nursing home and a local pub. I felt a little lost but luckily I had god friends and family around me. I could feel Saoirse’s pain about her relationship with Mum and the on and off again relationship with Charlie doesn’t help. It’s not long before Saoirse hits rock bottom. This is a fascinating look at motherhood and how our maternal relationship is so important for self-esteem and identity. I was relieved when she starts counselling because it’s the only way to improve her life and it’s revelatory to hear she doesnt have to have a relationship wiith Mum. The author captures young adulthood perfectly and how, if we don’t know who we are, we can’t choose healthy relationships or build a life for ourselves. This is beautifully written, devastating but also hopeful.
I think I’m the last person to read this brilliant court room thriller with a killer of a twist. Leila is a barrister, working at a chambers in the north east of England. Leila has worked hard from a poor background to university and into the law, often difficult for those without family money. She is married to Julian who used to her mentor when she was just a pupil, but now a case has come in where they’ll be pitted against each other. This isn’t necessarily unusual, but she would have recused herself if the client hadn’t insisted on her especially. However, the solicitor on the case doesn’t know why he wants Leila, especially since the last time she represented him she lost. Jack has been accused of the murder of Anthony Smythe, a well respected high court judge. He informs Leila he’ll be pleading not guilty, but won’t be disclosing his defence before he takes the stand to give evidence. This makes Leila twitchy and nervous. As the trial draws near Leila finds a distance growing between her and Julian, as well as a condescension and arrogance that she’s never seen before. She also feels voices from the past might be closer, people she thought she’d outrun. This felt like one of my favourite drama series, Silk, starring Maxine Peake. I love the drama and the way everything started to shift and change around our central character. This is a belter of a thriller, fiendishly clever and although I did guess the twist it didn’t ruin my enjoyment at all.
Vikas Swarup’s heroine Devi grabs hold of you the minute she starts to tell her own story in this episodic novel set in Delhi. The opening brings Devi to the lair of an unknown assailant who tells her he has seven people on the phone line who want to bid for her destiny. This auction will take one night and seven stories, stories she thought were secrets. As Devi tells each tale her kidnapper will take a bid on her life and he hopes to reach seven figures. However, Devi’s circumstances have not been easy and the fact she is alive is down to her cunning and experience. Has the kidnapper underestimated his prisoner or are Devi’s lives finally running out?
I was hooked from the first story as Devi explains how she started in a family home in the slum area known as Rail Basti, because the train tracks ran straight through the centre of the huts. This was Devi’s early childhood and despite the poverty she has happy times. She tells us about her annoying brothers, the eldest a maths prodigy and the youngest a terrible bedwetter, the daily sequence of trains that seem to rattle the ground under their hut and depth of water that rises indoors in monsoon season. Change comes when her parents choose an unorthodox plan to make an almost life-changing sum of money and fortune seems to turn almost immediately. Devi is an intelligent, funny and excitable nine year old and sometimes it’s hard to read about her daily life, never mind the more perilous and painful circumstances she finds herself in. She learns through necessity, takes chances where she sees them, soon inured to the fact that the only constant in her life is change. There’s so much energy in this novel. It leaps off the page and its biggest achievement is its mix of addictive suspense and emotional insight. I came away from it feeling a little bit battered by the force of the story and it might take a few days to fully sink in. I liked Devi as a child, but as time and experience move her forward she becomes more morally questionable, complex and deeply conflicting. Although even if I didn’t always like her I could understand why she makes the choices she does and how she’s come to each terrible conclusion, every time wondering if this present adventure will be her last. It’s easy to forget when you’re deeply embedded in one of her stories that this is where it’s brought her, tied to a chair and listening as each person bids on her life. If you like to kept in suspense and to experience an extraordinary life lived in destitute and dangerous circumstances this is definitely for you.
Ben is living in Penzance, taking a break from his home island of Bryhir in the Scilly Isles after the events of the previous novel. He’s taking a break from police work and instead has found a job at a joiner and cabinetmakers, using the skills he learned building boats with his Uncle. It’s settled and therapeutic work as Ben slowly creates beautiful pieces of furniture and starts to deal with his grief and loss. Noah is a little confused to be away from everything he knows, but he’s enrolled at a kindergarten near Ben’s work so life has some routine and peace. He is starting to be brought into the community too, with an arts festival on the horizon he’s bound to be pulled into the planning, even just as a steward he’s happy to do his bit. Then life takes a sinister turn as he’s on the beach and sees a young mother with a baby in a pram. One moment of distraction and a black figure jumps out of the shadows and racing towards the pram it grabs the baby and throws it into the sea. Ben and Shadow are running before they’ve even thought and he dives into the sea to rescue the baby. He’s now a local hero, but the disturbing and traumatic event plays on his mind. How could someone do such a thing and will they do it again?
The author weaves her story around the local myth of the Zennor Mermaid, a figured carved into one of the pews in Zennor church. By the time the festival arrives everyone has done all they can to keep families safe, with a security perimeter at the park that can’t be broken, of course that assumes the attacker isn’t one of the stewards. I was still suspecting the nursery nurse, the festival organiser, a police officer, a young man who is abused by his older brother and even the DCI’s nanny. The author has created short, urgent chapters here. They ramp up the tension as we flip between Ben’s inner world and the attacker’s, following them and their newest victim to the dark, wildness of the festival’s other site at Zennor. We can sense the mystical feeling of Cornwall and how it’s become warped in this person’s mind. It’s pitch black and rough terrain, plus with miles and miles of coastline can they be sure to find the right place in time. I defy anyone to put the book down at this point and I devoured it in one sitting. Ben still knows he’s missing a part of the puzzle and we have to trust that his intuition will click in before it’s too late. This is a great thriller and taking Ben out of his natural habitat does bring a different feel to the series, though I hope he does eventually return to island because he belongs there. We can see in the aftermath that he needs his found family and just like Zoe he will always return to the island and each other.
I love it when a new Mark Edwards novel appears and this one really did grab me from the off. It’s a familiar set up. Holly seems like the perfect girlfriend. Clever, funny, beautiful – Patrick feels like he’s hit the jackpot. Until he meets her family.
Her dad has a mysterious new girlfriend. Her sister is unwelcoming. Her brother is clearly lying about something. And Patrick gets the sense all of them share a dark secret – even Holly. When he finds out about the body that was found nearby on their last family holiday, Patrick sets out to find the truth. But as skeletons tumble out of the family’s closet, Patrick realises he needs to be careful. Because in this family, loyalty is everything – and at least one of them is willing to kill to keep their secrets…
The best bit about reading this was that I didn’t really like any of Holly’s family. In fact her sister and brother-in-law are horrific human beings. Anyway, I loved the setting, a remote part of Scotland where not many people visit and the family have a holiday home. However it hasn’t always been a happy place. This is where Holly’s mother died many years before and also where something happened to a teenager from the village – the brother of their cleaner. Then there’s the added stress of Dad’s new American girlfriend. The family dynamic is toxic before she arrives and when she does it causes a meltdown! Meanwhile Patrick is trying to find out what happened at the caves when Holly was a teenager and why a young man was found dead nearby in the dead of winter in summer clothing. As snow starts to fall and the village becomes cut off the family’s behaviour becomes more extreme and Patrick makes discoveries that leave him fearing for his life. I loved the look at tech companies and their ethics, or lack of them and the tension between the locals and the family. Another great thriller from this prolific author.
Lisa Jewell really is a must buy author as I can’t remember a time when I was disappointed by one of her novels and as she mentions in the acknowledgements, this is her twenty fourth! I gelled with the main character Jane very quickly, perhaps because I related to her a little bit. I don’t have a mansion house, but I do have rescue animals, step-children and a similar turn of phrase – a couple of her lines genuinely made me laugh out loud. I never expected to hear the line “with all due respect, Stuart, I’m not sure what could actually be worse than Daisy being abused by a pervert dressed as a clown.” It’s also a good point to mention that I actually hate clowns. Hate them all. They scare me. I don’t like masks, mime artists or anything else where someone is trying to change their face. This might have led to me finding this novel incredibly creepy. Jane comes across as forthright and opinionated but I love those qualities. Basically she’s the perfect investigator because she’s quite happy to ask uncomfortable questions and to suspect the worst of people, although I don’t think she imagined returning a lost west highland terrier would lead her into the darkness of the Black family. Under her exterior she has a big heart and whether it’s her rescue dogs or her step-children she’s always there, especially for Dexter who she spends a lot of time with. When she comes across the strange disappearance of a young girl called Daisy from a local AirBnB she never imagined taking a step back into her past and a house she fled from many years ago. Told through Jane and Daisy’s stepfather Stuart this is a masterclass in generational trauma and the different traits that can run in families. When Jane glimpses an open drawer that contains white gloves, handcuffs and a clown mask I was creeped out and then Stuart finds shackles in the outhouse! This is a very dark thriller with moments of humour that made me laugh out loud. Another belter from this talented author.
Newly divorced and feeling a little lost, Jane Trevally agrees to accompany a man she doesn’t know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath.
She’s offered a drink. She steps inside.
And then she hears a scream.
Jane runs.
Twenty five years later, Jane finds herself outside the same house, this time to return a dog who’s been found near her home. A dog whose owner has just been reported missing.
A fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window sends Jane on a mission to uncover the house’s secrets – secrets more terrifying than she could have ever imagined.
And she can’t stop thinking:
It could have been her . .
Lisa Jewell really is a must buy author. I can’t remember a time when I was disappointed by one of her novels and as she mentions in the acknowledgements, this is her twenty fourth! I gelled with the main character Jane very quickly, perhaps because I related to her a little bit. I don’t have a mansion house, but I do have rescue animals, step-children and a similar turn of phrase – a couple of her lines genuinely made me laugh out loud. I never expected to hear the line “with all due respect, Stuart, I’m not sure what could actually be worse than Daisy being abused by a pervert dressed as a clown.” It’s also a good point to mention that I actually hate clowns. Hate them all. They scare me. I don’t like masks, mime artists or anything else where someone is trying to change their face. This might have been the reason I found this novel particularly creepy. Jane comes across as an independent, forthright and opinionated woman of middling age and I loved those qualities in her. Basically she’s the perfect investigator because she’s quite happy to ask uncomfortable questions and to suspect the worst of people, although I don’t think she imagined returning a lost west highland terrier would lead her into the darkness of the Black family. Under her exterior she has a big heart and whether it’s her rescue dogs or her step-children she’s always there, especially for Dexter who she spends a lot of time with. When she comes across the strange disappearance of a young girl called Daisy from a local AirBnB she didn’t imagine taking a step back into her past and the house she fled from many years ago.
This particular house is a brilliant setting, residing in a quirky little part of London called the Vale of Health on Hampstead Heath. I had to look it up because it sounded so odd and fell in love, because it’s almost like a village within a city. The house Jane is looking for is at the far end of a lane and quite isolated, but Jane knows it as soon as she arrives and meets a man called Stuart who lives there with a woman called Jessamine Black, Daisy’s mother. She’s worried that Daisy hasn’t returned home or to the house she rented to revise for her exams. There’s Déjà vu for Jane as she sits on the same sofa she sat on years before, because nothing much has changed here. Of course our houses do tend to represent us and they often stand in for our bodies when we dream about them – the attic in particular standing in for our psychological state. This doesn’t bode well for this family because the house is untidy and unloved. Being nosey, Jane sees that Stuart has left a drawer slightly open she peers inside. There are the secateurs he was looking for, but also some handcuffs, white leather gloves and a plastic clown mask. Needless to say I’d be back on a train before that drawer was closed. From there Jane is hooked and gets the chance to house sit for a friend in London so she can follow up on Daisy and her hunch that something very dark has happened in that house and the family that live there.
Though Jane is our main protagonist we have flashback chapters from Stuart’s perspective and we see how he meets Daisy’s mother Jessamine at his local pub. Stuart has been homeless for many years, but has been living in a coveted spot in a squat with several other people. He’s noticed Jessamine a couple of times and there’s something winsome about her big eyes and waif-like frame, but he realises very quickly that she has a drink problem. Always arriving immaculate at opening time and then slowly becoming more messy as it gets towards the end of the school day as she seems to scurry off to be at the school gates. When she becomes very unsteady on her feet one day Stuart turns Good Samaritan and helps her to get home. This is how he ends up meeting her daughter Daisy and takes Jessamine up on her offer to stay, which he does for a few days. As these flashbacks continue we see that Jessamine is not the victim Stuart originally thought she was. She has the ability to be neglectful of her daughter, prioritising alcohol and is surprisingly manipulative. Stuart is surprised that Jessamine’s mother doesn’t say anything to her daughter and he wonders if he’s imagining that something is off about her too. There’s a total lack of accountability, particularly from Jessamine who at one point tries to cut off his ear, then saying “I know I’m a handful” like she’s bought another pair of shoes or had one too many at a hen night. When Stuart comes under pressure to return to the squat or lose his space he decides to return, but will Jessamine agree to that and what might she do to ensure he stays? Jane realises he has largely been there for Daisy and while he has been a great stepfather, he has enabled Jessamine. It’s as if everyone in the house turns a blind eye to the issue and he worries she will drink herself to death. He’s also found some things disturbing. He doesn’t know who Daisy’s father is, but no one else seems to know either. In the outhouse there are metal rings attached to the walls and a chair, as if someone has been chained up there. There’s a room upstairs referred to as the au pair’s room, but there hasn’t been an au pair for some time and no one talks about Jessamine’s father or brother either. The family story is that the brother ran away to join the circus and Jane is wondering if he is the clown? Like Stuart she’s starting to wonder about this family and their generational trauma.
This is a great plot, revealed deliciously slowly as Jane begins to realise that other women have gone missing in that part of Hampstead Heath. She and Dexter put their heads together and start to investigate in earnest, unearthing photos of the missing women and several incidents across the country involving a clown. Dealing with those allegations send to her to drink, asking Dexter to fix her anything that “will take the edge off the thought of that tiny masked clown pulling a scarf out of a woman’s ear in a car park with a hard-on.” Another laugh out loud moment. Jane relates to Daisy struggling to survive in this dysfunctional family, because she did too. Her parents neglected her and her brother until they were malnourished and practically feral. This is probably why she takes her role as a stepmother so seriously, she knows what it’s like to have no one from a very young age. I thought the twists and turns were done so well here, paced beautifully and not rushed as they sometimes are in thrillers. I read the end and felt satisfied, like every question had been answered and I wasn’t having to turn back through the pages and read it again to be sure I’d understood who’d done what. Nevertheless I still managed to devour it in a couple of days and I’m sure you will too. This is as thriller that comes highly recommended for it’s grasp of family dynamics and psychology of trauma, but I fear I will always be on alert for tiny little clowns from now on.
Meet the Author
LISA JEWELL was born in London in 1968.
Her first novel, Ralph’s Party, was the best- selling debut novel of 1999. Since then she has written another twenty novels, most recently a number of dark psychological thrillers, including The Girls, Then She Was Gone, The Family Upstairs, The Family Remains and The Night She Disappeared, all of which were Richard & Judy Book Club picks.
Lisa is a New York Times and Sunday Times number one bestselling author who has been published worldwide in over thirty languages. She lives in north London with her husband and two daughters.
Devi is a fighter. Growing up in the slums of Delhi, she has learnt that survival comes at a cost – and naturally, that means she’s made a few enemies along the way.
Now she’s being held captive, her life up for sale in an online auction, where the highest bidder will determine her fate.
With her existence hanging in the balance, Devi proceeds to give her captor ‘a confession to beat all confessions’ – as over the course of a single night, Devi unveils the secrets of her seven extraordinary lives.
Devi is the ultimate survivor – a girl from the gutters who dares to rewrite her own destiny. But will she survive the longest night of her life?
Vikas Swarup’s heroine Devi grabs hold of you the minute she starts to tell her own story in this episodic novel set in Delhi. The opening brings Devi to the lair of an unknown assailant who tells her he has seven people on the phone line who want to bid for her destiny. This auction will take one night and seven stories, stories she thought were secrets. As Devi tells each tale her kidnapper will take a bid on her life and he hopes to reach seven figures. However, Devi’s circumstances have not been easy and the fact she is alive is down to her cunning and experience. Has the kidnapper underestimated his prisoner or are Devi’s lives finally running out?
I was hooked from the first story as Devi explains how she started in a family home in the slum area known as Rail Basti, because the train tracks ran straight through the centre of the huts. This was Devi’s early childhood and despite the poverty she has happy times. She tells us about her annoying brothers, the eldest a maths prodigy and the youngest a terrible bedwetter, the daily sequence of trains that seem to rattle the ground under their hut and depth of water that rises indoors in monsoon season. Change comes when her parents choose an unorthodox plan to make an almost life-changing sum of money and fortune seems to turn almost immediately. Devi is an intelligent, funny and excitable nine year old and sometimes it’s hard to read about her daily life, never mind the more perilous and painful circumstances she finds herself in. She learns through necessity, takes chances where she sees them, soon inured to the fact that the only constant in her life is change.
The author’s visceral descriptions of the slums, the crime and violence and particularly the treatment of young girls of her caste are a hard read. He conjures up a picture of her family home perfectly with deftly layered descriptions of their space and the surrounding crowded alley ways:
“Sanitation in the slum was non-existent. The open surface drains looked like a river of green, clogged with garbage and plastic trash. For toilet the men would go with their lotas to the railway track. Mercifully for the women and girls there were a few communal latrines at the southern end of the slum that afforded a degree of privacy, though the long lines in the morning meant waits up to an hour.”
Once the family’s circumstances improve a little there are small improvements to daily life, like the arrival of a television that keeps Devi rapt for hours and helps her learn more than she ever has before. Her father decides they need to move, into a better area of the slum with the luxury of two rooms and its own toilet. It was more solid and didn’t let the rain in. However, the monthly payment was crippling financially and soon there was nothing left, they couldn’t ‘freeboot’ the electricity so television was strictly rationed and they were back living hand to mouth. Devi is the best storyteller, drawing you into their lives and then destroying you when disaster befalls them. I felt she was a very lonely person, aside from her early alliance with ‘German Sheffered’ dog Sheru. Each time she trusts someone, her parents, the police, authority figures, they all let her down. She has never known what it is to have someone absolutely in your corner.
The author captures the noise and colour of New Delhi so perfectly it’s almost a sensory overload as you read. The combination of this and the terrible ordeals that Devi faces are overwhelming sometimes and definitely left me feeling privileged in life. Devi’s narration keeps us constantly alert because that’s how she lives her life, constantly in the moment and ever alert to what’s going on around her. Her intelligence and experience mean she can sense when something’s wrong, such as noticing some girls in her dormitory at Muskan juvenile facility are more moody and unpredictable than normal. These young women are utterly powerless, so not only are they preyed upon by bullies and evil men but the system is so corrupt there is never any justice. No one is listening. I realised with surprise that the conversations she has on this one night with her kidnapper are perhaps the most intimate she has ever had. She gets to bare her soul and disclose secrets she has never told anyone. To be this vulnerable and knowing a terrible fate might await you at the end is both cathartic and terrifying.
The pacing is perfect as at the end of each story the phone call is made and the offer increases. She knows who must be on the end of the line and understands their capacity for revenge, she’s wanted it for herself enough times. It’s such a compelling read that I read this in a day, feeling like I’d visited Punjab, Goa, Kerala and finally Mumbai with Devi. The feel of each place is captured beautifully and the contrasts of her rollercoaster life kept me glued to the page. We know how red in tooth and claw the world is but what I found most hard to comprehend is how people could blind themselves from the suffering going on around them. It’s as if the British immigrants and millionaires living in Sector 1 of the city see those in the slums as ants, something they simply tread on as they get on with their vastly superior lives. We see the contrast when Devi lives with a woman who is a banker and wants to use Devi as her muse. On her daughter’s birthday there’s an orgy of gift giving with designer scarves, sunglasses, bracelets and a laptop are unwrapped, with her main present being a vintage Cartier watch. By contrast on Devi’s birthday there’s no party, just a cake and one present – a brand new Sony Handycam. Devi is overwhelmed and when the banker tells her to film the slums she does. She films people she knew, other kids dancing and play fighting, imitating famous people and having fun. Her benefactors are unsatisfied, they don’t want kids enjoying themselves they want to see the dirt and degradation, the alcohol, the drugs and the domestic violence. They want slum porn and she certainly delivers it, raw and unedited, but she knows that no film can truly capture what it’s like to live there.
There’s so much energy in this novel. It leaps off the page and its biggest achievement is its mix of addictive suspense and emotional insight. I came away from it feeling a little bit battered by the force of the story and it might take a few days to fully sink in. I liked Devi as a child, but as time and experience move her forward she becomes more morally questionable, complex and deeply conflicting. Although even if I didn’t always like her I could understand why she makes the choices she does and how she’s come to each terrible conclusion, every time wondering if this present adventure will be her last. It’s easy to forget when you’re deeply embedded in one of her stories that this is where it’s brought her, tied to a chair and listening as each person bids on her life. If you like to kept in suspense and to experience an extraordinary life lived in destitute and dangerous circumstances this is definitely for you.
I’ve been catching up on Kate Rhodes’s series of Ben Kitto novels and I’ve jumped a couple to read this for the blog tour, now I have to go back and read frantically to work out how he and Noah have ended up in Penzance. However that didn’t ruin the novel for me because it’s jam packed full of atmospheric settings, Cornish folklore and a cast of characters that left me suspecting absolutely everyone! Ben is living in Penzance, taking a break from his home island of Bryhir in the Scilly Isles after the events of the previous novel. He’s taking a break from police work and instead has found a job at a joiner and cabinetmakers, using the skills he learned building boats with his Uncle. It’s settled and therapeutic work as Ben slowly creates beautiful pieces of furniture and starts to deal with his grief and loss. Noah is a little confused to be away from everything he knows, but he’s enrolled at a kindergarten near Ben’s work so life has some routine and peace. He is starting to be brought into the community too, with an arts festival on the horizon he’s bound to be pulled into the planning, even just as a steward he’s happy to do his bit. Then life takes a sinister turn as he’s on the beach and sees a young mother with a baby in a pram. One moment of distraction and a black figure jumps out of the shadows and racing towards the pram it grabs the baby and throws it into the sea. Ben and Shadow are running before they’ve even thought and he dives into the sea to rescue the baby. He’s now a local hero, but the disturbing and traumatic event plays on his mind. How could someone do such a thing and will they do it again?
The author weaves her story around the local myth of the Zennor Mermaid, a figured carved into one of the pews in Zennor church. A beautiful woman called Morveren was said to attend the local church from time to time and listen to the choir. She had a wonderful singing voice and many suitors were interested in her, but she came to listen to Matthew Trewella who had the best singing voice. One day after church he decided to follow her and was never seen again. Years later a captain dropped anchor near the beach and was surprised to hear melodious singing. When he looked out he saw a mermaid sitting on the rocks nearby and she asked if he would raise his anchor as it was blocking the entrance to her house, where she lived with her husband Matthew. There are many mermaid figures in Cornwall and the upcoming festival will be based around music and singing in Penzance and then a sky-watching from the remote location of Zennor’s beach. However, the myth takes a more sinister turn when mermaid emblems and notes are sent to people with small children, warning that the mermaid is watching for those who don’t deserve them. The police are immediately involved and new DCI Carnforth approaches Ben for his take on the original crime, could this person strike again? In sinister short sections we are taken into the mind of this person who themself as a mercy killer, where parents are neglectful or harming their children, the attacker will offer them to the Zennor mermaid who waits under the sea to claim them. Ben isn’t keen on becoming involved but Carnforth is keen to have his input and suggests he works more like a consultant than actually making a return to the force. For those lucky readers who know Ben and his dog Shadow, it’s impossible to imagine him sitting back and not taking part. Both of them seem to have an innate instinct when something is wrong and when Ben finds a mermaid talisman in his own garden he knows that he must find this person before anyone else faces the devastation of losing their child.
It was strange to get used to Ben in a new environment because he’s always seemed so at home in the wildness of Bryhir. Penzance is a huge difference being on the mainland and being a town, although Shadow seems to get used to the geography of his new home very quickly. I enjoyed the way the author presents Cornwall, giving it a split atmosphere between the town itself and the wilder places beyond, echoed in the two sites of the festival. She also gives us a realistic view of Penzance beyond the tourist trail, as both picturesque and a working fishing port. There are hints at the port’s arty history too with the Tate being a few miles away in St Ives and the attached village of Newlyn associated with Barbara Hepworth and many other artists. There’s a mix of tourism or seasonal visitors, then the long term residents trying to survive, especially during the quieter months when seasonal work isn’t as available and every empty property is listed on Air BnB rather than let to locals who need a home. Young people are priced out of the market and have no hope of owning a home of their own where they were born. Social housing is just as poor and overcrowded as it is anywhere else and perhaps has more demand, in fact the mother of the first victim is living on an estate that miles away from our usual depictions of Cornwall and a big contrast to Ben’s usual working area. The town’s foodbank is busy showing that residents are struggling with the cost of living, but on the other hand Ben’s chosen nursery for Noah has the rather middle-class sign of being run on Steiner principles. There are definitely haves and have nots here and Ben is definitely pulled into the lives of people who’ve had very difficult upbringings in circumstances of poverty, neglect and abuse. However, recovery and rebuilding are also big themes here with Ben playing a huge part in helping those in difficult circumstances while struggling to handle his own grief.
It’s sad to meet Ben at such a crossroads in his life and I was pleased to see how our regular characters rallied around him, very carefully while letting him think they’re close by for other reasons. He thinks his Uncle is visiting Penzance because he has a secret woman and when his best friend Zoe appears he thinks she’s just there to headline the festival. Yet they are around at a crucial time for Ben and Noah and possibly know our hero more than he realises. I was hoping he’d start to see the benefit of grieving alongside his friends and fellow islanders, rather than removing himself from the situation. His relationship with Zoe is as close as always and her support means the world. She’s also bringing music back into his and Noah’s lives, something that his nursery teacher seems very keen for Noah to pursue. She approaches Ben to tell him that Noah is very talented for his age, a skill that is probably from his mother Nina. She’s very intense and insists that not to nurture Noah’s skill would be tantamount to neglect. The author drops little clues like this one throughout the book until I had about six suspects in mind! The tension as the festival approaches is nail-biting as Ben works with the police to make plans for security so that parents can attend with their children safely. Ben is a natural investigator with an innate skill for trouble that’s almost prophetic. He knows when there’s a pattern in a criminal’s behaviour, his brain detects a clue but can’t quite get there yet. There are some uniformed officers in the local station who begrudge Ben working with them and are resistant to the changes their new female chief wants to make. I started to wonder whether our attacker could be closer than they realise, especially when the DCI also has a warning from the mermaid about leaving her child with a nanny. Crimes against children are so emotive and that’s very clear here as the inner voice of the attacker becomes even more disturbing with a strange circular logic that hard to understand – ‘I see unworthy mothers and fathers everywhere I look, they don’t deserve any more chances […] they think the world is safe and that chaos doesn’t exist. None of them understand the price their children could pay, laughing distracted or staring at their phones. Negligence is a sickness”.
By the time the festival arrives everyone has done all they can to keep families safe, with a security perimeter at the park that can’t be broken, of course that assumes the attacker isn’t one of the stewards. I was still suspecting the nursery nurse, the festival organiser, a police officer, a young man who is abused by his older brother and even the DCI’s nanny. The author has created short, urgent chapters here. They ramp up the tension as we flip between Ben’s inner world and the attacker’s, following them and their newest victim to the dark, wildness of the festival’s other site at Zennor. We can sense the mystical feeling of Cornwall and how it’s become warped in this person’s mind. It’s pitch black and rough terrain, plus with miles and miles of coastline can they be sure to find the right place in time. I defy anyone to put the book down at this point and I devoured it in one sitting. Ben still knows he’s missing a part of the puzzle and we have to trust that his intuition will click in before it’s too late. This is a great thriller and taking Ben out of his natural habitat does bring a different feel to the series, though I hope he does eventually return to island because he belongs there. We can see in the aftermath that he needs his found family and just like Zoe he will always return to the island and each other.
Meet the Author
Kate Rhodes is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet, selected for Val McDermid’s New Blood panel at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival for her debut, Crossbones Yard. She has been nominated twice for the prestigious. CWA Dagger in the Library award, and is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for the critically acclaimed Isles of Scilly Mysteries series.
I’m writing this from a puddle of my own sweat and with a fan roaring in the background. Every animal has spread their body as far as possible across the wooden floor trying to keep cool. It’s been a stay at home month for sure as my neurological symptoms worsen when it’s hot, within a couple of days I had the texture of a wet noodle. So it’s been a month with lots of reading. I’m organised though, fans in both rooms I use a lot, ice cold water, lollies and ice chips, a neck fan and a handheld motorised fan that’s a god send. Nothing tells you that you’re middle aged more than a neck fan for Christmas. Especially when you’re pleased with it. I’ve been reading for the Squad POD Collective this month, then mainly NetGalley reads in between. There’s a huge range in these favourites as we go to Ireland, Liverpool, Norway, Italy and the US, from the aftermath of WW1 to the present day. There are family sagas, an incredible forbidden love story, a great start to a new crime series, the most talked about book on social media and finally a slice of whimsical joy from Matson Taylor. See you next month 📚
Look at that fantastic gothic cover! This is the dark and dangerous side to my favourite city as disgraced detective Mark Fletcher wakes up disoriented in the Castle Street Hotel. He’s horrified to find he’s in bed with a corpse, a man with a bullet hole in his head. How can he explain this when he has no memory of what happened last night? His finger prints and DNA will be everywhere, so will his disillusioned colleagues believe him if he calls it in? He can take his chances with his old team or he can run. This is the man who caught the Butcher of Bootle, only to watch his life rapidly fall apart nine months ago. Luca Veste takes us on a breathless chase through Liverpool while the crime team are playing catch up. We follow his old colleagues Kirkham and Abs as they investigate a body discovered in a garden in Kirby, making Brookside jokes along the way. Could these two deaths be linked? We’re also introduced to the Bonucci family, patriarch Salvatore and his second in command Gino and Frankie. Everyone knows the Bonucci family, they have legitimate business interests but underlying that is a criminal enterprise that’s seeped into every area of the city. They also blame Mark for the death of Salvatore’s youngest daughter Sofia, a huge lapse of judgement that went terribly wrong. Now Mark is trying to investigate who killed his bedfellow, Kirkham and Abs are 24 hours behind him, but could the Bonucci’s be closer? This is a nail-biting and action packed crime thriller that had me rooting for Mark from the moment he woke up. I loved the Scouse humour and the settings the author used as Mark jumps out of windows and even into the Mersey. The ending is such a shock and very clever indeed. I’m already waiting for the next book.
I’ve not written my full review on this but I can’t stop thinking about it and I’m dying to talk to other people for their opinion. We are introduced to Natalie, a trad wife influencer in the US with a hugely successful social media business and merchandising from their ranch Yesteryear. Natalie espouses the traditional life where the man is the head of the household and the woman looks after the home and their ever growing family. Her husband Caleb works the farm, while she runs the business with the help of two nannies and a producer. The monetisation paradox is clear to see, she’s making a living by preaching values that she doesn’t live by. Natalie wants her followers to embrace her trad view on family life, but has turned her ideology into a successful business run by a woman. Followers can watch her baking bread or collecting eggs from the chickens, but they don’t see her childcare or the producer who live on the isolated ranch with the family. Thanks to some clever remodelling of the house they also have all mod cons, but hidden from view with clever screening. Natalie tells women they should submit to their husbands, while agreeing privately that her own is an idiot. Without her this family would be lost. At university Natalie kept herself to herself, noting her roommate’s promiscuity and feminist viewpoint knowing she would become one of the ‘angry women’. Women who think they can have it all – the career, the marriage, the home, the children – end up doing it all and no wonder they’re angry. She still criticises the angry woman; seemingly never realising that’s exactly who she is and that her life is unsustainable. One morning she wakes up when it’s still dark, she can hear children having breakfast in the kitchen. Why hasn’t anyone put a light on? As she makes her way into the kitchen she realises that it’s very basic and her children are eating by candlelight. Except they’re not her children. The oldest girl is looking after them, but she doesn’t know her. Then she sees Caleb, but there’s nothing behind his eyes. They seem to living a real pioneer life, with everything done by hand, no hidden gadgets or shortcuts, no staff, no filming. Is this a nightmare? Has she been imprisoned here? Has she time travelled? You will ask all these questions alongside Natalie as the author takes you back and forth from the internet friendly lifestyle she created and the real thing. The author has managed to make an unlikeable character incredibly compelling, asks questions of this strange world where everyone has a real life and an Instagram ready life, and challenges ideals that current US politicians are advocating for women. The minute you finish this book you will want to find someone else who’s finished it so you can talk.
It was lovely to spend some time this month in one of Faith Hogan’s warm and welcoming worlds, this time on an isolated Irish island called Pin Hill. In this small community, sisters Blythe and Rae grew up with their grandparents at the family hotel in Hope Square after the death of their parents. Blythe’s ambition in life was to train in hospitality at university and follow her grandad into the family’s hotel business. Rae on the other hand was more of ‘go with the flow’ girl, spending her time with friends rather than learning the family trade. Yet, when we meet the grown up sisters, life hasn’t turned out as planned. Blythe lives in her own guest house at Still Water House with handyman husband Kip and daughter Siggy. Rae’s husband Marcus has died and she’s living alone in the Hope Street Hotel, where she’s run the family business with her husband for many years. What happened to place these sisters at odds with their expectations, especially Blythe who lived and breathed the hotel. As always Faith has created some great characters here in the rather strident and opinionated Blythe and her quieter, less confident sister. Blythe’s actually a bit much in parts and I found her very hard to like. We’re taken back and forth to the women’s teenage years where the explanations lie and uncover the secrets and events that set them on the wrong paths. While in the present day, Rae is struggling to maintain the hotel alone and has discovered financial problems her husband covered up. Unfortunately they aren’t the only secrets about her marriage. She has the help and support of niece Siggy and refugee Danial who’s just moved to the island with his grandmother. Blythe is suspicious of both of them and becomes obsessed with Rae’s potential plans for the hotel, setting herself on a path to disaster. This was a lovely, warm novel with great moments of humour in between the sister’s broken relationship. This is the perfect summer holiday read.
First of all I have to mention that gorgeous Art Nouveau cover on this novel, matching perfectly with the time period which is post WW1. This is one of my favourite periods for historical novels because I’m fascinated with the pace of societal change that ranged across class, gender and sexuality. It’s also a period where mental health issues and disability became much more prominent. Many men came home from the war with amputations and facial disfigurements, changing their lives forever. Of course many men didn’t return and every family was touched by loss either on the battlefield or in the waves of Spanish Flu that broke out after Armistice Day. Into this period of seismic change, Rue Baldry has written a beautiful story of forbidden love that touches the heart. Our two narrators are Albert and Edgar, who are both at a boarding school but for different reasons, despite being close in age. Albert was demobbed and needed a job, so is working at the school as a gardener. He has been through so much, yet is only 19 years old. Edgar is 18, a schoolboy from the middle classes who has just missed active service and longs to train as a doctor despite his dad’s wishes. When they meet there’s an instant affinity between them and we’re drawn into their fledgling love. This is a book that’s so evocative of the era whether it’s the old-fashioned British private school or in hell of the trenches. I thought the exploration of a class divide between the two men was very well done too and represented the societal changes in post-WW1 England. It’s impossible not to be drawn in by this love story, especially poignant considering these men were paved the way for the more permissive society we have today. There is no better representation of love is love,
In Ireland, Maggie has grown up hearing her mother tell her the bedtime story of The Glass Key. It’s a Nordic fairytale passed down by Maggie’s grandmother Anna Swan, who mysteriously left her home one stormy night years ago, never to return. Now Maggie’s grandfather has died and going through his things, Maggie is shocked to discover a faded wartime letter, asking him to take in a baby. In that moment she realises that Anna Swan was a woman of many secrets.
Only by travelling to Norway and discovering the story of four brave young women whose lives were forever changed by the occupation of their tiny islands, can Maggie uncover the shocking truth about her family – and finally unlock the mystery of the glass key…
I’ve still to write my review for this one, but I enjoyed it immensely particularly the WW2 timeline in the Norwegian islands that I knew nothing about. People displaced and lost during WW2 is close to my heart as my late husband was Polish and both of his parents were displaced during the war. I loved how the author showed how far the war reached and how it was only on one tiny uninhabited island that the young women could let go of it for just one afternoon. Amanda’s novels are real favourites of mine and this had everything – family secrets, hidden letters, forbidden relationships, espionage and some incredibly brave women. This should be on every historical fiction fan’s summer list.
Last, but definitely not least we come to Matson Taylor, not only a great writer but an all round good egg. His knowledge of art. architecture, and ancient Rome gives us a fabulous summer setting for this standalone novel about found family in the eternal city. A wobble on a new Vespa has Clemmie and Monty literally bumping into each other on a bridge flanked with angels as the novel opens. Monty’s injuries aren’t too severe but mean he can’t work on the renovation job he has in Rome. Now without a roof over his head and needing to recover from concussion (at least he hopes that’s why he can hear Octavian the cat talking to him) Clemmie and her friend Floss offer their palazzo. In their very unique home he finds the rest, relaxation and the care he has needed for a long time. You’ll fall in love with Monty who really is one of life’s innocents or what me and my mum call ‘new people’ who are on their first incarnation in the world. What he does have are secrets and a private grief that he’s never shared. Matson brings him together with the caring aspiring writer Clemmie and her friend, the flamboyant retired actress Floss. Add to these eccentrics a pair of food smuggling nuns, a man who lives in a converted ice cream van and a little twinkle of magic too. I never want Matson to stop writing because where else would I find scenes of nuns going to a gay disco? Set in the 1970s where the height of fashion is Floss’s new avocado en-suite, dazzling Rome is brought beautifully to life and as always there are deep emotions at its core. This is a wonderful comfort read for the summer, especially for those of us who are staycationing.
Here’s next months tbr, if I don’t get distracted of course!
Once hailed as Liverpool’s finest detective, Mark Fletcher brought a serial killer to justice and earned the city’s admiration. But when he’s accused of working with Liverpool’s most notorious crime family, his legacy is shattered – and so is his life.
Now disgraced and spiralling, Fletcher wakes up in a hotel room with no memory of the last 24 hours… and a dead body beside him.
The evidence says he did it. His instincts say otherwise.
Hunted by the force he once served, Fletcher must uncover the truth – not just to clear his name, but to survive. Because someone wants him silenced, and they’ll stop at nothing to finish what they started…
Wow! What an opener to a new series from Luca Veste, set in his hometown of Liverpool which just happens to be my mum’s hometown too. I’ve spent time in Liverpool since I was a little girl, visiting family in Rainhill, going to mass at the the cathedral and visiting art exhibitions as a teenager when the Tate opened up on the Albert Dock. It was the first trip my husband and I took with his daughters visiting the museums and going vintage shopping on Bold Street. They loved it so much that my eldest stepdaughter and her boyfriend have been living there for the last three years for university and are making the city their home. Mostly I love the people and their attitude on life, their resilience, their determination to fight injustice and the way they stick together. It’s a great city with so much diversity, both in its residents and its buildings something the author really captures in this novel. He uses different areas of the city for different moods, showing that there’s a reason Liverpool is often used as a film set for shows like Peaky Blinders, This City Is Ours and The Responder, capturing the grandeur of the Georgian quarter, the more run down areas and where industrial buildings from it’s heyday as a port city have been revamped for new projects. It’s no surprise it’s often used in feature films to represent New York, because Liverpool’s energy made NYC feel strangely familiar when I first visited. It also has a darker, criminal underbelly that the author delves into here.
The incredible cover for the book features the iconic Liver Birds, one looking towards the city and the other looking out over the Mersey. They bring a gothic feel to the cover and this is definitely a very dark tale, highlighting the criminal underworld that visitors don’t get to see. While the Liver Birds and grand riverfront buildings have grandeur they never lose their sense of humour, the Cunard Building’s distinctive brickwork mean its known as the Streaky Bacon building, the grand grey stone buildings in the administrative district have pride coloured pigeons on the eaves reminding us it’s also the gay quarter and there are also Superlambananas – yes they are exactly what they sound like. Even the huge Queen Victoria statue at the end of Castle Street has its own name – Victoria’s Knob – because her sceptre looks very phallic from a certain angle. It’s Castle Street where the book opens as suspended police detective, Mark Fletcher, wakes up in a hotel room bed with a dead man. From that point we follow Mark’s every decision as he tries to save his career, but also his life. He has two choices: to call it in and hope he has enough goodwill left that his colleagues will listen or to leave the hotel and try to investigate. Who wants him implicated in a murder? Do they want to give him a taste of his own medicine and see him jailed or are they playing a game that ends with his death? In between the action packed present day, we’re taken back to nine months ago when Mark was riding high, the detective responsible for catching the Butcher of Bootle. What could possibly have happened to start the fall from grace he’s had in such a short time? The answer to that question lies with one woman, Sofia Bonnuci and her gangster family. The minute he tried to help by hiding Sofia from her violent boyfriend everything changed. Today, from the moment Mark wakes up, the plot is action packed as he jumps out of windows and into the Mersey, dodges suspects and bullets at breathless speed. We tear across Liverpool from the very grand Castle Street to the docks, Rainhill and into the Wirral. I loved the dialogue too, full of Scouse humour with references to ‘the bizzies’ and Brookside as Mark’s old colleagues Kirkham and Abs investigate a body found buried in someone’s back garden in Kirby- their boss asking whether anyone called Sinbad lived there. They find out that the landlord of the houses is an agent who works for the Bonucci family. Could these events be linked in some way or is it just a coincidence?
Mark really does grab you as a central character and I was on his side immediately. We’re privy to all his thoughts and deductions, as well as his changing emotions as the day progresses. This is a deliberate choice by the author who wants us to bond with the central character in this new series. I trusted him too because he feels like a good man who’s made some poor choices, possibly due to being one of life’s ‘rescuers’. He can’t resist helping, even if it has meant stretching the rules a little. Stepping outside the rules only works when nothing goes wrong, but when it does the situation runs away from him and here he is living alone, drinking a little too much and potentially losing the job he loves. It’s a case of poor judgement, something that plays into his decisions now, involving other people in what could be a doomed situation. His colleagues Kirkham and Abs will soon start investigating the body in the hotel. Would they even believe Mark if he did contact them? The discussions between them show the impact of Mark’s previous actions on his team, with Abs pointing out that they were close and now nobody even talks about him. It’s hard to know what to think, especially when they see CCTV from the hotel. Did Mark made one mistake that went drastically wrong or has he been completely rogue all along? We are let into their world of the Bonucci family too, where legitimate business interests across the city seem to be a cover for more illegal activities. This family are like a liquid that’s seeped into every area of Liverpool and the author cleverly sets them up for future novels with a potential interest in a new Italian restaurant that sounds very like a favourite of mine in Bold Street. A power struggle seems to be emerging, with Salvatore Bonucci now becoming older, his seconds in command Gino and Frankie, are jostling for position and both have very different approaches to business.
The tension is absolutely nail-biting as Mark ends up cornered but escapes again and again. However, constantly looking over your shoulder is wearing and Mark is getting colder, dirtier and more tired all the time. There’s also his mental state, as his conscience is battered again and again will he simply run out of self-belief? Every time he escapes, his choices narrow. A show down is coming, but will it be with his old colleagues or will the Bonucci family find him first? The ending of this book, when it comes, was so unexpected my jaw dropped. The forbidding setting of Toxteth Reservoir is a brilliant choice, with derelict buildings full of dark, damp labyrinth of endless corridors and hiding places. It brings us full circle back to the gothic Liver Birds:
‘Their wings weren’t spread in triumph, but half open as if caught in the moment before deciding whether to strike”.
They’re a metaphor for the whole book, constantly on edge and potentially dangerous, leaving the reader trailing behind unsure what’s going to happen next. It’s clear Luca Veste values his readers by giving his previous Liverpool Detectives a cameo, with Murphy as Kirkham and Abs’s boss and Rossi helping her parents set up their (very familiar) new restaurant. He’s setting them firmly into the future of this series, something fans will love. This has definitely whet my appetite for more from this team, thanks to the author’s love for his city and his ability to surprise the hell out of his readers.
Out now from Harper Collins
Meet the Author
Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Liverpudlian heritage, married with two young daughters, and one of nine children. He studied psychology and criminology at university in Liverpool. He is the author of the Murphy and Rossi series, which includes DEAD GONE, THE DYING PLACE, BLOODSTREAM, and THEN SHE WAS GONE.
Part psychological thriller, part police procedural, his books follow the detective pairing of DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi. The novels are set in Liverpool, bringing the city to life in a dark and terrifying manner…with just a splash of Scouse humour. Liar Liar is the first in a new crime series set in Liverpool.
In a mountain village in the Abruzzo region of Italy, Gino, a troubled young man, realises that his childhood sweetheart Franca can give his life the happiness and stability he needs. They seem made for each other, and move to a remote house in the countryside – but there is something in Franca’s past that haunts Gino.
Descending into pathological jealousy and resentment towards a married man who had been Franca’s lover, Gino is unable to stop himself imagining the worst, and embarks on a violent path that has catastrophic consequences.
There couldn’t be a better book for a counsellor to read than this one, following the life of Gino who lives in a small Italian town on the Adriatic Sea. The setting isn’t a bucolic, sun drenched and charming little town, despite Gino’s upbringing on his father’s smallholding where he mainly grows tomatoes. This is a grittier Italy, perfectly suited to the story and Gino himself. Although there is a sense that there’s a different existence within reach, perhaps the life his father has living off the land or whatever brings his father’s friend Harry back every few months. Whatever contentment is, Gino doesn’t know how to find it or accept it once he has it. Gino was born here and makes the comment that he’ll die here if he isn’t careful. He doesn’t want to live the life his parents have, he has bigger and better things to do. However, it could also be the foreshadowing of what’s to come when he meets Franca again. Franca was at school with Gino and in some senses he feels they’re both outsiders: ‘She was a strange little stringy thing, with a thin face and brown hair’. Franca was nicknamed The Rat by other girls, but then Gino was called Dopey after the dwarf in Snow White. She’s very bold, walking up to Gino and telling him that she’s going to marry him one day something both of them were teased about for years. Now, when his father mentions her, he seems irritated but they do have something in common, an inability to live up to their heroic parents. Gino confided in her when they were thirteen, saying all he seems to do is disappoint his father. Franca seems to get this, after all Gino’s father is known for something heroic he did in WW2 and her father is the local ambulance man. Maybe, she suggests, they could be something different to each other? She’s a realist, saying her father could have wanted a beautiful daughter and she’s aware she isn’t. How can they compare to heroes? They are only human. Gino gets into trouble in his teens and spent time in a psychiatric unit and he admits he’d forgotten his old friend, but the conversation with his father lights up his memory and he questions his choices. With a new view on life he searches Franca out and asks to take her to dinner and they are married in a whirlwind and given the chance to make a home in her aunt’s house in the countryside. Is it possible that Gino has learned from his mistakes and now sees what is important in life?
If I had a trainee who wanted to understand the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy concept of negative automatic thoughts I’d get them to read this book. Everything Gino experiences is filtered through a faulty lens. Whether this is innate or a result of constantly feeling like a disappointment is hard to tell. At the moment he has it all, but in his mind it’s already unravelling. The house needs a lot of work, but could be a secluded haven for a family. Gino hears that something strange happened to Franca’s aunt here during the war and starts to wonder about it, could an event like that leave something in the house like a mood or a feeling? Is the house unlucky in some way? To be transparent about her past Franca tells him about an affair she had with one of her father’s friends. Although outwardly he seems to accept this confession, inwardly it becomes a nagging concern he can’t shake off. He asks others about man who has a concrete business, telling them he has a friend who’s putting in a pool. He tells himself he just wants to look at him, but can he resist speaking to him or perhaps even warning him off? At the end of her working day Franca goes to a cafe in town to wait for Gino to pick her up after work. He notices that she’s chatting to a man, laughing and passing the time of day and he knows he’s been trying to pick her up. His strangest obsession comes when his son Elio is born, a beautiful baby with amazing violet eyes. Everyone who sees him comments on what a beautiful boy he is and he genuinely seems hypnotic for some people, almost holy. All Gino can see is a boy who looks nothing like him. Neither he nor Franca are beauties so how can Elio be his and inspire such reverence in complete strangers? Being in his mind is exhausting and worrying, the author leaves us unsure what he might do next. Pressure mounts with every page and Harry is the only person who seems to get through to Gino, telling him that perhaps the boy embodies the beauty inside them both.
Everything about Gino screams of a paranoid personality disorder, his mistrust of others and ability to twist innocent encounters into personal slights and grudges are classic symptoms. He has stopped listening to others and his behaviours become more extreme, including hallucinations that his baby son is talking to him. Franca is disturbed to come home and find Elio screaming in the house alone, while Gino is zoned out in the garden. As readers we’re inside his mind and see his motivations, the wrong patterns of thinking and the way he broods and cultivates grudges that are simply not there. Instead of facing these painful thoughts he directs his anger and obsession outward. If Elio is nothing like him, then someone else must be the father. I genuinely believe that Pierozzi would have carried on his life rarely thinking of Franca and her new husband, but Gino’s places himself in harm’s way. Pierozzi is a dangerous man. He’s described as someone things happened to and that resonated with my idea of Gino. Is this something people would eventually say about him? The way the author builds this difficult inner world is so clever and I was anxious, mainly for Franca and Elio. They are living in the middle of nowhere, with a husband and father who is no longer rational. I was mentally screaming at her to make sure she had somewhere safe to go.
Franca is very sure of her own emotions and choices. When Gino asks her if she’d still marry him she tells him calmly that her feelings have never changed. However she does have “something of the fox about her. That sudden, absolute stillness, that pricking of the ears, that readiness to flee.” Will Franca be just as resolute if she does sense danger? I felt so sad for her, because Gino’s obsession with her past harms her, even though it has nothing to do with him. Why can’t he see that she has only ever loved him? Despite him leaving and never making her any promises when they’re younger, her love never dies. That shows loyalty, but it’s never appreciated or rewarded. Even the beautiful son they have isn’t enough and I wondered if it was partly about his fears of her infidelity but mainly about his relationship with his own father. They were so different in character and distant emotionally, did he ever wonder about his own paternity? The author bookends this story with Harry as the narrator and honestly I had an emotional reaction to being back in Harry’s steady hands at the end. Being in his world felt safer and the way he frames Gino’s story gives it some closure and structure too. I found myself wondering how I’d work with a client like Gino and whether he could ever be satisfied with his life. This book has emotional depth and complexity, tension and action alongside some incredibly surreal moments too. I would definitely read this author again.
Out now from Head of Zeus
Meet the Author
Rupert Thomson is the author of fifteen critically acclaimed novels, including ‘The Insult’, which was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize, and chosen by David Bowie as one of the 100 Must-Read Books of All Time, ‘The Book of Revelation’, which was made into a feature film by the Australian writer/director, Ana Kokkinos, and ‘Death of a Murderer’, which was shortlisted for the Costa Prize.
His latest novel, ‘Dark is the Morning’, was published on May 7th 2026. Praised in advance by the likes of Chloe Aridjis, Claire-Louise Bennet, Sarah Waters, Julie Myerson, and Philip Pullman, LoveReading subsequently made it one of their Star Books of the Year, saying “Thomson’s writing casts an almost other-worldly spell…Teeming with tension, ‘Dark is the Morning’ represents literary fiction at its most page-turningly thrilling and poignant.” According to the Financial Times, which admired Thomson’s “stunned, post-traumatic prose”, it’s “the ideal holiday read: frictionless at the level of the sentence; stealthy, romantic, and utterly unpredictable in every other way.”
Rupert Thomson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has contributed to the Financial Times, Granta, the Guardian, the Independent, and the London Review of Books. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York, Sydney, Rome, and most recently Barcelona. He currently lives in London.
When young nurse Claire Davidson goes missing on the riverbank, the only clues left behind are her phone and shoes.
A mystery that sweeps the nation
People disappear all the time, but this case sparks an online frenzy. Amateur investigators descend on the rural idyll. Is Claire Davidson just the story of a swim that went wrong, or could there be truth to the conspiracies?
A killer growing bolder
Then another woman is discovered dead in the river. Jake Jackson, a former detective who came to the countryside searching for peace, must investigate before more lives are lost.
It’s lovely to be back at Jake’s home Little Sky, even if it does have a worrying proximity to serial killers. Jake is drawn into the search for a woman who was last seen going for a run by the river. When a body is eventually found it turns out to be a different woman. Jake is asked to consult with DI McAllister because even though it could still be a case of nature becoming dangerous, anxiety is raised in the community who have been working in groups to find the first missing woman. The possibility of a killer brings out the true crime influencers who start to stalk the river and the village’s inhabitants, including Jake who has gained a reputation as an investigator. The author brings in aspects of the manosphere and militant feminism to the case, highlighting new residents and groups we’ve not met before. Alongside his usual team of Martha, Aletheia and partner Livia, Jake is very keen to find the answers to this case before the birth of his first child. Little Sky is a quirky place to live, with no road and total peace from the outside world, a world that did encroach on Jake and Livia a little bit this time. I felt like he was at Little Sky less than before and this distance from his peaceful haven had an effect emotionally. Has the role he’s been pulled into opened him up to more danger than before when he was a police officer? Is what he does making Livia a target?
At heart Jake is a book fiend, something all readers relish in a character and we find him perusing the shelves of his nearest second hand bookshop for additions to the crime fiction library at Little Sky. I felt like there was a build up in the tension of this novel. Jake has hardly had a break since his last case and since he originally came to this corner of the world as a sanctuary I feel like he needs some down time. He’s also becoming more well known which is problematic and does cause some tension between him and Livia. The online world encroaches more and more into our worlds and this crime is no exception. The village becomes besieged by true crime enthusiasts, filming content and in one case trying to find their way into Jake’s investigation. The fact that this is a woman doesn’t help, because Dani is clearly flirting to get the information she wants and even uses the couple’s secret signal to get Jake to meet her. This is an intrusion too far and Livia is furious. As always, the ethical questions of using someone’s violent death as entertainment come to mind, not missing the irony that the book hinges on the very same prurient interest. However, there’s also danger for these online sleuths. They don’t have the police back up that Jake does, or the experience of his years as a detective and they’re working entirely alone. Another theme is the manosphere and misogyny, embodied by a group of men who come and join the search in its first twenty four hours. These are men who spend many hours together in the gym, with all the banter and macho competition common in men who exercise together. I didn’t like the vibe of this group, particularly when they invite Jake to join them at the gym. Jake is no stranger to exercise and is very strong, but it’s always solo and involves long walks and runs, swimming in the lake and working in the garden. I felt he was being manipulated and coerced into competition, but the conversation is eye opening and worth every pull up. They bemoan the fact that women don’t act like they used to:
“I think women should be pretty like they used to be. Delicate you know. They should look the right way to please a man.”
They’re angry at being seen as toxic males and their views collide strongly with a couple who run a pottery studio by the river. Livia would like to take one of their classes so she and Jake go to meet the women and take the opportunity to ask if they’ve seen anything. Both women are feminists but it’s Emma who is clearly very angry at the way men treat women and at this killer who she believes has an issue with modern women. One of the stranger aspects of this killer’s modus operandi is the time they take to paint the victim’s nails. Jake wonders if Emma is angry enough to kill to make her point. In the background Aletheia and Martha do their usual sterling work, with Aletheia liaising with her police contacts and Martha managing to gain access to a worrying amount of information online from official sources that should be unhackable. Martha is by far my favourite and I loved that the author included Jake’s preparations to have her stay at Little Sky. As a wheelchair user I get irate when books and TV series have people with disabilities seemingly able to live in houses with stairs or work independently in a way that would be impossible. Martha is brilliant because the author includes the physical barriers that leave her at a disadvantage, such as Jake’s ramps all over Little Sky showing how much he wants to include her in this space. It’s great that she’s included and the author lets us know what it takes to include her. Someone knows their social model of disability. Martha is forthright, driven and has creative ways of treating her chronic pain. Despite some limitations she’s super intelligent and often ahead of the rest of the team.
This series is always a slow burn, but the action packed final chapters are nail-bitingly tense and violent. This killer knows exactly where to hurt Jake. As usual Jake finds a way to catch them off guard – a wet hairy naked man leaping out of the darkness is always terrifying and this definitely raised a smile. I felt there was more tension between him and Livia, probably down to hormones and the very real prospect that they are bringing a child into this rather uncertain existence. Livia is usually so relaxed and brings calm to the chaos but here she seemed unsettled and insecure. However, Jake is aware and his decision about their lives moving forward will go a long way towards reassuring her and Diana. On Livia’s behalf I’d like to ask the author if this couple can have the holiday they desperately need before more adventures and a new baby comes their way.
Meet the Author
Stig Abell believes that discovering a crime fiction series to enjoy is one of the great pleasures in life. His first novel, Death Under A Little Sky, introduced Jake Jackson and his attempt to get away from his former life in the beautiful area around Little Sky, followed by Death in a Lonely Place and The Burial Place. Stig is absolutely delighted that there are more on the way. Away from books, he presents the breakfast show on Times Radio, a station he helped to launch in 2020. Before that he was a regular presenter on Radio 4’s Front Row and was the editor and publisher of the Times Literary Supplement. He lives in London with his wife, three children and two independent-minded cats called Boo and Ninja (his children named them, obviously).
The Lotus Readers 