STONE COLD HEART by Caz Frear

STONE COLD HEART by Caz Frear

SYNOPSIS

Joseph Madden says his wife is setting him up for the murder of a young PA found dead after a party.

His wife says he didn’t do it

The trail of evidence leads to more questions...

MY REVIEW

This is the second book in the series involving DC Cat Kinsella and although this is a stand-alone book it’s good to have read the first book Sweet Little Lies as there is a back story which continues in parts of this book which make more sense if you have read the first book. On saying that this is a good read.
The story flows well and you can relate with some of the characters.

 Joseph Madden is a narcissist, he believes all women should fancy him. He asks Cat when she is buying coffee from what he makes out is his own business what he should do about his wife as he claims she is trying to try and frame him for something. Cat tells him he should go to his own local police station and ask there advice. She finds him creepy as he gives the big come on asking him to go away with him.  A couple of months later when a young woman is found murdered in her flat that things start to change. Joseph Madden is brought in for questioning and everything is pointing at him as the murderer. Cat has a niggling suspicion there is more to the case.  She does believe he is possibly capable of it and likes him even less. It’s just some things don’t add up. Is his wife lying? What about the sister in law! There are lots of different things going on in this story that will keep you wondering. Interwoven in the story is Cats relationship with Aiden whose sister was murdered which evolves from the first book. Cat is keeping their relationship secret from everyone or so she thinks. Uncle Frank pays Cat a visit and he is not the type of visitor she wants. Her relationship with her father has also had many ups and downs. This book does not disappoint and leaves you wanting more at the end.

I would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC of this book to read all views and opinions are unbiased and all my own.


THE AUTHOR

Caz Frear grew up in Coventry  and spent her teenage years dreaming of moving to London and writing a novel. After fulfilling her first dream, it wasn’t until she moved back to Coventry thirteen years later that the writing dream finally came true. She has a first class degree in History and Politics.

Black Summer by MW Craven

BLACK SUMMER by M.W.Craven

SYNOPSIS

Jared Keaton, chef to the stars. Charming. Charismatic. Psychopath . . . He’s currently serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his daughter, Elizabeth. Her body was never found and Keaton was convicted largely on the testimony of Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.

So when a young woman staggers into a remote police station with irrefutable evidence that she is Elizabeth Keaton, Poe finds himself on the wrong side of an investigation, one that could cost him much more than his career.


MY REVIEW

I would like to thank #netgalley #Littlebrownbooks  for an ARC of this book my review is unbiased and all my own opinion.

Wow where do I start if you haven’t read the first book in the series The Puppet Master I would say start with that. I have done a previous review on that. This book can be read as a stand-alone novel but the characters are developing and reading the first helps to understand them more. But this is a personal preference of mine.

 Poe finds himself in trouble in this book and calls on the one person he can trust Tilly Bradshaw the very intelligent computer nerd/whizz who doesn’t have very good social skills, sometimes when she says things it can be very amusing as she basically will say whatever she thinks with no filter. Just love her character.

Poe needs all the help he can get in this book otherwise he will find himself where Jared Keaton is. How can this woman be Elizabeth Keaton? Poe is adamant he got it right first time but the evidence is showing differently. Why has she disappeared again? The race is on to stop Jared Keaton being a free man which is what will happen if Poe was wrong.

I couldn’t put this book down I read it in one sitting engrossed from page one until the end and then that disappointment that I now have to wait for the next Poe and Tilly novel.

If you read one book this summer make it this one or even both books in the series if you haven’t read the first you won’t be disappointed.

THE AUTHOR

M.W.Craven was born in Cumbria grew up in the North East before running away to join the Army when he turned 16. After training as an armoured for two and a half years, he spent the next 10 travelling the world and having fun. He left the army in 1995 and completed a degree in Social Work, with specialisms in criminology, psychology and substance abuse. In 1999 he joined Cumbria
probation service as a probation officer, working his way up to chief officer grade. 16 years later he took the plunge and accepted redundancy to concentrate on writing.

This book is available to buy now from Amazon.co.uk as an ebook or hardback as well as all good booksellers

The sleepwalker by Joseph Knox

The sleepwalker by Joseph Knox

Synopsis

‘He said he didn’t remember killing them’

As a series of rolling blackouts plunge the city into darkness, Detective Aiden Waits sits on an abandoned hospital ward, watching a mass murderer slowly die. Transferred from his usual night shift duties and onto protective custody, he has just one job....

To extract the location of Martin Wick’s final victim before the notorious murderer passes away.

Wick has spent over a decade in prison, in near total silence, having confessed to an unspeakable crime that shocked the nation and earned him the nickname The Sleepwalker.

But when a daring premeditated attack leaves one police officer dead and another one fighting for his life, Wick’s whispered last words will send Waits on a journey into the heart of darkness...

Manipulated by a reticent psychopath from his past, under investigation from his new partner, Detective Constable Naomi Black, Waits realises too late that a remorseless contract killer is at work.

Or will his name be next on the hit list.

My review

This is a gritty novel with so much action going on. Martin Wick claims he didn’t kill the family he is in prison for killing. He writes a note for Waits partner who gets injured when the hospital room that Wick and Detective Peter ‘Sutty’ Sutcliffe are in. Wick dies but Waits partner Sutty survives with severe burns and is put into an induced coma to help him recover from burns. 

Wick wrote a note which he handed to Sutty the problem is Wicks writing is so tiny and ineligible but he maintains it wasn’t him. Was he telling the truth? Who took the photograph and sent it to the press letting anyone know where Wick’s was. Who can you trust!

A very fast paced novel that will keep you guessing until the end and after.

I enjoyed this book read it in one sitting and can’t wait for the next one as I was left with some questions still unanswered. If you like your books dark and edgy this is a read for you.

This review is my own opinion after reading an ARC it is totally unbiased thank you to #netgalley #doubleday #Joseph Knox #The Sleepwalker 

I gave this book 4 stars out of 5 it is released on the 11th July 2019 available for pre order now.

Little girl missing by J G Roberts

Little Girl missing - J G Roberts

The blurb

How can a little girl go missing?

Five year old Cassie Baileys mother tucked her into bed and kissed her goodnight.  The following morning she is missing. Her unicorn bedcovers are empty, and her parents are frantic.

Detective Rachel Hart knows that the first few hours after a child goes missing are the most crucial, and that the Baileys are living every parents worst nightmare. Rachel knows, because as a child her family lived through it too, when her sister was taken.

The days are ticking by with no sign of Cassie, and the cracks in the Baileys marriage are beginning to show. But are the holes in their stories because they are out of their minds with panic - or because they are lying?

Rachel is convinced that Cassie knew the person who took her, but can she find the little girl before she’s lost forever?
My Review

This is a well written story with lots of things going on that just keeps making you jump from one person to another thinking it could be them that has taken Cassie. The Baileys marriage is already broken as the husband left five weeks earlier after getting drunk after an argument with his wife and ending up in bed with the one person that his wife hates because she had been bullied all through childhood by this girl now grown woman.

Has Cassie been abducted? Is she still alive ? Where is she? 

This book will keep you guessing until the end and I would highly recommend it it’s a good read.

The characters are good and hopefully we will see more of Detective Rachel Hart.

I give this book 5 out of 5 

Thank you to #netgalley and #bookouture for an ARC of this my opinions are honest and are my own.

Fear In The Lakes by Graham Smith

Fear in the Lakes - Graham SmithA case with no leads.

The Blurb

A victim with no enemies.
A killer with no conscience…

When Detective Beth Young is called to investigate a victim with multiple broken bones, nothing prepares her for what she finds. James Sinclair is fighting for his life, and Beth can’t shake the idea that the nature of his injuries suggest someone with a personal grudge against him.

But James’s devastated wife Laura insists that her kind, softly-spoken husband is a man with no enemies. She was the one with the fiery temper, but James was so calm, she’d never once managed to provoke even a cross word from him in their eight year marriage. And he was the same with everyone – she can’t name one person who might want to hurt him.

But she knows virtually no details about her husband’s childhood or his life before he moved to the Lake District as a young man, and Beth feels sure that the key to finding James’s attacker is hidden in the secrets of his past. Who was he really? And what is the significance of the coded messages that Beth finds hidden on his laptop?

Then two more bodies are found in one of the deep, picturesque lakes that the area is so famous for, exhibiting similar injuries to the ones James Sinclair suffered. How are they connected? And how many more people are at risk?

Beth knows she is in a race against time to hunt a vicious killer who is both elusive and incredibly dangerous. A killer who knows what James did in the past. Who likes to be one step ahead. But who – if they realise they’re being hunted – might come for Beth next…

MY REVIEW

I believe this is the second book of a series with Beth Young and maybe the character is just developing but I struggled to get into this one I’m really not sure why. The writing is good the story flows and has its moments where you are trying to work out who it is that’s doing this dreadful thing to people and why. But I just couldn’t seem to bond with the lead character which is normally how I feel when reading I like to be able to picture the lead and work out what makes them tick and know as much about them as possible. But she was just sort of bland to me. I felt more for the detective who had lost his wife to Alzheimer’s disease and was drowning his sorrows. However, this is just my opinion and she may grow on me as the series grows and we learn more about her. The only other thing I just didn’t like was almost at the end where the murderer is about to be caught the chapter seemed to just jump the tension was being jacked up and the the chapter ended and the main character is meeting her fiancées family. I felt a little more could have gone on there the tension was there then it was ended. That just didn’t work for me. I felt Beth interviewing the killer should have come before her going to meet her partners family too much of a jump.

This is an honest review after being given an ARC of this to read this book is due for release on the 12th July.

About the Author

Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland. 

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has six books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and four novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder. His ‘Lakes’ series featuring DC Beth Young has received much critical acclaim.

An avid fan of crime fiction since being given one of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books at the age of eight, he has also been a regular reviewer and interviewer for the well-respected website Crimesquad.com since 2009.

Graham is the founder of Crime and Publishment, a weekend of crime-writing classes which includes the chance for attendees to pitch their novels to agents and publishers. Since the first weekend in 2013, ten attendees have gone on to sign publishing contracts.

A Merciful Promise by Kendra Elliott

A Merciful Promise By Kendra Elliott

A new book due for release on the 18th June 2019. This is book 6 in a series and is also the last in the series.
I hadn't read any of the previous books in this series but was able to pick it up and read it as a standalone novel although most of the characters are by now well developed and the relationships between them have clearly been covered in previous books as several things were mentioned about back stories. It is a read you can pick up and put down at your leisure something you don't have to concentrate on too much so if you are just looking for a light read this is perfect sometimes we just want to lose ourselves in something lighter. I enjoyed reading this book and have subsequently purchased the previous 5 books to read.

Mercy is an FBI agent called in to work under cover for ATF after one of there agents is taken ill and cannot do the mission and Mercy is the closest looking to the agent she is to join another agent who is already undercover and has to pose as his girlfriend to stop a mercenary/militia group from a plot they have planned to make a stand although they do not know what the target is. Things start to heat up from the minute Mercy arrives in the camp. In the meantime her fiancé Truman the sheriff has to accept that Mercy has to go off grid and there will be no contact whilst she is on the mission although not happy he knows this is her job. He is kept busy when a dead body turns up on the land of one of Mercy's friends followed by a second body on another nearby property things get grimmer when a third body is found putting more stress on Truman.

I was given an ARC of this from #netgalley my review is totally unbiased.

Ragdoll by Daniel Cole

This is the debut novel from Daniel Cole and if you like your thrillers a little on the gory side then this is a read for you. It is the first book in a trilogy the second book is called Hangman and follows on from where this one leaves off the third book Endgame is due out in September of this year and I cannot wait.

A serial killer is on the loose a body has been found with the dismembered parts of 6 different victims sewn together the press nickname the body Ragdoll. Its uptown Detective William 'wolf' Fawkes recently reinstated after previously attacking a serial killer known as "The Cremation Killer" after he was found not guilty. Wolf had been the officer who arrested him and knew he was guilty he lost it and ended up being suspended and in a mental facility. 

After being assessed and found fit to return to work this is the case he has to deal with along with his former partner Detective Emily Baxter. this is one long ride and had me gripped to the pages throughout. This is a rollercoaster ride from start to finish.

I absolutely loved this and just couldn't put it down and luckily I didn't have long to wait for the second book the wait for the final instalment is harder to do to see how the whole drama finishes up.

If you like cosy thrillers then this is not for you but if you like a little more guts and gore then grab this book now and follow with the second book.

This is just my opinion on the book and is an unbiased view I would give it 5 stars out of 5

I Am Watching you by Teresa Driscoll

I read this book in one sitting as I just couldn't put it down I had gone through a dry spell of not being able too get into any books recently so was really pleased when I found this one.

If you heard a conversation on a train with two attractive young men chatting and flirting with two teenage girls would you do anything to intervene. Ella Longfield is on that train and can hear clearly the conversation between the group the girls on there way to London to see Les Miserables and staying in a budget hotel they are excited having just finished their GCSE's this is their reward. The two men are carrying black bin bags which Ella thinks is odd as why not carry holdalls but the girls ask and it is revealed they have both just been released from prison. She then hears the men offering to be guides for the girls in London asking them to meet them after the theatre at a club. This is when the dilemma hits Ella does she now do something or is it none of her business. Initially she is relieved when she hears the girls saying they have their trip all planned out but then one of the girls goes to the buffet Ella decides to follow with the idea of intervening and saying she feels she should contact the parents. But its only as she gets nearer the buffet she realises that that isn't where they have gone but they are in the trains toilet making out. She is shocked by this and changes her whole opinion about the girls. 

The following day one of the girls Anna is missing and all Ella's doubts come flooding back she feels guilty for not having done anything, for not calling the police, she had tried to call her husband but there was no reply. Now she feels she has let herself and everyone down.

The story revolves around the girl who didn't go missing and Ella who is still full of remorse for not doing anything at the time she did tell the police afterwards that she was in the same carriage.

One year on and she is still feeling angry with herself as Anna its still missing and they are doing a reconstruction of that night. The worst part was the police had leaked her name and people did judge her.

Ella has her own florist shop and starts getting threatening mail and the tension builds up from there.  It has you on the edge of your seat at times not knowing which way the story is going.

I really enjoyed this book and found myself wondering what would I do in that situation its a difficult decision to make. I have a couple more of this authors books that I have to read and if they are both as good as this one I will be delighted.

This is just my opinion of the book and how I felt about it if you haven't read it then its definitely worth a look.

Missing, Presumed (A Manon Bradshaw Thriller) by Susie Steiner


This is the first book I have read by Susie Steiner and will not be the last. We are introduced to DS Manon Bradshaw. Who is called in to investigate after a young girl Edith Hind has gone missing all that is left behind of her is her coat, a smear of blood and a half open door. Not much to go on. Friends and family all have different stories but non of them add up. Bradshaw is under a lot of pressure as the press are hounding her for answers and she has to work hard before a missing person case could become a murder case.

The story is told by different perspectives Lady Miriam Hide the mother, Manon the detective who knows the first 72 hours of someone going missing is the most crucial. Detective constable Davy Walker, Helena Ediths friend. Each chapter is headed with one of these characters names.

We get to learn about Bradshaw throughout the book as well as what some of her colleagues think the whole story flows brilliantly with twists and turns. The characters are all well rounded and you can bond with them. There is some dark humour within the story which works well.

I enjoyed reading this first book introducing Bradshaw and I look forward to reading more about her again in the future. The next book with Manon Bradshaw is Persons Unknown and was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick 2018. The author is currently writing the third book with Bradshaw in and it is due for release in 2020. If you haven't given this a go I can highly recommend you do if you like police procedurals and psychological thrillers you will enjoy this.

This review is just my own opinion on the book.

Book reading for pleasure: The Puppet Show by M.W.Craven

Book reading for pleasure: The Puppet Show by M.W.Craven: I am new to blogging but have a love of reading so bare with me as I start this blog. I have to start with a very recent book I found....

Just a few books I managed to grab when in The works a couple of weeks ago they all happen to be on my TBR list so this was a bargain £10 for 6 books ironically its a shop I have never thought to look in but its good to support your local shops if you can. I have to admit I do use Amazon a lot and sometimes I even buy books twice once as a physical copy and as an ebook if on offer. The reasons I do this is because there is nothing like holding a real book but as I have osteoarthritis in my hands sometimes it becomes a little difficult I do have a book holder which is a life saver though. I use it for both holding a physical book as well as my kindle or iPad when reading on them at night that way if I happen to doze off the kindle switches itself off after a few minutes of not being touched. Only draw back is I normally then wake up with my glasses on! I would highly recommend having a look in your local shop The Works if you have one though as they have a very good selection of books at a good price. I will be doing some reviews on these as and when I read them so look out for that in the future.

The Puppet Show by M.W.Craven

I am new to blogging but have a love of reading so bare with me as I start this blog. I have to start with a very recent book I found. I joined a great group on facebook called Uk Crime Book Club and this book was recommended by many people and by chance I had it on my book case although I didn't remember buying it but boy am I glad I did.

Washington Poe has been suspended from his job after he leaked information that led to a murder he has taken himself off to the a remote part of the Lake District where he lives with his dog Edgar. However he gets a call from a previous colleague who worked under him but now has his old job acting D I Stephanie Flynn a body has been found with his name on it so he is returned to work to try and solve this serial killer case. Newby Matilda Bradshaw (Tilly) who has several degrees and a masters but has lived a very sheltered life and has no filter when she speaks which at times is funny this lightens the story and by the end Tilly and Poe are good friends. The action and suspense is kept right up until the end. I read this in one sitting and had that sad feeling when I had finished it as I could have read more.

I love the characters in this they are like chalk and cheese and the story just flows brilliantly. So if you want a good crime thriller/police procedure novel then grab this one.

Just by chance book two in the series is out on June 20th and I have been lucky enough to have been given an ARC and will post a review nearer the release date but its another good read.