THE SCANDAL By Nicola Marsh

THE SCANDAL

SYNOPSIS

My life is like one of those cheap snow globes my twins collected when they were younger. Shiny and pretty on the outside, blurred beyond recognition when shaken.

Ever since her twin girls left home, Marisa has felt there’s something missing from her life. Her sprawling mansion is no longer filled with laughter and chaos , and she’s desperate to feel needed... and to be distracted from the secret she’s been hiding from her husband for all these years.

Coffee with her best friends might be the only thing holding Marisa together. But Claire and Elly have their own secrets. Like why Claire hasn’t been to work in three weeks, or why Elly won’t tell anyone who’s buying her flowers.

When Jodi, a pregnant young girl, turns up at Marisa’s doorstep, Marisa is quick to come to her aid. She sees herself in Jodi and she knows how devoting yourself to looking after others can take up all your time in the most marvellous way.

But Jodi’s arrival quickly pushes everyone’s lies to the surface. The father of her unborn child is someone the women know very well, and Marisa stars to wonder if her obsession with helping Jodi might come at a devastating price....

MY REVIEW

Marisa or Ris as she likes to be called, Claire and Elly are all friends. But they all have secrets from each other. Marisa is married to Avery a narcissistic plastic surgeon, Claire is married to Dane who sells medical equipment. Elly is now single after finding out her husband was married to someone else and had 3 children with his other wife living a double life.

It’s hard to tell how friendly these women actually are as there are things they keep from each other and there is some bitching behind each other’s backs, They all have what seem to be perfect lives living in the Hamptons but there is more going on behind the scenes than any of them want the others to know. One of them is having an affair with someone’s husband but who is it?

Marisa is not happy in her marriage feeling the empty nest syndrome since her twins have gone off to university in LA. When Jodi a young pregnant woman turns up randomly one day on her doorstep Marisa has to help her as she has so much to give, there is such a loneliness about Marisa. Jodi reminds her of herself before she met her husband.

Claire is desperate to have a baby but it’s just not happening and this is putting pressure on her marriage to Dane. But what secret or secrets is she keeping. She is terrified her husband will leave her, she lacks so much self confidence.

Elly is just angry with men for several reasons which become clear. But one is after finding out her husband was already married with three children and living a double life. Divorced she is now on a destructive course of sleeping with married men and then telling their wives she feels it is her duty to tell them like she is doing them a service. But who is her current lover? Why is he a secret?

Keeping so many secrets between them all can make life very complicated. But just as you think you have guessed who has what secret you are blindsided with something else and you end up going in a different direction.

This is a good psychological thriller if you like Big little lies you will enjoy this. I have given this 4 out of 5 stars in my rating. It’s a good read I stayed up until 4am to finish this despite nodding off a couple of times I wanted to finish it to find out all the answers.

Enjoy.

Thank you to #netgalley #Bookouture #nicolamarsh for an ARC of  this book all opinions are my own and honest.

THE POSSESSION By Michael Rutger

THE POSSESSION By Michael Rutger

SYNOPSIS

THEY CAME LOOKING FOR ANSWERS

A group of explorers arrive in the remote town of Birchlake, Northern California, to investigate the appearance of mysterious walls.

WHAT THEY FOUND WERE QUESTIONS

A teenage girl has disappeared without a trace.

FOR NOT EVERYONE IS AS THEY SEEM

Soon it becomes clear that the last two events may be connected in the most terrifying way. Because sometimes the walls we build upend up closing in on us....


MY REVIEW

Difficult to know where to start with this review. I wasn’t sure what I expected from the book after reading the synopsis. I hadn’t realised that this was the second book involving the intrepid explorers. The first book is called The Anomaly.  But to be honest that really didn’t matter as this book as a stand alone was very good. There were a couple of references to a previous adventure but that was only near the beginning of the story and I didn’t feel I really needed to have read it before reading this one as it is a totally separate story.

Nolan, Ken, Pierre and Molly are You Tubers looking for conspiracy theories to explore. Nolan comes up with the idea of looking into The Berkeley Walls Mystery which is about walls that were built many years ago no one is clear who or why they were built but they are ancient and seem to be in random places not keeping anything in or out but are just there across parts of Northern California.
Kristie is Nolan’s ex wife she has gone to small town Birchlake in Northern California to look into the disappearance of a young girl Alaina. Which by coincidence just happens to be in the area that Nolan has taken the team unbeknownst to them initially. The wall idea doesn’t seem to pan out into a story the intrepid four want to do so they end up in a motel in Birchlake. But there things start to get very weird and interesting. Strange things start happening to Kristie and the intrepid four. Saying much more would be a plot spoiler but the walls do come into the story. So think witch craft, supernatural, horror because I’m really not sure which genre I would put this in possibly all of them.

I love Steven King novels and as this was written on the front cover that sort of drew me in to it. I’m not sure I would have normally been drawn to this. But I am so glad I picked it. I absolutely loved it. Initially the walls bit had me sat there wondering what I was reading but I kept going and was then engrossed with the things going bump in the night. I actually chuckled loudly at a couple of the antics and conversations then in the next minute I was holding my breath not knowing what was coming next.

A great read.

THE AUTHOR

Michael Rutger is a screenwriter whose work has been optioned by major Hollywood studios. He lives in California with his wife and son.

Thank you to #netgalley #Zaffre #MichaelRutger for an ARC of this book all opinions are my own and honest.

This book is available to purchase now from Amazon.co.uk as an ebook or hard book

THE SILENT ONES By K.L.Slater

SYNOPSIS

This morning, I was packing up lunches, ironing, putting on the laundry I should have done last night. Now my precious daughter is accused of murder.

When ten year old cousins Maddy and Brianna are arrested for a terrible crime, Maddy's mother Juliet cannot believe it. How could her bright, joyful daughter be capable of such a thing?

As the small village community recoils in horror, the pressure of the tragedy blows Juliet and her sisters lives apart. And things get even worse when their daughters retreat into a self imposed silence. Can anyone reach Maddy and discover the truth before her fate is sealed?

Juliet is crushed. Nothing will ever be the same for her darling girl. But she knows that to find out what really happened that day, she and her sister must unlock the secrets of their own terrible past, a past they swore never to speak about again...

MY REVIEW

This is the first book I have read by K.L.Slater but it certainly won't be the last.

The story is quite fast paced and hooks you from the first page the clever thing at the beginning is that you don't know which little girl did what as no names are used. Obviously we also don't know if they are either of them guilty of assaulting the old lady which led to her death either. The story is told from different perspectives sometimes Juliet sometimes as Chloe, also jumping back into the past and how the sisters were raised. How each was treated differently by the parents more so the mother than anything. It's very cleverly all put together with lots of things coming out having you guessing what is going on.

If your 10 year old daughter is accused of assaulting an old lady that led to her death along with her 10 year old cousin what would you do? You want to stand up for your daughter and not believe her capable of something so atrocious but your niece is involved as well and your sister is obviously there for her daughter. What strain does this put on a family. Can they survive? Also what family secrets are being kept and by who?

This is a really good read and I highly recommend it if you like your books to pack a lot in. A good psychological thriller.

Thank you to #netgalley #Bookouture #K.L.Slater for the chance to read this ARC all opinions are my own and honest.

THE AUTHOR

Kim is the million-copy bestselling author of eight psychological crime thrillers.

For many years, Kim sent her work to literary agents and collected an impressive stack of rejection slips. At the age of 40 she went back to Nottingham Trent University and now has an MA in creative writing.

Before graduating in 2012, she gained literary agent representation and a book deal. As Kim says, 'it was a fairytale... at the end of a very long road!'

Kim is a full time writer. She has one daughter, two stepsons and lives with her husband in Nottingham and Yorkshire.

NOTHING TO HIDE

SYNOPSIS

Suspended from duty after her last case ended in a high profile arrest of one of Britain’s wealthiest men, DC Constance Fairchild is trying to stay away from the limelight. Fate has other ideas....

Coming home to her London flat, Constance stumbles across a young man, bloodied, mutilated and barely alive. She calls it in and is quickly thrown into the middle of a nationwide investigation.... It seems that the victim is just the latest in a string of similar ritualistic attacks.

No matter that she is off duty, no matter that there are those in the Met who would gladly see the back of her, Con can’t shake her innate determination to bring the monsters responsible for this brutality to justice.

MY REVIEW

This can be read as a stand alone novel but I would recommend you read the first book in the series before reading this one (No Time To Cry) a lot more of the story will make sense especially relating to Izzy Cons half sister as well as other references which pop up all the way through the story.

Lady Constance Fairchild or Con as she likes to be known, is a Detective Constable currently suspended from duty after the case she worked on in the previous book which led to some high profile arrests of people of importance including some police officers. Which explains why she is not well liked around the station. She is being hounded by the press being called “posh cop”.

She doesn’t get on with her parents as they disapproved of her choice to become a police officer. Despite her upbringing she is far from being the Lady she was raised to be. She has tattoos on her arms, swears and likes to drink a pint when in the local pub.

This story revolves around a young mans body that Con finds behind the bins her where she lives he has been brutally mutilated but is still alive. It seems this is not the only incident if this happening but has happened nationwide.

Despite Con being suspended rom all duties and warned to stay away she defies her superiors and continues to look into what is happening. She goes to Edinburgh in what is supposed to be her getting away from the press but she has an ulterior motive which is to visit the mother of the young man she found.

She stays with a friend of her aunts Rose who claims to be psychic she is a unique character that hopefully will appear in future books. 

Cons mum seems to always be attracted by cult like leaders who she donates money to. 

I loved the first book in this series and Oswald previous books with Inspector McLean but there was something missing in this one and I struggled to stay with it. It is supposed to be a police procedural but there wasn’t a great deal of police procedure going on except for when looking through CCTV footage. I felt some of the story to be repetitive when Con was running away from whoever was chasing her both times it was written that she would be ok as she had the advantage of knowing the area so could evade capture by using back alleys and side streets. I can understand this being written once but the same thing being said a second time just irritated me.

There are some good new characters introduced in this book which I am hoping we will get to know more as the series progresses. I have only given this book 3 stars as it just seemed to be lacking something.

THE AUTHOR

James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series. James's first two books, NATURAL CAUSES and THE BOOK OF SOULS, were both shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger Award.

James farms highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.

Thank you to #netgalley and #Headline Wildfire # Nothing to Hide #JamesOswald for letting me have an ARC of this book all opinions are honest and my own.

STOP AT NOTHING By Tammy Cohen

SYNOPSIS

A mother’s job is to keep her children safe.

Tess has always tried to be a good mother. Of course, there are things she wishes she’d done differently, but doesn’t everyone feel that way?

Then Emma, her youngest, is attacked on her way home from a party, plunging them into a living nightmare which only gets worse when the man responsible is set free.

But what if she fails?

So when Tess sees the attacker in the street near their home, she is forced to take matters into her own hands. But blinded by her need to protect her daughter at any cost, might she end up putting her family in greater danger?

There’s nothing she wouldn’t do to make it right…

My Review

I was looking forward to reading this book after reading the synopsis it sounded perfect. unfortunately I did find it fairly slow going but continued on and I am glad I did as the story picked up. It did take me longer to read than normal I found it to be one of those books that you put down and pick up at intervals.

Tessa is a woman with a lot going on in her life, her husband had left her for another woman 2 years earlier, she was going through the menopause, her eldest daughter isn’t talking to her and is living with the father that reveal comes later in the book, she had been made redundant from her job at a magazine publishing business having worked long hours that has now gone. So she now freelances. Most of her friends have dropped her after she had had a total meltdown in public which under all these circumstances is easy to understand why. She has a webcam set up in her parents house as her mum has Alzheimers/dementia and her dad is getting old and is his wife’s main carer. She checks the webcam frequently to check they are both ok and that its not too much for her father.

However, the story begins when her younger daughter Emma is attacked when walking home one evening by some man, she is punched in the head and he is trying to drag her off. Until a driver passing by rescues her this is when we are introduced to Frances. Both Emma and Frances are invited to go to the police station to do a video lineup. Tess is watching her daughters face to see if there are any signs that she recognises the person responsible. She is convinced her daughter had picked the person number 8 who she later finds out his name is Stephen. But Emma says afterwards she couldn’t be sure and when Frances comes out she also says she wasn’t sure but she thought it was leaning towards number 8. Tessa wants to see the man punished for what he has done to her daughter. But her initial concern is her daughter who is struggling with the aftermath of the attack. A few days later Emma sees the same man coming out of a building near the tube station Tessa was with her and saw her reaction to him and took his picture on her phone. From then on she becomes obsessed with getting this man even if it could put herself and her family in danger. Frances has managed to involve herself in Tessa’s life almost taking over she turns up at many places Tessa does and feeds her information about the guy who Tessa believes was the attacker. Frances has also become very friendly with Emma which initially Tessa understands but then begins to resent a little. But is Frances as good as she seems? Is there more to her story? 

As the story progresses the pressure mounts up and strange things start happening. There is someone else in the story which I found confusing as I couldn’t work out who it was or where it fit you just knew when it was that person as the writing went to italics. All is revealed later in the story. 

I was a little bit disappointed with the way the book finished. As it seemed to be a little open ended it could possibly lead to another book or you could just be left to wonder. But that is probably just me I like things tied up neatly at the end.

This is a very well written story showing how far a mother is prepared to go for her children and I think most mothers would feel the same. Not sure whether I would rather rely on the police route though instead of going after someone who could or could not be the perpetrator. But that could be something you never know unless you are in that situation.

I would recommend this book if you like psychological thrillers if you find it a little slow stick with it as the pace goes a little faster later. Obviously this is just my opinion many people like a slower paced book.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tammy Cohen (who previously wrote under her formal name Tamar Cohen) has written several acclaimed novels about family fall-out: The Mistress’s Revenge, The War of the Wives, and Someone Else’s Wedding. The Broken was her first psychological thriller, followed by Dying for Christmas.

She lives in North London with her partner and three (nearly) grown children, plus one badly behaved dog.

Chat with her on Twitter @Ms TamarCohen

RELEASE DATE

This novel is available to preorder now on Amazon and is due for release on the 18 July 2019

Publisher Random House Uk, Transworld Digital

ISBN 9781473542655

Thank you #netgalley #RandomHouseUk,TransworldDigital #Stop at Nothing

Share this:

• Press This
• Twitter
• Facebook

• 
  

THE GIRL IN THE GRAVE BY Helen Phifer

SYNOPSIS

At least they had found her. Once the site was processed and the girl’s body removed, they’d be able to identify her so that her family could give her the burial she deserved. This innocent girl was far too young to be lying in a grave, crushed under the weight of someone else’s coffin....

When the body of a teenage girl is found hidden inside a strangers grave in a small town cemetery in the Lake District, an urgent call is made to Forensic Pathologist Beth Adams. One look at the beautiful girls broken body is enough to bring Beth out of hiding for the first time since an attempt on her own life.....

MY REVIEW

Wow. What a great read started this late one afternoon read until the early hours of the morning until I literally couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. But I was back reading it as soon as I woke up. It’s just one of those books you cannot put down as you really want to know where it’s going next.

The opening chapter had me feeling claustrophobic  just from reading it I felt I was there, this same feelings happened again later in the book. It was different having a Forensic Pathologist as involved in the investigation.

Forensic Pathologist Beth Adams has previously survived an attack herself which almost cost her her life more details of this come out throughout the book. She had gone from being a Dr in A & E to train to be a Pathologist.

Her house is very highly secured with top of the range security systems and she has taken up self defence lessons as well. But is all this enough to keep her safe. From what or who she fears!

Her friend Detective Josh Walker had saved her life the first time around and now he is trying to save another life after a body is found buried in a graveyard underneath another coffin it is only found when the coffin in that plot is exhumed when someone queries how the person died and wants a second opinion or is that just a ruse to ensure the other body is found below!

From then on it is a rush to find who killed the young girl buried and then another person is reported missing.

Full of suspects that will keep you wondering this story certainly keeps you engrossed.

This was an absolutely thrilling read from start to finish definitely worth a 5 star review. Can’t wait to read more about these characters, will be looking out for the next book in the series.

THE AUTHOR

Helen Phifer is the #1 bestselling crime and horror novelist of the Annie Graham and Lucie Hardin series. Helen lives in a small town in Cumbria with her husband and 5 children. Surrounded by miles of coastline  and only a short drive to the beautiful Lake District. She loves reading books that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

Her debut novel The Ghost House was released in October 2013 and introduced readers to officer Annie Graham. This went on to be an Amazon #1 bestseller in Canada. It reached #1 on the Amazon Contemporary Horror charts in both the UK and US. She was delighted when the second in the series pushed the first book off the #1 spot.

Other books that followed were The Forgotten Cottage, The Lake House, The Girls in the Woods and The face Behind the Mask.

#netgalley #TheGirlintheGrave #Bookouture #michellephifer

LYING NEXT TO ME By Gregg Olsen

My Review

I read this book in two sittings. A very well plotted story told from different perspectives of the characters. Adam and Sophie are married but it doesn’t seem to be a faithful marriage although at first you wonder whether either of them have actually cheated on each other or is it just suspicions. Then Sophie is murdered whilst they are away for Memorial Day weekend. But Adam couldn’t have done it as he was with their daughter in a boat and saw his wife being abducted he even had a witness an old man who walked his dog in the beach had seen Sophie grabbed and taken away. Then you have Kristen a Lawyer desperate for a baby and her waiter husband Connor who drinks too much they are also staying in a cabin next door to Adam and Sophie but Connor can’t remember anything as he had too much to drink and Kristen was with him all evening. The lead investigating officer knows Adam he had saved her life when she was younger and had been kidnapped so in her mind Adam couldn’t be involved in anything it was so tragic for him to lose his wife and the daughter to lose her mum. But who is telling the truth and who is lying. It kept me guessing until the final 8 or so chapters then I twigged what the outcome was going to be. But this is a very well written book the characters are relatable the jealousies that are seen in the world of social media. It’s up to date with the times of Facebook and text messaging and shows how things can easily be misconstrued or made to look in a way that someone wants it to look.

I look forward to the next book by Gregg Olsen