The Nazi Ghost Train by Greg Lewis

Description from Goodreads:

"The true story of how more than 1,400 men and women of the Resistance, SOE agents, and airmen from Britain, the US and Canada were saved from death in a concentration camp by the courage and cunning of a small group of Belgian civilians.

Nazi Ghost Train unfolds in a pulse-pounding narrative, describing the terror of being shot down on bombing missions, the fight to stay free and alive with Gestapo on your tail, and the gut wrenching horror of betrayal.

From the opening scenes inside a B-17 when it is pounced on by an enemy fighter to the final desperate hours on the 'Ghost Train', this fight for survival will keep readers truing the pages after they should have flicked out the light.

Drawing upon a wealth of primary sources and extensive interviews, Nazi Ghost Train brings to life a cast of unforgettable characters, a Jew who risked his life to work with the armed resistance; a Liberator pilot who dropped secret agents behind the lines; a fascinating young Resistance heroine who ordered an attempt to kill one traitor and escaped to London to expose another to British intelligence; and Francoise Labouverie, who gathered intelligence on German radar until a Nazi officer dedicated a detective unit to track her down.

These stories weave together until - with liberation a heartbeat away - the Belgian patriots, Allied airmen and agents are roused from their prison cells and loaded onto cattle trucks. Would that be the end of them or could one last extraordinary escape plan change everything?"

📚📚📚📚📚📚

Essential reading to ensure these remarkable people are never forgotten

I've read quite a few books about the Second World War but this one really stuck with me. It tells the story of Allied airmen and members of the resistance who were trapped on one of the final deportation trains leaving Brussels just as the city was about to be liberated. The sheer scale of the research Greg Lewis has put into this is incredible and it shows in every chapter.

What really got to me was the unbelievable bravery of the "normal" people involved. These weren't professional soldiers in the traditional sense – they were just people who decided they couldn't sit back and do nothing while their country was occupied. The detail provided about the individual airmen and the Belgian resistance fighters makes the whole ordeal feel very personal rather than just another history lesson.

The conditions these people faced were nightmare-ish, and the author doesn't shy away from the grim reality of life in occupied territory. It isn't just about the train itself, but the constant fear and the unknown that they lived with every single day. From the tension of evasion and moving between safe houses to the harrowing experiences after being caught, you really get a sense of the immense pressure on both the airmen and the resistance members.

If you're interested in untold stories of WWII or the resistance in occupied Europe, I'd definitely recommend picking this up. It’s a remarkable tribute to those who suffered and fought back during such a dark time.

Many thanks to the author, Mirror Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this informative book.

📚📚📚📚📚📚

It's Not What You Think by Clare Mackintosh

Description from Goodreads:

"He has a secret. She knows he’s lying…

YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

Nadeeka is certain Jamie is having an affair. She knows the tell-tale signs.

She’s been here before.

YOU THINK YOU KNOW WHO YOU CAN TRUST

When Jamie claims to be at work late, she knows he’s lying. He’s with another woman, and she’s determined to catch him in the act.

YOU THINK YOU KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS

But when Nadeeka arrives home to confront him, Jamie can't explain himself. The house has become a crime scene…

Jamie is dead.

IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK"

📚📚📚📚📚📚

The twist of the year

I’ve been a fan of Clare Mackintosh since I read I Let You Go and Hostage – too many years ago – and I've been remiss at not picking anything up by her since. Where have I been? With my head in the clouds obviously! I'm so glad I finally jumped back in with this one because it's a cracker.

It starts with Nadeeka who is convinced her boyfriend Jamie is having an affair. She’s been cheated on before so she knows the signs and decides to head home early to catch him in the act. But when she gets there the house is a crime scene and Jamie is dead.

The story is told through multiple points of view and it’s so cleverly constructed. Every time I thought I’d finally got a handle on what was happening the rug was pulled out from under me again. I actually took a sharp intake of breath and covered my mouth when the big reveal came because I honestly didn't see it coming at all.

The characters are so well written and felt really credible which just made the whole thing even more tense. It’s one of those books where you shouldn't trust anyone – including the person telling the story! If you’re into psychological thrillers that keep you guessing until the very last page then you really need to pick this one up.

Thanks to the author, HarperCollins UK, HarperFiction and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts.

📚📚📚📚📚📚

It Ends Here by Heidi Perks

Description from Goodreads:

"You are one of five strangers whose day will start with the worst phone call imaginable.

Your loved one is in danger.

They are part of a group trapped in a café in a sleepy marina town.

The young barista on the early shift

The bestselling novelist looking for a writing spot

The husband on his way back from a work trip

The influencer mum whose picture-perfect life isn’t the whole truth

The woman starting her birthday with a quiet coffee

As the hours tick by it will soon become clear that one of them has a secret they would kill to keep.

How well do you know the person closest to you?"

📚📚📚📚📚📚

A bit of a mixed bag

I've previously read and enjoyed Now You See Her by Heidi Perks, so I was really looking forward to diving into this one. The premise is definitely a hooker – a gunshot rings out from a café on the Isle of Wight at 7am and there are five people inside. One is the perpetrator and four are the victims but we don't know who is who. It's a great setup for a thriller and it really makes you think about how well you actually know the people closest to you.

The story is told through alternating chapters from different perspectives and I admit to getting a little confused between two of the wives and who their husband was in the café. It starts off really well with a shock reveal that certainly kept me on my toes. I liked that it wasn't just a standard action-packed hostage situation – it's much more character-driven and focuses on the secrets everyone is hiding.

However, I did struggle a bit with the middle section. It felt like it dragged longer than it to and it became quite repetitive. It also seemed a bit far-fetched that no one made any contact with the café for the entire six hours the group was trapped there.

It's a decent read if you're a fan of psychological thrillers and want something with a unique "whodunnit" angle, but it didn't quite hit the high notes I was hoping for. It's a solid 3-star read – it does what it says on the tin but didn't completely blow me away like I'd hoped.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this book.

📚📚📚📚📚📚

Unit 731: The Japanese Auschwitz by James and Lance Morcan

Blurb from Amazon:

"In the aftermath of World War Two, and indeed all wars before and since, few names evoke as much horror as Unit 731, a Japanese deathcamp located in Northeast China.

Unit 731: The Japanese Auschwitz exposes one of the darkest and least acknowledged chapters of the 20th century—a secret biological warfare program whose atrocities rival those of Nazi Germany’s most infamous death camps.

In this meticulously researched volume, Book 9 in The Underground Knowledge Series, the veil is lifted on the origins, operations, and enduring legacy of Unit 731, the covert Japanese military complex where science, ambition, and cruelty fused into industrialized murder.

From the rise of General Shirō Ishii – an ambitious microbiologist whose obsession with pathogens shaped Japan’s biological warfare strategy – to the establishment of vast experimental facilities in Manchuria, this book traces how a modern empire rationalized the systematic torture and killing of thousands. Inside the walls of the Pingfang Complex, prisoners were frozen, infected, dissected alive, and used as expendable test subjects in the pursuit of military supremacy.

Drawing chilling parallels with Auschwitz, the narrative reveals how ordinary professionals – doctors, scientists, clerks – became cogs in a machine of dehumanization, where killing was routine and paperwork masked genocide.

The collapse of Unit 731, the frantic cover‑up that followed, and the postwar silence – fueled in part by geopolitical deals that shielded perpetrators – underscore a moral failure that still reverberates today.

Comparisons between Unit 731 and Auschwitz remind us that brutality on such a grand scale is not confined to one nation or one ideology. It materializes when science and medicine are divorced from ethics, when human beings are considered expendable, and when political expediency overrides morality and justice. Unit 731 and Auschwitz are stark reminders of just how low humanity can sink.

Both a historical exposé and a warning for the future, Unit 731: The Japanese Auschwitz confronts the reader with the uncomfortable truth of what happens when ethics are abandoned and human beings become data points in the machinery of war.

📚📚📚📚📚📚

A shocking eye-opener

I've read several books by James and Lance Morcan previously – they've got quite a collection on their blog – but I haven't actually dipped into this particular series before. Even though I've read a fair bit about World War II, I have to admit I'd never even heard of Unit 731 until I picked this up.

I've spent a lot of time reading about Japan's involvement in the war because my husband's granddad was taken as a prisoner of war during the fall of Singapore. He was very, very lucky to survive and eventually make it back home, so this is a subject that feels quite close to my heart. It makes me wonder why I've never come across this specific unit before. What is it that the powers that be don't want us to know? You have to wonder if they're just embarrassed and ashamed that proper justice for the victims was never really done.

It's a very quick read, so it couldn't go into massive amounts of detail, but it served as a really good introduction for me. It's definitely sparked an interest and I've finished it wanting to learn much more about what happened. If you're looking for a starting point on a dark part of history that doesn't always get the attention it should, this is well worth a look.

Huge thanks to the authors for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this shocking book.

📚📚📚📚📚📚

How To Get Away With Murder by Rebecca Philipson

Description from Goodreads:

"If you picked up this book because you truly want to get away with murder, you will not be disappointed. Simply turn the page and we’ll get started…

Denver Brady claims to be the most successful serial killer of our time – and that’s precisely why you’ve never heard of him.

But with the publication of How to Get Away With Murder, his manual for aspiring serial killers, that’s about to change.

When a copy of Denver's book is found at a crime scene, DI Samantha Hansen is given the job of tracking down the elusive author.

As Denver and Sam’s stories unfold and converge, it becomes clear that there’s more to both than meets the eye.

And once Denver’s book goes viral, the pressure to find and bring him to justice brings Sam to breaking point.

But in this dark and twisted tale, who is hunting whom?"

📚📚📚📚📚📚

A dark and clever debut

I’ve just finished this one and I'm still trying to process those final chapters. How to Get Away with Murder is the debut from Rebecca Philipson and it’s a properly clever take on the serial killer genre. The premise hooked me right away – a manual for aspiring serial killers written by someone called Denver Brady is found at a crime scene. It's essentially a book within a book, which I thought was a really fresh way to structure a thriller.

We follow DI Samantha Hansen as she returns to work at Scotland Yard in London after a six-month break. She’s a complicated lead character who’s dealing with her own trauma and PTSD, which made her feel very human and relatable. She isn't your typical "super-cop" and I really rooted for her as she tried to find the elusive Denver Brady while investigating the murder of a fourteen-year-old girl.

The narrative flips between Sam’s investigation and excerpts from Denver’s "how-to" guide. I found the parallels between the two really chilling. It’s pacy and dark, but there's a bit of dry British humour in there too that lightens the mood just when you need it. Even though it's quite a gritty story, it moves along quickly and kept me guessing about how the two threads would eventually collide.

There were a few moments where I had to suspend my disbelief, and one particular plot thread felt a bit loose toward the end, but the overall execution is brilliant for a debut. If you’re a fan of twisty thrillers that don't always play by the rules, I’d definitely recommend giving this a go.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this book.

📚📚📚📚📚📚