The Rumour by Lesley Kara

Description from Goodreads:

"When single mum Joanna hears a rumour at the school gates, she never intends to pass it on. But one casual comment leads to another and now there’s no going back . . .

Rumour has it that a notorious child killer is living under a new identity, in their sleepy little town of Flinstead-on-Sea.

Sally McGowan was just ten years old when she stabbed little Robbie Harris to death forty-eight years ago – no photos of her exist since her release as a young woman.

So who is the supposedly reformed killer who now lives among them? How dangerous can one rumour become? And how far will Joanna go to protect her loved ones from harm, when she realizes what it is she’s unleashed?"

~~~~~~~~~~

What a great debut and yet another author to keep my eyes on and a British one too 🌝

As the blurb says, Joanna hears a rumour and ends up passing it on even though she knows it's probably not the best decision she has ever made however, she feels the need to fit in and make friends since moving to a small seaside town from London ... what harm can it do?  Well as most of us know, rumours can be extremely damaging and this book is a pretty good example of that.

Well written with great characters and setting, a gripping and relevant story line written at a good pace and with excellent twists, this book is definitely one for lovers of books that draw you in, spin you around and spit you out leaving you feeling like you're on a rollercoaster but not wanting it to end and when it does, you want to go back and have another go.

I wish to express my thanks to Random House UK/Transworld Publishers for my copy via NetGalley in return for an honest review and for, once again, introducing me to another new author to follow.

Having just clicked on the publisher website, it appears Lesley Kara has a new book coming out called "Who Did You Tell?"; the blurb sounds great and I am so looking forward to reading it especially if it's as well written as "The Rumour".

Blurb taken from the publisher website:

"It’s been 192 days, seven hours and fifteen minutes since her last drink. Now Astrid is trying to turn her life around.

Having reluctantly moved back in with her mother, in a quiet seaside town away from the temptations and painful memories of her life before, Astrid is focusing on her recovery She's going to meetings. Confessing her misdeeds. Making amends to those she's wronged.

But someone knows exactly what Astrid is running from. And they won't stop until she learns that some mistakes can't be corrected.

Some mistakes, you have to pay for..."

BUT it's not out until December 2019!!  Guess I'll just have to wait then 😠

~~~~~~~~~~

Connect with the author:

Twitter:  LesleyKara

Sleep by C.L. Taylor

Please note this book is due to be published on 4th April 2019

Description from Goodreads:

"All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they’re on the island. There’s a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they’ve set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…"

~~~~~~~~~~

What a little gem this is - totally gripping, full of atmosphere, tension and general creepiness all set in the stunning but isolated Scottish island of Rum which creates a sense of trepidation all on its own.

This book can be likened to a classic who-dunnit story - a group of people trapped together in an isolated location with a possible murderer amongst them - it's your job to try and work out who it is from the drips of clues amongst the red herrings provided by the author and I have to give Ms Taylor a round of applause because I didn't figure it out until it was right in my face! and, to be honest, that doesn't happen too often.

Excellent characters - some nice, some not so nice - absolutely perfect setting, great story line and ideal pace makes this a great read and one I have little hesitation in recommending to all psychological thriller lovers out there.

A very big thank you to Avon Books UK via NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review.

~~~~~~~~~~

Website: C.L. Taylor where you can join the C.L. Taylor book club and receive her 9,000 word story "The Lodger" for free 😃

Twitter:  @callytaylor

Facebook:  Cally Taylor Author

Instagram:  cltaylorauthor

Publisher:  Avon Books UK where if you sign up to their newsletter and "be the first to know about our 99p ebook deals, receive exclusive author content, hot news and get access to free ebooks."

NetGalley helps readers of influence discover and recommend new books to their audiences. If you are a bookseller, librarian, educator, reviewer, blogger or in the media, get started right now by signing in or joining for free.

~~~~~~~~~~

Please also read my review of C.L. Taylor's "The Fear" - another gripping read.

Click here to read my review

The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell

Description from Goodreads:

"A terrifying novel set in Czechoslovakia in 1935, in which a brilliant young psychiatrist takes his new post at an asylum for the criminally insane that houses only six inmates--the country's most depraved murderers--while, in Prague, a detective struggles to understand a brutal serial killer who has spread fear through the city, and who may have ties to the asylum 

In 1935, Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist newly trained by Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The state-of-the-art facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle outside of Prague, though the site is infamous for concealing dark secrets going back many generations. The asylum houses the country's six most treacherous killers--known to the staff as The Woodcutter, The Clown, The Glass Collector, The Vegetarian, The Sciomancer, and The Demon--and Viktor hopes to use a new medical technique to prove that these patients share a common archetype of evil, a phenomenon known as The Devil Aspect. As he begins to learn the stunning secrets of these patients, five men and one woman, Viktor must face the disturbing possibility that these six may share another dark truth. 

Meanwhile, in Prague, fear grips the city as a phantom serial killer emerges in the dark alleys. Police investigator Lukas Smolak, desperate to locate the culprit (dubbed Leather Apron in the newspapers), realizes that the killer is imitating the most notorious serial killer from a century earlier--London's Jack the Ripper. Smolak turns to the doctors at Hrad Orlu for their expertise with the psychotic criminal mind, though he worries that Leather Apron might have some connection to the six inmates in the asylum. 

Steeped in the folklore of Eastern Europe, and set in the shadow of Nazi darkness erupting just beyond the Czech border, this stylishly written, tightly coiled, richly imagined novel is propulsively entertaining, and impossible to put down."

~~~~~~~~~~

Hmmm ... this is a difficult one for me to review because I loved the story, the characters, the setting, the time and the writing style but thought it a little drawn out and it dragged on a little too much for me BUT please do not let me put you off, I appear to be in the minority as this has had a lot of praise and 5 star reviews and it will definitely be perfect for people who want to have a lot of information to enable them to become totally immersed in a story; clearly the author has done a lot of research into the location, time period, culture, traditions and history and it certainly transported me there but I felt a little bogged down by it all at times which did detract from my overall experience.

Overall, although not a book that I find myself gushing about, it was mostly enjoyable and one which I definitely feel would transfer well onto the big screen.

Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK, via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

~~~~~~~~~~

Connect with the author:

Website:  Craig Russell

Twitter:  TheCraigRussell

Facebook:  Craig Russell Books

~~~~~~~~~~

Please note the publication date is 7th March 2019

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley

Description from Goodreads:

"Everyone's invited...everyone's a suspect...

For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.

All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.

They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.

Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.

Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.

Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?"

~~~~~~~~~~

This is a classic "who-dunnit" story with a cast of mostly unlikeable characters but set in the very beautiful but remote Scottish Highlands.

The story is written from the perspectives of various characters using two timelines - the days leading up to the death and once the body is discovered.  We are kept in the dark about which one of the guests is dead and the author does a good job of throwing in red herrings to throw you off the scent as to who it is and who did the deed.

This is a "who-dunnit" story but is also develops into a "who-is-it" conundrum and I really liked that about this book.  I also liked the fact that 90% of the characters were pretty horrible if I'm honest and I wasn't particularly bothered who had been killed but this resulted in a lack of connection and I didn't become as emotionally involved as I would have liked which lessened the enjoyment a little for me.

Overall, this is a pretty good read and I would recommend it to anyone who loves a cast of dysfunctional and unlikeable people trapped together in an unforgiving landscape with an unknown killer amongst them - just sit back, enjoy and watch it all unravel.

My thanks must go to the publisher, HarperCollins UK, via NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

~~~~~~~~~~

Connect with the author:

Website:  LucyFoleyAuthor

Twitter:  @lucyfoleytweets