Good Girls Don't Die (D.I. Grace Fisher #1) by Isabelle Grey

Blurb from Goodreads:

"You’d know if someone close to you was capable of lethal violence, right?

Dead wrong.

Accused of grassing up a fellow officer and driven brutally out of home and job, Grace Fisher is thankful to survive some dark times and find haven with the Major Investigation Team in Essex.

One female student is missing, last seen at a popular bar in Colchester. When a second student, also out drinking, is murdered and left grotesquely posed, the case becomes headline news.

Someone is leaking disturbing details to a tabloid crime reporter. Is it the killer? Or a detective close to the case?

With another victim, and under siege by the media, the murder enquiry hits a dead end. The review team brought in to shake things up is headed by Grace’s old DCI. Who is going to listen to her now?"

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This is another of the books that has been on my "to be read" pile for far too long ... January 2015 to be precise ... how bad is that but at least I finally got round to reading it and continuing on my quest to get my "to be read" pile down this year - only another few hundred to go 😬

Anyway, this book is the first in the series featuring D.I. Grace Fisher; a complex and wounded character recently moved to Essex following a difficult set of traumatic events that are gradually revealed in and amongst the investigation into a missing person of one young lady and murder of another ... are they connected?  What follows is an intricate plot with a number of suspects but told in a way that was logical and, I think, realistic.  However, there is more to this book than the crimes, it skims the surface of office politics, bullying in the work place, obsession and domestic violence as well as freedom/intrusion of the press ... all of these threads work really well together and fit seamlessly into this story.

The characters are an interesting and eclectic bunch.  I particularly liked Grace and fellow team member, Lance; I found them engaging and plausible and I got a sense of a really strong relationship building between them and am looking forward to getting to know them better in subsequent books in the series.

The writing is easy to read and flows well and although this book is not full of action or suspense, there is definitely an underlying darkness and threat that is ever present and that makes this book engaging and enjoyable and one I would definitely recommend if you are looking for a new series to read in this genre.

Belated thank you Quercus Books and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review and for introducing me to yet another great author.

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Keep Him Close by Emily Koch

Blurb from Goodreads:

"One son lied. One son died.

Alice’s son is dead. Indigo’s son is accused of murder.

Indigo is determined to prove her beloved Kane is innocent. Searching for evidence, she is helped by a kind stranger who takes an interest in her situation. Little does she know that her new friend has her own agenda.

Alice can’t tell Indigo who she really is. She wants to understand why her son was killed – and she needs to make sure that Indigo’s efforts to free Kane don’t put her remaining family at risk. But how long will it take for Indigo to discover her identity? And what other secrets will come out as she digs deeper?

No one knows a son like his mother. But neither Alice nor Indigo know the whole truth about their boys, and what happened between them on that fateful night.

Keep Him Close is a dark domestic drama from an award-winning writer."

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From the author of a who-dunnit story with a difference, If I Die Before I Wake, comes a dark, family drama about the search for the truth behind the death of a young teenager.

Lou is dead ... did he fall, did he jump or was he pushed?  His mother, Alice, wants to know why.  The police think he was pushed and have arrested Kane.  Kane's mother, Indigo, is convinced her son is innocent and so it begins.

This is a slow burner that delves into the psyche of a mother's love for her child.  There is tension and heart-rending emotion as you would expect with the subject matter being as it is.  The writing is easy to read, the language used is natural and the characters well developed and flawed making them believable.

As I said, this is a slow burner and I do admit to becoming a little impatient at times but I was pretty satisfied with how everything came together at the end.

Another successful book from this author and one which I look forward to reading more from and I want to thank, once again, Random House UK, Vintage Publishing and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

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A Conspiracy of Bones (Temperance Brennan #19) by Kathy Reichs

Blurb from Goodreads:

"#1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs returns with a new riveting novel featuring her vastly popular character forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan, who must use all her tradecraft to discover the identity of a faceless corpse, its connection to a decade-old missing child case, and why the dead man had her cell phone number.

It’s sweltering in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Temperance Brennan, still recovering from neurosurgery following an aneurysm, is battling nightmares, migraines, and what she thinks might be hallucinations when she receives a series of mysterious text messages, each containing a new picture of a corpse that is missing its face and hands. Immediately, she’s anxious to know who the dead man is, and why the images were sent to her.

An identified corpse soon turns up, only partly answering her questions.

To win answers to the others, including the man’s identity, she must go rogue, working mostly outside the system. That’s because Tempe’s new boss holds a fierce grudge against her and is determined to keep her out of the case. Tempe bulls forward anyway, even as she begins questioning her instincts. But the clues she discovers are disturbing and confusing. Was the faceless man a spy? A trafficker? A target for assassination by the government? And why was he carrying the name of a child missing for almost a decade?

With help from a number of law enforcement associates including her Montreal beau Andrew Ryan and the always-ready-with-a-smart-quip, ex-homicide investigator Skinny Slidell, and utilizing new cutting-edge forensic methods, Tempe draws closer to the astonishing truth.

But the more she uncovers, the darker and more twisted the picture becomes ..."

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Having read previous outings involving Temperance Brennan, although not for some time, I was keen to dip back in to find out what was going on with her but, and I am really sorry to say this, this one just didn't grab me like they usually do and I found myself jumping in and out rather than being captivated and enthralled.  If I'm honest, I think this is my fault ... I should have kept up with the series as I believe I have missed out on an awful lot.

I found the story really hard to get into with quite a bit of inner dialogue which was a little tedious.  It did pick up the more I read but just not enough to keep my interest from start to finish.  The characters however are excellent and the bones of the story is there, I just felt the execution wasn't as good as previous books from this author.

I do think that people who have read the entire series will enjoy it more than I did and I would therefore suggest that if you are thinking of starting with this one, don't as it will put you off reading more of this author's work and you will certainly be missing out.

Thank you to Simon & Schuster UK and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

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The Silent House by Nell Pattison

Description from Goodreads:


"If someone was in your house, you’d know … Wouldn’t you?

But the Hunter family are deaf, and don’t hear a thing when a shocking crime takes place in the middle of the night. Instead, they wake up to their worst nightmare: the murder of their daughter.

The police call Paige Northwood to the scene to interpret for the witnesses. They’re in shock, but Paige senses the Hunters are hiding something.

One by one, people from Paige’s community start to fall under suspicion. But who would kill a little girl?

Was it an intruder?

Or was the murderer closer to home?"

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This is a pretty good debut thriller from this author and one which is fairly unique given that it focuses on the deaf community.  I say pretty good and not excellent because I found it a little tedious in parts.

The story starts well with the gruesome discovery of the body of little Lexi ... she has been brutally murdered in her own bed but in a house inhabited by a family of deaf people, no one heard a thing.  Paige is called as an interpreter for the Police but on finding out she has a connection to the family, rather than distance herself, she becomes embroiled in the investigation leading to her receiving threats herself. Sounds good right?  Well yes, overall it is but it just takes a while to get there.

The characters are ok but a little one-dimensional.  The pace was good in part but there were quite large sections of dialogue where nothing much happened when I found myself skim-reading, which is never a good sign.  The real winner here is the glimpse into the life of the deaf community which, not being deaf myself, was a real eye opener and clearly the author knows what she's talking about.

Not the best book I've ever read but certainly not the worst either and I would recommend it to others if only to get a little insight into the challenges faced by the deaf on a daily basis.

My thanks go to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest review.

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A Window Breaks by C.M. Ewan

Blurb from Goodreads:

"If your family was targeted in the middle of the night, what would you do?

You are asleep. A noise wakes you.
You stir, unsure why, and turn to your wife.
Then you hear it.
Glass. Crunching underfoot.
Your worst fears are about to be realized.
Someone is inside your home.
Your choices are limited.
You can run. Or stay and fight.
What would you do?

A Window Breaks is the nerve-shredding thriller from C. M. Ewan, the author of Safe House."

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Well, that certainly was a page-turner with non-stop action from the sound of breaking glass to the sickening crack of metal against bone.

Tom, his wife, Rachel, and their daughter, Holly, have been through it.  First their teenage son, Michael, and his girlfriend, Fiona, die in a road traffic collision when Michael was driving and if that wasn't bad enough, Holly is viciously attacked by a mugger.  What's needed is for them to getaway and take Tom's boss up on his offer of time away at his secluded and secure lodge in Scotland ... what could possibly go wrong?

Written mainly from Tom's perspective, we are taken on a thrilling journey of survival; we are lulled into a false sense of security when Tom and his family arrive at the lodge but are quickly plunged into a nightmare when they are awoken by the sound of someone walking on broken glass.  When Tom goes to investigate, what he sees makes his heart drop to his toes and so it begins 😰

Tom's voice is a breath of fresh air because he is not your usual macho Bear Grylls hero, he is a "normal" husband and father ... vulnerable, fearful and afraid but determined to protect his family despite not being particularly brave, strong or fit ... this made him more real somehow and because of this, you are never quite sure how this was going to end.

With an easy to read, flowing style, this book is dripping with tension and atmosphere with many hold-your-breath moments that had me gripped and eagerly flipping my Kindle® ... I couldn't read fast enough.

Recommended reading for action/thriller/suspense lovers.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest review.

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