Don't Look Back by Jo Spain

Description from Goodreads:

"For one week, everything in Luke Miller's life is perfect. Surprised with a belated honeymoon by his wife, Rose, he's had seven days with her in a Caribbean paradise. It's more than he ever thought he'd deserve.

But as they pack their bags, Rose breaks down, confessing that on the day they left London, a violent man from her past tracked her down and broke into their home. He wasn't expecting her to fight back. And, in her terror, Rose killed him. Now there's a dead body in Luke's apartment, and only one person he can think to turn to.

Mickey Sheils never expected to hear from Luke again, not after he disappeared the first time. Luke knows Mickey can't deny a woman who needs help, so she promises she'll deal with things - she'll make sure Rose doesn't have to keep running.

But it turns out, some lies are too big to run from."

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I haven't read anything by Jo Spain before but after reading Don't Look Back, I will certainly be keeping my eyes open in the future as I enjoyed this.

Don't Look Back is a twisty thriller with great characters, not all of whom are likeable, and an intriguing plot with some great twists.  Be warned, it deals with domestic violence so if this is a trigger, I would steer clear.

Travelling from London to the Caribbean and to Ireland, this is one twisty book that is told at a good pace, from multiple points of view and with some flashbacks.  The plot is complicated but it all comes to a satisfying conclusion in the end.

All in all, an enjoyable thriller that kept me reading into the night and I must thank Quercus Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of Don't Look Back.

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The Daughter of Auschwitz by Tova Friedman and Malcolm Brabant

 

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

ELIE WIESEL

Description from Goodreads:

"A powerful memoir by one of the youngest ever survivors of Auschwitz, Tova Friedman, following her childhood growing up during the Holocaust and surviving a string of near-death experiences in a Jewish ghetto, a Nazi labor camp, and Auschwitz.

Tova Friedman was only four years old when she was sent to a Nazi labor camp at the start of World War II. While friends and family were murdered in front of her eyes, the only weapon that Tova and her parents possessed was the primal instinct to survive at all costs. Fate intervened when, at the age of six, Tova was sent to a gas chamber, but walked out alive, saved by German bureaucracy. Not long afterwards, she cuddled a warm corpse to hide from Nazis rounding up prisoners for the Death March to Germany.

In this heartrending, lyrical account of a young girl's survival during the Holocaust, Tova Friedman, together with Malcolm Brabant, chronicles the atrocities she witnessed while at Auschwitz, a family secret that sheds light on the unpalatable choices Jews were forced to make to survive, and ultimately, the sources of hope and courage she and her family found to persist against all odds."

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This is an extremely hard book to read but one I feel necessary so the past is not forgotten.

Tova was born just prior to the start of World War II; her earliest memories being of living in the ghetto her family and parents were sent to by the Nazi's.  From the ghetto, she and her parents are sent to a labour camp; Tova is 5 years old.  At the age of 6, Tova and her mum are separated from her dad for the first time as they are placed in different cattle cars and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Tova describes her experiences from the eyes of an innocent child trying to make sense of the horrors she hears and witnesses every day.   How someone, let alone a child, can survive what went on in that hell and come out the other side and live even close to a 'normal' life is beyond me.  It is testament to the strength of her mother and the lessons she taught Tova that she survived and became the woman she did.

Many thanks to Quercus Books and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of this powerful, heart-breaking but uplifting book.  This should be required reading for all school children and adults alike.

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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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