Fatal Witness (Detective Erika Foster #7) by Robert Bryndza

 

Description from Goodreads:

"How do you find a killer who has destroyed all the evidence?

Detective Erika Foster is on a late-night walk near her new house in Blackheath when she stumbles upon the brutal murder of Vicky Clarke, a true-crime podcaster.

Erika is assigned to the case and discovers that Vicky had been working on a new podcast episode about a sexual predator who preys on young female students around South London, staking out his victims in their halls of residence before breaking in at the dead of night. When Erika discovers that Vicky's notes and sound recordings were stolen from her flat at the time of her murder, it leads her to believe that Vicky was close to unmasking the attacker, and she was killed to guarantee her silence.

The case takes on a disturbing twist when the body of a young Bulgarian student doctor is discovered in the same building, and this makes Erika question everything she thought she knew about Vicky. With very little evidence, the clock is ticking to find the killer before he strikes again."

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An absolute cracker of a book!!!

I haven't read any of the Erika Foster series before so I was a little worried that I would struggle coming in this late but having read the author's Kate Marshall series, I should have known this wouldn't be an issue.  I definitely feel this can be read as a standalone even though I know I will have missed the character development and back story but it really wasn't an issue for me.

With excellent characters, a really good plot and written at a great pace, this is a riveting read and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and couldn't put down.  

Thank you Raven Street Publishing and NetGalley for enabling me to read Fatal Witness and share my thoughts.

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Other books by Robert Bryndza I have read and reviewed:

Nine Elms (Kate Marshall #1)

Shadow Sands (Kate Marshall #2)

Darkness Falls (Kate Marshall #3)

The 13th Girl by Sarah Goodwin

 

Description from Goodreads:

"A little girl in a white nightdress stands out in the snow, watching the large brick house burn before her eyes…

My name is Lucy Townsend.

I was born on Friday the thirteenth, and I was the thirteenth girl living in the big house. Unlucky for some.

But I was the fortunate one. I escaped. The only one who made it out alive.

And now, twenty years after that fateful night, the secrets of the past and what happened in that house are pulling me back.

I might not be so lucky this time…"

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Lucy thought she had escaped her past but little did she know that it was just waiting for her all along ready to come back and bite her with venom.  

Lucy escaped a cult when she was just seven years old.  Many years later and having made a new life for herself, the skeletons start to emerge and Lucy's life is turned upside down.  Having escaped one kind of controlling environment, Lucy swaps it for another - her husband and his parents are, in my opinion, vile creatures who continue to brow beat Lucy and blame her for what happened to her as a child and what her mother and cult did ... what the heck!!!  Who blames a 7 year old???  Like I said, vile creatures.

Anyway, what follows is the story of Lucy trying to remember her time in the cult through flashbacks, memories and dreams/nightmares but what is real and how reliable is she?  And who is doing this to her?  Lucy returns to the place of her nightmares to try and remember just what happened but she is soon in an even more terrifying nightmare which is all to real and how is she going to get out of it.

This is a book that pulls on all your emotions at once and I admit that I  wanted to physically get inside it and give Lucy's husband and parents-in-law a slap and Lucy a shake; oh my word, I was so annoyed at times that I nearly didn't finish the book it irritated me that much however, I persevered and, actually, am glad I did as the reasons she was like she was, became clear and, in the end, I was rooting for her and desperate for there to be a happy ending.  I won't give it away but I will say that it was quite satisfying albeit a little unbelievable in parts.

Overall, a good read with an interesting plot and some unexpected twists but with characters I struggled with and with a pace that started well, got a bit slow in the middle and ramped up again towards the end.

Thank you to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read The 13th Girl and share my thoughts.

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A Stranger on Board by Cameron Ward

 

Description from Goodreads:

"A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A luxury superyacht. And a killer picking you off, one by one...

When ex-marine Sarah French joins a luxury superyacht as on-board security, she's excited to get her life - and career - back on track.

Surrounded by crystal waters, it seems like the perfect place to start over.

As they head into open water, though, tensions between the crew quickly build. And when someone goes missing, Sarah has a terrifying realisation.

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

To protect the other passengers, Sarah needs to uncover the killer's identity, and return the boat safely to shore.

But there's a storm on the horizon - and not all of them will make it out alive..."

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I am really disappointed that this didn't deliver the thrills or excitement I was expecting but rather it was a slow burn that seemed to drag on and had me skipping large chunks to get to the action.

The premise is great; a different take on the locked-room genre where here we have a luxury superyacht needing to be delivered across the Atlantic but not long into the voyage, things start to go seriously wrong and then people start to disappear.  

The characters are an interesting and eclectic bunch who are well developed and whilst some of them are not particularly likeable, they all have their place within the story.  

My main problem with this book is that it promises so much but doesn't really deliver for the majority of it.  This is a book of thirds with the final third being where most of the action takes place with the first two thirds were, I presume, written to create tension and suspense but they ended up being rather boring for me.

Overall, I think this will work for people who like a book that doesn't jump up and hit you in the face but rather one that talks about it and threatens to do so without ever actually doing it!

Thank you to Penguin Michael Joseph UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read A Stranger on Board and to share my thoughts.

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The Guest House by Robin Morgan-Bentley

 

Description from Goodreads:

"KEEP YOUR FAMILY SAFE.

...WHATEVER THE COST.

Jamie and Victoria are expecting their first baby.

With a few weeks to go, they head off for a final weekend break in a remote part of the North Pennines. The small and peaceful guesthouse is the ideal location to unwind together before becoming parents. Upon arrival, they are greeted by Barry and Fiona, the older couple who run the guesthouse. They cook them dinner and show them to their room before retreating to bed themselves.

The next morning, Jamie and Victoria wake to find the house deserted. Barry and Fiona are nowhere to be seen. All the doors are locked. Both their mobile phones and car keys have disappeared. Even though it's a few weeks early, Victoria knows the contractions are starting.

The baby is coming, and there's no way out."

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This is a compelling and disturbing read and whilst it may be a tad unbelievable and OTT in places, it is enjoyable and rather riveting and has a premise like no other I have read before.

The characters are well developed and whilst you may not like some of them very much, this works well with the story.  It is written in the past and present which helps to build the tension and intrigue until the killer twist is revealed.

Recommended to those who enjoy something a little different with plenty of suspense and thanks go to Orion Publishing Group and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Guest House and to share my thoughts.

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The Lost Ones (Detective Jackie Cooke #1) by Marnie Riches

 

Description from Goodreads:

"The young woman was sitting as though she might get up at any minute, her dark brown hair hanging over her shoulders. But her blue eyes were staring into the distance, into the future she would never get to see…

Despite all Detective Jackie Cooke’s experience, the murder of vulnerable teenager Chloe Smedley shakes her to the core. Chloe’s body has been left in a cold backyard, carefully posed to make it look like she could get up at any minute. As Jackie studies her innocent face, she vows to find the monster who did this.

When Jackie tells Chloe’s mother her daughter is gone, the woman’s cries cut through her. She knows the pain of an unsolved crime only too well – the disappearance of her brother as a child still haunts her family. Determined to solve the case, Jackie sets to work, finding footage of Chloe waving at someone the day she went missing. Did she know her killer?

But then a second body is found, arranged on the side of the road in another macabre scene, and Jackie becomes sure she is hunting a serial killer. Someone has been preying on the missing and vulnerable for decades. Only Jackie seems to see that they were never lost. They were taken.

Her boss is pushing for a quick solution and has no time for Jackie’s theory. But then Jackie returns home to find a brightly coloured bracelet on her kitchen counter – the same one her brother was wearing the day he vanished. The killer is taunting her directly. And Jackie will bring him to justice, no matter the risk… "

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Oh my goodness ... what a cracker of an opener to a new series!

There is so much to like about this book - the characters, the plot, the pace, the twists, the back-stories, the inventiveness of the murders, the writing style - pretty much all of it to be honest which made this a particularly hard book to put down.  Luckily, I was on holiday so didn't have the usual work and life distractions so was able to devour the pages at my leisure.

Jackie is a strong, female character; she might be heavily pregnant, the mother of twin boys, with a musician for a husband, her mother living in her basement and a boss that clearly doesn't like her but she doesn't let these hold her back or prevent her and her team from investigating what is a horrific set of murders.

The book is packed full of tension, secrets, lies and the twists and turns and the scenes of peril just keep coming.  A warning here though, the descriptions of the murders are quite graphic so if you don't like to read that sort of thing, you might want to skip over those bits.

My verdict - an excellent new series to get my teeth into and I can't wait to see what happens next with Jackie and her team and I must give my thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for enabling me to read The Lost Ones and to share my thoughts.

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