LOCAL GODS by Mark Hurst @MarkHur41481024

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon (universal link)
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Recommendation

In a Nutshell: An assassin who needs to lie low discovers strange happenings in the village of Little Baddington...

Local Gods is a dark and terrifying little gem that I looked forward to getting back to each time I had to put it down.  London assassin Pete Collins allows personal vengeance to enter into his paid work, which does not please the faceless men he serves.  On the advice of his handler, he drives into deepest Gloucestershire, out in the sticks, to avoid any heat that might come his way.  

After a strangely cool reception on the night of his arrival (with the exception of new pub landlord Craig, who has made the mistake of trying to inject Little Baddington with the culture of Hampstead), Pete becomes increasingly unsettled by every experience in the village, and every local with whom he comes into contact.  And it's only going to get worse.  Suffice to say that Pete the contract killer soon starts to feel like the 'goodie'.

I love a story that surprises me all the way through, with developments I can't predict at all, and this was one such.  It's not a particularly long book, I imagine about 65 or 70K words (though I might be wrong, as the words do tend to whizz by when you're eagerly turning the pages!).  It's beautifully edited, with never a superfluous sentence, just the right amount of detail and atmosphere, with characters that pop into life as soon as they appear.  And the ending ... so, so good.  Really wish I hadn't finished it, though!

As is probably obvious, I highly recommend this novel.  If you're not the sort of person who spooks too easily...

APPARENT HORIZON by Patrick Morgan #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member. 

In a Nutshell: A man with nothing to lose.  

This was a terrific story, a most original idea that would make a marvellous film or miniseries.  Three friends, Michael, Drew and Aaron, get together on the eve of Drew's wedding.  Aaron, who works on top secret projects at NASA, tells the other two about a gamma ray burst that will hit the southern hemisphere the next day. He warns that it will quickly destroy the food chain, cause massive radiation and thus end human life on earth, sooner rather than later.  Basically, the world is about to end. 

During Drew's wedding the sky does indeed light up at exactly the time Aaron predicted, but the news media dismisses it as a harmless event, as he warned would happen. 

The story is written in the third person POV of Michael, and details his reactions to this news, and the effect it has on him.  Having always been an introverted sort of guy who lived a 'safe' life, he wonders if, now that there is so little time left, he can let loose a part of himself that he is not even sure exists. 

The characters are all clearly defined, and the dialogue is great—you know it's good when you don't feel as though you're 'reading dialogue', as I didn't, in this.  The plot itself is extremely well thought out, with plenty of surprises, though a few warning bells did ring for me early on.  On the whole I enjoyed reading it, though I found it somewhat lacking in suspense; there was too much 'Michael did this, then Michael did that'.  I thought some of the detail could have been edited out; a loss of around twenty-per cent could have made it sharper, fast-paced, more of a page-turner.  It just needed a bit more pizazz, to do justice to the excellent plot. I also expected a final twist that never came; okay, I'd actually decided what it would be, but this is Patrick Morgan's book, not mine!

This is a commendable first novel, and I'm sure that the author will develop his style as he continues to write.  Nice one.

THIS WILL BREAK EVERY BONE IN YOUR HEART by Keith Anthony Baird @kabauthor

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: Twitter

In a Nutshell: Long novelette/short novella, dark psychological fiction/horror: mind control.

This is a clever, short book about a boy called Zachary who is placed in an institute at a very early age, where he has contact with no humans apart from his carers for some years.  He is found 'parents' at around the age of 5, and from then on every aspect of his life is monitored and controlled by a shadow organisation.  His family, friends, the ups and mostly downs throughout his life—none of it happens by accident.  His formative years are damaging enough, but as the tragedies and losses pile up, he becomes increasingly paranoid and sociopathic.

The story is very well written, and a real page turner; I couldn't work out why any of it was happening or what the outcome was going to be.  In the last third of the book there is a massive twist, completely unexpected—and the purpose of the whole 'experiment' is revealed at last.  I'm usually pretty good at predicting stuff like this, but I didn't guess it.

It's a dark and distressing story, not for the faint of heart, but for anyone who likes low-key, psychological horror, and has an interest in behind the scenes mind control (that's me with both hands up), I'd most certainly recommend it.

JONAH by Carl Rackman @CarlRackman

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
On Amazon.com
On Goodreads

How I discovered this book:  I read the author's debut novel, Irex, after chatting to him on Twitter, and thought it was very good indeed, hence the purchase of this one!

Genre: WW2 Naval Thriller 

This book is stunningly good.  I finished it in the early hours of this morning when my eyes were tired and I wanted to go to sleep, because I had to know what happened. 

The blurb (extract):

The North Atlantic, 1940. A British destroyer pounces on a seemingly abandoned U-boat, leading to a spine-chilling encounter.  Five years later, the US Navy destroyer Brownlee grimly prepares to battle a swarm of Japanese kamikazes at Okinawa.

Mitch “Lucky” Kirkham, a young gunner on the Brownlee, wakes up miraculously unscathed after his crewmates are killed in a fearsome kamikaze strike.

Bullied and resented amid accusations of cowardice and worse, Mitch re-boards his patched-up ship for the long voyage back to San Francisco. All he wants is to go home.

But far out in the boundless emptiness of the Pacific, a strange madness begins to seize the sailors on the Brownlee. Terror, hysteria and suicide torment the men amid sightings of ghosts and a terrifying monster that stalks the ship by night.

Jonah ticks every single box.  It's exceptionally well written, interspersed with tales from members of the crew from before the war, relevant to the plot (love little flashbacks like this!).  It's meticulously researched, completely convincing, but Rackman hasn't fallen into the amateur's trap of explaining naval terms to the layman; it is assumed that the reader will gather what they mean, sooner or later, and I did.  There's a glossary at the back, if you need it.

The story is utterly gripping and unpredictable, the sense of menace builds up at just the right pace, and even by the last chapter I had no idea of the outcome (and, indeed, thought it would go another way).  The characterisation is well defined, the dialogue spot on, and it's edited, proofread and formatted to the best of traditional publishing standards.

It's really, really, really good.  You should download it.  Immediately.  Definitely one of the best five books I've read this year.  

EXPOSURE by Rose Edmunds @RoseEdmunds #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

How I discovered this book: It was a submission to Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

This is the standalone sequel to Concealment, which I read two years ago; I have the worst memory in the world, so Exposure read as a one-off to me.  Thus, I can confirm that you don't need to read Concealment first, though of course it's always helpful ~ and I think it might be equally as interesting to read it afterwards....

I'd describe this novel as half way between a financial and a psychological thriller.  Occasionally the financial terminology went over my head, but it's written in such a way that I got the gist.  One thing I did like very much was the way the novel was structured; there are lots of point of view and situation changes at just the right time, it's extremely well-edited, with plenty of dangling, suspenseful threads at the ends of chapters to make you think, "I wonder what's going to happen there....?"  The whole novel is dialogue-driven; there is little narrative, and the pace never lets up.  Murder, deception, financial fraud, international skullduggery, toxic relationships ~ it has all the ingredients of a popular page-turner.

Rose Edmunds' Amy shows clever characterisation; she is bound to cause definite reactions amongst those who read her.  The daughter of a hoarder, she grew up with all sorts of psychological problems that led her to being exceptionally ambitious and obsessed with the material, and the outward show of success.  In the last book, circumstances came together to make all this come crashing down, and Exposure deals with the new, more self-aware Amy who is still trying to deal with the remnants of the old.  She's not particularly likeable; she knows it's nasty and superficial of her to judge a female colleage on being (horrors!) 20 lbs overweight and wearing the 'wrong' clothes, but she can't help it.  She's unsympathetic to the woman whose husband was in love with her - she tries to overcome the self-destructive within her, but always struggles.  Her complex character makes for some interesting relationship dynamics, indeed, and we learn more about her backstory in this book, too. 

My favourite character was financial blogger Toby Marchpole ~ I was most interested in his wife, an old schoolfriend of Amy's, and their marriage.  I also enjoyed Amy's observations about the dreadful Pedley, her boss for part of the book (when she goes undercover.... I'll leave you to find out about that!).

It's a well thought out plot, and I'm sure readers of smart, fast-paced contemporary thrillers will enjoy it very much ~ there's certainly no opportunity to get bored!
 

BLIND SIDE by Jennie Ensor @Jennie_Ensor #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

How I discovered this book: It was a submission to Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.

This is the debut novel from Jennie Ensor, and it's one of which she should be proud.   Set in mid-noughties London, it's a fairly standard spurned-lover-as-stalker plot, but with a lot more to it.  Middle class marketing exec Georgie only ever wanted to be friends with Julian, but when she starts a relationship with Russian immigrant Nikolai, she discovers that she never really knew Julian at all.  Alongside this storyline is the dark shadow of terrorism relating to the London bombings of the time - and Georgie's growing fears that Nikolai might be involved.

I admit to being slightly underwhelmed by the beginning; both dialogue and narrative are rather bland, with opportunities for more 'colour' missed, and, when Georgie succumbs to sex with Julian after a drunken evening, I never got the impression that she was drunk; I actually forgot she was meant to be.  Happily, the pace and intrigue stepped up very quickly, and I began to really enjoy it.  I thought Julian was revolting from the outset, and I didn't begin to warm to Georgie until later on; Nikolai, on the other hand, was lovely.  The characterisation was very good all the way through. I cared what happened to the two main characters, which is all important.  

The novel is extremely well structured, planned and edited.  I particularly liked that the backstory about both Georgie and Nikolai appeared in dribs and drabs, all the way through, which kept my interest.  There aren't many surprises, but certainly enough suspense to call this book a thriller, albeit quite a low-key one.  But it's a love story, more than anything, I think.  It's intelligently written, with much background about the war in Chechnya and Nikolai's experiences, which were shockingly fascinating and made the book so much more than just a stalker story.

I was glad that Georgie was not portrayed as a victim, though I found it unrealistic that she didn't guess, immediately, that Julian was behind threats to Nikolai, too (this isn't a spoiler, it's fairly obvious!).  The only other bit that niggled me was minor - Georgie displays a shock-horror attitude when her lover suggests they go camping together, and is, apparently, ignorant of all such practices.  Yet she's supposed to be a keen, fairly long distance hiker... 

The ending was pleasing, though the odd surprise or revelation wouldn't have gone amiss; the last few chapters were little more than a wrapping up.  I'd say that Ms Ensor is a talented writer, for sure, and I enjoyed this book.  I felt that it could have done with a little bit more spark, but it's very well written, and a fine debut.

 

LOCKED DOORS by Blake Crouch

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

How I discovered this book:  I've read and reviewed a few of this author's books, and had just read the prequel, Desert Places - had to know what happened next!

Desert Places was jolly good, but this is even better.  Obviously I can't say anything about the plot because it's a sequel, and it would give away what happens in Book One, so I'll give the reasons why I liked it:

There's no exposition-type recapping of the previous book, and the situation of the main character, writer Andrew Thomas, seven years on from the end of the last book, is all that you would hope for him.  He's in Yukon, and I loved the description of the lonely cabin where he lives (okay, okay, I wanted to live there too....).  When the psychopathic Luther Kite beckons, though, he can't help responding....

The pace is terrific.  It alternates between characters, and from first to third person, and each change is just right, building the suspense perfectly - I'd swear that on occasion I got that adrenalin flutter of excitement as I moved from one section to another!

The new characters brought in are terrific - there's young Christian detective, Violet, plus Andrew's 'biggest fan', Horace Boone... and the parents of the evil killer. 

It's realistic - although all books of this type (serial killer thrillers in which your average guy takes on ultimate evil) can get a little far-fetched, all of this is well within the bounds of feasibility.  It's not predictable, either.  Just when you think it's going to be okay, it gets bad again.  And Crouch shows no fear about killing off people you badly, badly want to stay alive.....

A fab example of its type.  Really looking forward to the next one, Break You.  The reviews for that aren't so good... we'll see.  Incidentally, like all Blake Crouch books, this one finishes by about 80%, followed by excerpts from other books and bits and bobs generally telling you how awesome Blake Crouch is.  I don't mind this, if the book's been really good, but some people feel ripped off by anything that doesn't end at 99%, so I thought I'd better mention it.

DESERT PLACES by Blake Crouch

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

How I discovered this book: I've read and reviewed several of this author's (click author tag at the bottom if you would like to see them), and couldn't resist trying another.

I love a nice bit of Blake Crouch when I've been writing all day and want a nice easy read with a cracking good plot that I know will keep me turning the pages.  Desert Places was no disappointment.  It's about a super-successful writer, Andrew Thomas, who, at the peak of his career, gets a note from a stranger to say that a body has been buried on his land, and that the sender of the note has all the evidence he needs to get Andrew convicted for the murder.  To say any more would be to give away the plot, but it's a belter.  Plenty of fast action, surprises, and situations that you'll think can't possibly be remedied as the plot travels from beautiful, rural North Carolina to the deserts of Wyoming.

It's pretty grisly in places, but not excessively so, and not just for the sake of it.  It's not great literature, it's popular fiction, and a fine example of its type.  Good enough for me to nip over to Amazon and download the next in the Andrew Z Thomas/Luther Kite series, anyway!  

 

THE MEMORY BOX by Eva Lesko Natiello

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE
On Goodreads HERE

Reviewed by me as a member of Rosie Amber's Review Team

This is one of the most unusual books I've read in a long time.  I'd class it as a psychological family drama/thriller/mystery ...  it's hard to classify and hard to review, too, as it's imperative that I don't give away the terrific twist.  And it really IS terrific, not like some books hyped as having an unguessable twist that half the reviews say you can suss out in the first chapter.

Right, so we start off with suburban housewife and mother, Caroline Thompson, who doesn't fit in with the image and doesn't really want to; she detests her gossipy, nosy, trivia obsessed neighbours.  Slowly, we begin to see exactly how much she doesn't fit in; this is one disturbed woman.  But is everything as it seems?  Caroline's whole psyche is affected by the mysteries and half-memories of her past.  Why did her sister die?  Is she really dead at all?  

I grew more unsure as I read on, and had questions: why did none of her friends or family make Caroline seek help?  How come her husband just accepted all her excuses for forgetting stuff, acting strangely, etc?  She was clearly undergoing a severe emotional breakdown.  But then, in part two, the last ten per cent of the novel, the whole story turns on its head; such an unexpected turn of events.  Before, I was going to give this 4*, because I found some of Caroline's muzzy-headed thoughts a little repetitive and I thought the premise wasn't completely feasible, although I was certainly enjoying it.    Once I'd read the last ten per cent, I realised it deserved 5, without a doubt.  Quite brilliant!

I LOVE the way this lady writes, it's sharp, acutely observed, slightly manic in a way that really works, with some clever, amusing metaphors.  Highly recommended to anyone who likes something a bit different.  Great ending, too; that's another little about-turn, after the terrific twist, by the way!

KILL LINE by Robert Leigh

5 out of 5 stars

Murder thriller

On Amazon UK HERE
On Amazon.com HERE

Reviewed by me as part of Rosie Amber's Review Team

I liked this book a lot, so much that I've already downloaded Robert Leigh's latest one, Any Man Joe.

Shaun Dolan works in a call centre, and murders customers who are unnecessarily rude to him.  Yet I still kind of liked the guy.  I didn't want him to get caught.  That's a real art - making the reader root for a brutal psychopath.  Oh dear, I hope it's not just me...

The strength of this book is the sharp observation by which the characters have been created, from Shaun's boozy mates, to the chav ex-girlfriend, to the begging victims Barry Johnson and the revoltingly pompous Derek Page-Dove (great name!), and, best of all, the ghastly, dreadful supervisors and management at Skymiles and Calltex call centre.  Well done, Robert Leigh - the section in the middle about the changeover from Skymiles to Elevation, with all its corporate BS, is a masterpiece - it's obvious the author has worked in one of those places, and the production of this novel must have made every soul destroying moment worth it.  The dialogue is spot on, with every awful buzzword and phrase these people use; yes, and don't they always refer to their staff, etc, as 'you guys'??!  Ugh!  

This is not a novel for the squeamish; the violence is graphic, and you'll want to weep for the victims.  But it's kind of funny.  If you can believe that.  Not laugh out loud funny, but witty and clever.  

I wavered between 4 and 5 stars all the way through it, eventually deciding on 5.  I think it needs some tidying up, I thought the Harry Collins part was too much, and I was a tiny bit disappointed by the ending, but these are very minor complaints (in fact, not even complaints), are only my opinion, and the good bits are so very good that I couldn't have given it less.

Highly recommended!

From Lime Street to Yirgacheffe by Robert Leigh reviewed HERE

Any Man Joe by Robert Leigh Reviewed HERE