COLD IN THE EARTH by Thorne Moore @ThorneMoore #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: Cold case crime solving, mostly non-police

I'm not a fan of crime fiction, but I AM a fan of Thorne Moore's writing, so I chose this from the review team list without hesitation.  It's not a police procedural, as the main person doing the detective work is Rosanna Quillan, an ex-DC who is persuaded by a friend to do some digging.

Six young girls went missing in the early - mid 1990s, but the perpetrator was only ever charged with two of the murders; the other cases remained open but went cold.  The grieving families must wait another twenty-five years for truths and physical remains to be revealed.

The most interesting character in this book was, for me, Margaret Gittings, mother of the murderer; I'd have loved to have read her whole story from her own point of view!  Then there is 11-year-old Lolly, with whom the story opens. Clever, clever, Thorne Moore - Lolly's first chapter is brief and without resolution, which meant, of course, that I eagerly read the whole book within two days so I could find out what happened to her!  I also liked Malcolm, the retired officer who dealt with the case initially, after it was bungled by a less than diligent colleague.

The story zips along so convincingly, perfectly paced, and I very much liked that, although a fledgling romantic interest for Rosanna was present, Ms Moore did not feel the need to wrap it all up with hearts and flowers.  It's good.  And there's a lovely little twist at the end, even after the remainder of Lolly's story (which was worth waiting for) is revealed.

MOMENTS OF CONSEQUENCE by Thorne Moore @ThorneMoore #RBRT

5 GOLD stars

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

In a Nutshell: Short stories, dark themes.  Mostly.

What a treat this book is. It's not very often that you read a short story collection in which every one is a gem, but such is the case with Moments of Consequence. Every single one is beautifully written and perfectly plotted whilst wending its way down unexpectedly murky corridors. Some bloody ones, too, like the horrific Chef's Special, in which the main character comes up with an ingenious way of dealing with her staff problems, and It Was Late June, an every day story of country folk in a village that just happens to have an active Satanic society. These two are seriously gruesome, dark humour at its best. As is A Midsummer Nightmare, a brutal tale of revenge.

My favourites:

Dare Devil: about three students who, drunkenly, dare each other to commit the perfect murder.

Dances on the Head of a Pin: two time-lines, two main characters. One, in modern times, tries to interview random passersby about transubstantiation. The other, in the perilous days of Bloody Mary Tudor, is condemned for not believing in this (that the communion sacrament is the actual body and blood of Christ).

The Food of Love: a 'foodie' wife, who fails to see the the impact her obsession is having on her marriage...

Away in a Manger: about a homeless young artist, at Christmas time.

Piggy in the Middle: The story of Mary Bennett, the forgotten middle daughter in Pride and Prejudice.

As You Sow: A mother laments the choices her adult children have made, considering them a personal affront. I love stories like this in which the reader can read between the lines about what's actually going on, whereas the blinkered narrator cannot.

...and the last one, Footprints, showing snapshots of everyone who lived in a house, going back down the decades. I too am, as Thorne Moore says, fascinated by houses and the secrets they reveal. Footprints made me think of books by Norah Loft: The House Trilogy, and A Wayside Tavern.

All the stories are long, something to get your teeth into. It's stunningly good, all the way through. Highly, highly recommended - can't emphasise this too much!

FAST CASH by J Gregory Smith #RBRT

 3.5 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: Vigilante justice to avenge scammers.

This is book 4 in a series; a look back at my reviews tells me that I read and liked Book 1 back in 2018.  I can't remember anything about it, as I read a lot and we're talking five years ago, so this was like being introduced to a completely new scenario. 

Did it work as a stand alone?  Yes and no.  I felt there were far too many characters mentioned in the first few chapters, to the extent that I couldn't keep straight in my head who they all were, and many of them were introduced with a quick backstory, but it was all too much information.  It was like starting to watch a film half way through and having to keep nudging the person next to me and saying, 'So who's he again?'

Main character Kyle is at the centre of a raggle-taggle group who operate outside the law, targeting scammers and other crooks.  This time, they're up against some Indian call centre cheats and the extremely suspect Sweat Equity, a crooked pyramid scheme disguised as a great opportunity for those down on their luck.  I loved reading about this, and the ghastly pair who run the outfit; I actually thought the story could easily have centred just around this.  As it was, I felt there was almost too much plot, which necessitated much of the book being in dialogue, as one character explained stuff to another, and thus to the reader.

Having said that, I did find all the scam info fascinating; how they operate, how Kyle's mate VP worked out systems to foil them.  Also, I very much liked the writing style, which is conversational, intelligent and often amusing; it just needed a bit of paring down and sorting out, I think.

THE DEVIL HIMSELF by Steven Duggan

 4.5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: Amazon browse

In a Nutshell: Man unjustly accused of murder seeks to clear his name.  Set in Ireland.

Jack Finch was accused of a murder he didn't commit, and sent to prison for eight years after taking a plea deal.  While he's away, his wife divorces him and marries his elder brother.  Jack knows that going back to the small town where the murder took place is not the wisest move, but he cares more about clearing his name than about the reception he will have to endure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, loved the writing style, and I liked Jack very much, which always helps.  There is much description about life in prison, a stark portrayal of the desperation and fear that an inmate can go through, the total despair.  

I'd seen in reviews that the ending is particularly good, and I echo this, wholeheartedly - I thought I'd guessed the twist early on, but I was so, so wrong - especially as it's a double twist.  It's (they're) so well done; a round of applause well earned.  Made me want to flick back to see if I could spot any clues.  I liked how the second one hinted at what happened without actually giving all the details; this worked so well.  

I've taken a half star off because of one issue - the proofreading.  I spotted the odd wrong word and incorrect punctuation mark, but mostly it was the excessive use of exclamation marks in dialogue that kept making me wince; the vast majority were not needed and should have been removed.  Aside from that, though, it was great.  Excellent plot, a great main character, and the sort of writing style that keeps the pages turning.

SHAPE OF REVENGE by Georgia Rose @GeorgiaRoseBook #TuesdayBookBlog

 4.5 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: Recommendation from a trustworthy source!

In a Nutshell: Book 2 in the A Shade Darker crime thriller series, all set in the fictional village of Melton.

A Shade Darker is a great idea for a series - I believe there will be 12 novels, all stories being connected though each a stand-alone.  Quite a challenge for any writer; having not yet read Book #1, I am in the perfect position to confirm that, as far as Book #2 is concerned, it is one to which Ms Rose has risen admirably!

Shape of Revenge centres around Sharon Beesley, the owner of the local village shop.  She's a terrific character; horribly self-centred and self-righteous, blinkered, unable to 'read the room' whilst believing herself to be so perceptive.  She (thinks she) completely rules the roost in her household, with husband Eric tightly reined into humdrum subservience and daughter Daisy following whatever path Sharon deems suitable.  Of course, both Eric and Daisy have all sorts of stuff going on, not least of all in their individual heads, about which Sharon does not have a clue.

I so enjoyed reading the inner workings of Sharon's pernickety little mind; seeing a character's view of the world whilst knowing it to be utterly skewed is always so entertaining.  The book is most 'reader-friendly', flowing along in such a way that the pages just have to be turned.  I've noticed when reading another book by this author that she is a master of structure, revealing details at just the right time and making all events fit together perfectly.  This is so important in a book of this type, with its secrets, lies, smoke and mirrors, and themes of dastardly revenge, abduction and faked identities.

I don't know if this was intentional, but most of the way through, I felt that it had an element of dark comedy, a genre so popular at the moment with shows like Why Women Kill, You, The Flight Attendant and films such as Promising Young Woman.  The way that some of Sharon's antics were written, as well as those of secondary character Ella, definitely had this feel to it.  Somewhat tongue-in-cheek.  It worked, anyway!

UNTIL THE TWELFTH OF NEVER by Bella Stumbo

4 out of 5 stars

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How I discovered this book: I sought it out after watching TV dramatisations.

In a Nutshell: In depth analysis of the Betty Broderick divorce and murder cases.

I've been meaning to read this book for ages; I've had a moderate fascination for the case since seeing the TV movie A Woman Scorned, starring Meredith Baxter as Betty Broderick, and then Season 2 of the Dirty John series on Netflix.  

In case you don't know about it, the Brodericks were an ambitious, affluent San Diego couple; Betty had made a career out of being the supportive wife and mother, and they were very much part of the A List social set in La Jolla, on the idyllic San Diego coastline.  In the 60s and 70s, back east, Betty worked at menial jobs as well as bringing up their children so that Dan could quit his chosen medical profession and go back to college to get a law degree.  Sixteen years on, when all their hard work had paid off, Dan started an affair with his legal assistant and told Betty he wanted a divorce.  Six years later, Betty entered the bedroom of Dan and his new wife and shot them both dead.  This book is, for the most part, about what led up to this event - and whether or not Betty deserves any sympathy at all for robbing her children of both parents (as she has been in prison ever since), and for the grief her actions caused three families.

At the back of the book Ms Stumbo reveals many of her sources; family members worked with her, as well as people who knew all relevant parties well.  I have no doubt that it's an accurate assessment, though it's a long book.  I felt that it could have been chopped down in places; just because every minute detail of a court hearing is known, it need not, necessarily, be included in an account such as this.  I admit to skip-reading some of the minutiae of the court cases. It becomes somewhat repetitive in places, as no detail is spared  Also, it needs a better proofread.

Ms Stumbo talks about whether interviews on TV and in the press were 'pro-Betty' or not, but having read this I don't think there's anything black and white about it.  Yes, Betty was a piece of work and then some, even before the murders, but by all accounts she was treated appallingly by Dan and his girlfriend over the six years - when Dan and Betty were still living together he denied and denied that he was sleeping with Linda, telling her she was going crazy.  He had her jailed for some of her less advisable actions (like driving her car into his house), had her committed for psychiatric treatment, denied her access to her children, and so much more.  Linda insisted on recording the household answerphone message, so Betty had salt rubbed into her wounds every time she rang up to speak to her children.  Betty wanted items from the house such as her wedding china, and Linda wouldn't let her have them.  Etc., etc.

Betty's life was destroyed, whereas Dan's carried on just the same, except that he had replaced Betty with a younger model.  For Betty, it was like Linda had stolen her life, and she was being punished for not slipping meekly into divorced obscurity; at that time and in the circles in which they moved, a single, divorced woman was automatically persona non grata.

Then again, she was impossible to deal with, irrational, foul-mouthed, obsessive... 

This book really is 'no stone unturned', with details about Betty's life in prison, too, and it does give a balanced viewpoint, particularly when concerned with how those poor children were affected.  If you're interested in the case, I recommend!

Betty now, aged 74.

NEAR DEATH by Richard Wall @writinblues

4.5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
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How I discovered this book: Twitter; I'd seen a few tweets about it from the author, then one day I took a look.

In a Nutshell: Murders most brutal, with a paranormal theme.

The story is set in the early 1960s in New York and rural South Carolina.  John Henry Beauregard, a Korean War veteran, is working as the chaplain in Sing Sing prison, when he is called to give last rites to Joseph Hickey, a vicious murderer whose crimes were so horrific that details are withheld from most.  Hickey taunts John, and promises that he'll see him again, even though he is about to be frazzled on Old Sparky.

As other similar murders begin to take place, John and his friend, NYPD cop Eugene, begin to explore possible theories that sound insane even to themselves.  They are both psychologically damaged and at times just trying to hang onto the threads of their lives.

I enjoyed this book all the way through.  Throughout the main story, mostly told by John in the first person, are short chapters that hint about why events are taking place, with the reader being left to piece it all together, gradually.  The pace and drip-feeding of information worked so well, and made the story a real page-turner.  Lots of unpredictable events; I do love a novel in which I can't guess what's going to happen.

The characters of John and Eugene were very likeable, as was Vinnie, the hard-nosed lawyer who flips the bird at convention and authority, and I loved the writing style, which was clear, simple and effective.  I only had one problem with it: 'black', as in the colour of a person's skin, was spelled with a capital B in most but not all cases.  I know this is favoured by the politically correct in this day and age, but it was not so at the time John was telling this story, and it looked out of place.  Similarly, John uses the phrase 'people of color', which was not introduced and popularised until at least a decade later.  I wouldn't usually nit-pick about stuff like this that wouldn't bother most people, but they really stood out to me.

Paranormal is not my usual genre of choice, but it totally worked in this story, seeming possible and believable, and I liked the author's take on what happens after death.  The book is clever, humorous in parts, touching, terribly sad and fairly brutal, with gory and shocking detail, so it's not a book for the faint of heart.  I'm very glad I stopped on that tweet, clicked the link to Amazon and downloaded it on Kindle Unlimited.  At some point I shall take a look at the rest of Mr Wall's work.  Nice one.

BLACK IRISH BLUES by Andrew Cotto @AndrewCotto #RBRT

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

In A Nutshell: Crime novella set mostly in New Jersey

Black Irish Blues is a long novella (or possibly a short novel) featuring Caesar Stiles, a man whose childhood was spent in a rough area of a small town in industrial New Jersey.  His father left the family when Caesar was thirteen, and his two brothers are now dead; he loved the older one who died in a tragic accident, whereas the middle brother was a vicious thug. Caesar spent most of his life travelling all over the country, but returned when his mother died, moving into the family home and buying the local inn.

The story centres around blasts from the past, friends reunited, mysterious disappearances and the local gangsters.  Written in the first person, much of the narrative details Caesar's observations about small town life and his impressions of the town and people in which and with whom he grew up.

The plot is perfectly paced and structured, and fits well into the shorter length; although the story itself is fairly standard, I loved Caesar, the writing itself is as good as that of any classic American novel, and the characterisation is outstanding, making it a real page turner.  All the side characters are beautifully observed, the dialogue is spot on, and the atmosphere is vivid and so well described without ever being wordy.  I could tell by reading this that the author really knows his subject, along with the place, time and people about whom he has written.  I'll definitely read something else by him, probably the book before, which I've already had a look at.  Highly recommended.

DARK OAKS by Charlie Vincent

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

In A Nutshell: Thriller, set in Monaco and Hampshire

When I started reading this book I was at once impressed by the writing style and enjoyed reading about wealthy doctor Charles Mason and his ritzy lifestyle in Monaco; there was a certain dry humour about his observations and the narrative flowed well.  There were a few minor proofreading errors which I could overlook, because I liked what I was reading.

Charles wakes up on the morning after his extravagant annual party to find that everything is not as it should be, in a big way.  The book then moves to Dark Oaks, his ancestral home in rural Hampshire.

It is clear that the author knows Monaco well, and I liked reading about the lifestyle, but there is a little too much detail that is not relevant to the rest of the book.  Throughout, there are long blocks of description, much of it superfluous, which is unbroken by dialogue and slows down the plot, not least of all a long paragraph describing the making of a sandwich, and a wince-making piece of exposition in which Charles has the phrase 'chop shop' explained to him, which is clearly only there to explain to the reader (I thought it unlikely that Charles would not have known what a chop shop was).  

The book is basically well-written, and the plot is interesting, but the structure lets it down.  The history of the family is told in backstory when Charles gets to Hampshire; an initial few chapters set in the past, at the beginning, would have set the scene much more effectively, and linked the Monaco and Hampshire sections together - once Charles got to Hampshire I felt as though I was reading a completely different story, with the sudden introduction of a number of new characters who had not been mentioned previously.  To sum up, there is much to commend about this book, but I think it could use a bit more thinking through and the hand of a good content editor.

 

 

 

STILL YOU SLEEP by Kate Vane @K8Vane

4 out of 5 stars

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

In A Nutshell: A redundant crime reporter and a news blogger aim to solve the mystery surrounding the suspicious death of a young woman.

I chose this book from the review team list because I'd read another book, Brand New Friend, by this author and was most impressed by her characterisation.  Although this is a crime novel - not my usual choice - it concentrates on those involved in the situation (families, friends), and the journalists looking into it, which is why I enjoyed it much more than I might have done had it been a police procedural.

Vikki Smith is a young woman with a learning disability who is found dead from a drug overdose.  The police write it off as an accident but online journalist Tilda Green and redundant crime reporter Freddie Stone believe foul play to be afoot; Freddie knows the family and Tilda scours social media on a daily basis, discovering much that makes her suspicious.

The story is very 'real life', warts-and-all, and one aspect that I liked is how current it is, both sociologically and in the way in which Tilda delves into every intricacy of social media, though I did wonder if it would go over the heads of people who don't know exactly how Twitter works, on quite a complicated level.  I'm a Twitter addict, though, so I really appreciated how well the author understood its idiosyncrasies.

The characterisation, dialogue and the logistics of the plot deserve a round of applause, though I felt there were one or two many storylines and character points of view.  Social media strategies, dysfunctional families, social prejudice, drug dealers and abuse, alcoholism, two-faced politicians, unrequited love, alt-right versus liberal politics; every scenario is written most convincingly, but I'd sometimes get to the beginning of a new chapter from yet another POV and think, 'Hang on a minute, who's Simon?', and have to look back to remind myself.  The addition of so many plot threads and characters actually dilutes the evidence of her strengths; Ms Vane is a highly competent and readable writer. Less could be so much more, but this is really the only complaint I have about this book.

Still You Sleep flows along so well, wrapping all storylines together at the end, is entertaining, real, so relevant to today's world, and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who appreciates well-drawn characters by a writer who has a sharp understanding of topical issues - or who simply enjoys working out mysteries. 

HANDS UP by Stephen Clark #RBRT

4 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: Family/psychological drama dealing with murder: racially motivated or not?  Set in Philadelphia.

An interesting crime novel that's more psychological drama than thriller.  It centres around Ryan Quinn, a police officer who shoots and kills Tyrell Wakefield, a young black man pulled over in a routine traffic enquiry—or is it?  As the story progresses, we become more aware of racial profiling within the police, and especially that of Quinn's partner, Greg.  More sinisterly, this same bigotry is present within the 'civilian' white families we meet in this book.

Also centre stage are Jade, Tyrell's sister, and Kelly, his estranged father.  The story is written from these three points of view; Quinn is written in the first person, which totally worked for me, with Jade and Kelly in the third.  This also worked, I think, better than if Kelly and Jade had been in the first person as well.  They were all three-dimensional; Kelly, in particular, alternated in my head between being a basically decent guy who wanted to make up for some wrong choices in life, and an opportunistic creep. 

I very much liked how the truth about what happened that night, from Quinn's point of view, came out only gradually, and that we saw the emotional effects of the case from all three sides.

When I began to read the book the first thing that struck me was that the author can certainly write; I was drawn in, immediately, though the first ten per cent includes a fair bit of telling-not-showing (when the writer tells the reader how someone is feeling/what their personality is like, rather than showing it in dialogue and actions), and, throughout, there is too much mundane detail—we don't always need, for instance, to know what people were wearing, unless relevant, what they ate in restaurants (ditto), or how someone got from A to B.  I read in the notes at the back that the author is a (most successful) journalist, and this is evident; now and again, I felt as though he needed to be reminded that a novel's flow can be improved by the omission of detail, rather than the inclusion of every fact.

Mostly, the plot kept me interested throughout, though I didn't think the romantic involvement between Quinn and another character towards the end of the book was necessary; a friendship/sympathetic connection would have been enough, and more realistic; that it happened made both characters less credible, to me.  I also felt that Quinn's previous romantic entanglement was too quickly and neatly disposed of.

On the whole, though, I liked this novel, and it has a lot going for it.  The issues of racial prejudice and police corruption were dealt with well, and though none of the characters were likeable, they were all fairly compelling.  I think that if Mr Clark were to learn the art of ruthless pruning during redrafts and observe how other writers create tension, he could produce something most memorable.

INTRIGUE & INFAMY by Carol Hedges @caroljhedges

5 GOLD stars

On Amazon UK
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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member, but I would have bought it anyway because I adore this series!

In a Nutshell:  Mid-Victorian murder mystery, set in London.  Book 7 of a series of stand-alones.

Loved it, loved it.  When I got to 80% I found myself slowing down because I didn't want to read it too quickly.  In this 7th book of the series, racism rears its ugly head, showing that it is far from being just a 20th and 21st century problem.  Stride and Cully must deal with a series of arson attacks on businesses, and the brutal murder of an old Italian man.

Elsewhere, socialite Juliana Silverton is thoroughly enjoying the attention received since her engagement to hedonistic rich boy Henry Haddon, her delight marred only by a secret from the past ... and the appearance of Henry's younger half-brother's new tutor.

This book is as expertly structured as the rest of the series, and includes similarly colourful characters and the ever-present chasm between rich and poor, so much a theme in all the books - and in certain areas of life nothing has changed; young aristocrats with powerful connections are able to get away with the most heinous of crimes, just as they always have been and are now.  

Although illustrating society's problems in the most deft way, Ms Hedges does not fall into the cliché of making all the privileged characters the 'bad guys'; I was pleased to see a happy outcome for one, in particular.  I guessed the perpetrators of the crimes quite early on, but this didn't matter a jot; the joy of reading these books is the writing itself, the vivid pictures of 1860s London, and the slow unfolding of sub-plots.

I can't help but think of what star rating I will give a book while I am reading it, and this was a solid 5* all the way through, but what earned it my extra 'gold' star was the end twist that I never saw coming.  It was beautifully executed, and made me smile as I realised how other aspects were explained by it.  

If you haven't read any of these books, I recommend you start now - and I hope this is not the end of the series....

SECRET KILL by Robin Storey

4.5 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: Novella.  Former criminal turned good guy is forced back into the underworld.  Set mostly in Melbourne.

I liked this book more and more as it went on.  Ex-crim Jackson Forbes is confronted by a grown-up daughter he never knew about - and she wants something from him.  Not just fatherly love, or money, but help; Frida is in trouble, and Jack is about to be pitched back into a world he thought he'd left behind.

This is a novella (40K words or under; I imagine this is around 40k), and I appreciated the way in which the story fitted perfectly into the shorter length; there was no feeling that it needed more detail anywhere, which in turn made me feel as though I had read a full-length novel.  Any longer, and it might have dragged, or been filled with superfluous detail.  It's an easy read and well-written, with a convincing plot.

I read another book by this author and my main complaint about that was that the characters didn't come across.  In Secret Kill, however, I felt that Jack and Frida were completely real; there were no sudden shifts in personality like before.  There was one revelation about Jack's past that made me less sympathetic towards him, but, boy, did he pay for it.  I was fairly set on 4* all the way through, but the unexpected and unusual ending made me want to add an extra half star.  Good one.

AN EMPTY VESSEL (BY VAUGHAN MASON) by JJ Marsh #RBRT

5 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: a book within a book, about a woman in prison, condemned to death.

My understanding is that this long novella is a book mentioned in a novel by JJ Marsh, a work written by one of her characters, Vaughan Mason.  Though not clear on the blurb, this is what Rosie told me she thought it was, when I chose the book to review.

An Empty Vessel is most interesting story that depicts the thoughts of Nancy Maidstone, a woman accused of murder 1958, the day before her execution, and her life from childhood up until that point.  Other chapters are from the point of view of her lawyers and others involved in the plot.

JJ Marsh has a highly readable and compelling writing style and has created characters that jump off the page, with excellent dialogue, both spoken and inner, from the thoughtful Doctor Waterhouse and his socially self-aware wife, to Nancy's self-serving brother, Frank, to the women she worked with at the supermarket that led to the abrupt downturn in her life, to Nancy herself, for whom my sympathy increased the more I read. Every character story is a tale within itself, rather than just a part of the whole, and I was completely engrossed in each one.

The story gives a colourful picture of ordinary life in the 1950s, with all its social prejudices, accepted behaviour and sometimes almost charming innocence about the world.  Running through all the scenarios is the question of whether or not Nancy is guilty, and if so, why she would have committed such a crime, but there is so much more to enjoy than simply an amassing of clues. 

An entertaining, heartbreaking and unusual story - I loved it.

MURDER UNDONE by Robin Storey

3.5 out of 5 stars

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

In a Nutshell: Woman murders husband.  Gets chance to go back in time and make different decisions.  Involves drugs, sex, criminal underworld.

This book starts well, with main character Eva poisoning her cheating husband.  Fast forward twenty years: she's married again, and living with the fall-out.  Except she can't deal with it; she drinks too much, and goes into bars to pick up men for casual sex.  Then she is offered a chance to go back in time, still retaining her memories of her 'real' life, and not murder Cheating Charlie after all....

I found this author's style pretty readable; I'd suddenly realise I'd galloped through 10 pages or so, without thinking about stopping to make notes, which is a good sign.  I was moderately drawn in when I first started to read, but as soon as Eva got a chance to go back in time, I thought, ah—now I'm interested!

The story continued to zip along in a readable fashion, but I did have some problems with it.  Eva's character seemed more like a vehicle for the plot that the other way round; I never believed in her.  One minute she is the pampered, submissive wife of a millionaire businessman, the next she is daredevil sleuth, able to talk her way into any private location, and mixing with the criminal underworld without turning a hair, to the extent of having sex with them for information (and enjoying it despite the guy having had a knife to her throat, but I'm not even going to go there; the cocaine she'd taken, alone, would make her paranoid and agitated in this situation).

I was dubious about some dialogue (the way one of the female characters talks about sex would make Samantha from Sex and the City cringe) and unconvinced by some events; for instance, before she goes back in time, Eva is around 60 years old, but gets hit on/approached for casual sex every time she enters a bar to have a drink.  However glamorous and well-kept a woman of that age may be, I found this a little unlikely.

One other point is something the author might want to consider for future work of this genre.  Later in the book, Eva is caught driving under the influence of cocaine.  There was a detailed chapter about her court appearance, ending with the news report about it on TV.  Why not just cut the whole court thing, and start the chapter with the news report, ending with a paragraph or two about how she felt, watching it broadcast to the world?  That would have given all the information the reader needed, and let them get on with the more juicy stuff, like infidelity, deteriorating marriage and underworld dealings ...

... because it is a rip-roaring tale, and not badly put together at all, generally. 
The basic idea is great, though I didn't feel enough use was made of the fact that she was living her life over again; I expected more references to the past, and perhaps the steering of other events, too.  It's a bit like a watered-down Jackie Collins (that's a compliment, by the way!), but, alas, I need to be convinced by and become totally involved with the characters in order to really enjoy a book, and Eva never came alive to me.

To sum up: the author has much of the skill and writing style for this genre, but it still needs a bit of fine tuning!

QUICK FIX by J Gregory Smith

4 out of 5 stars

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

Genre: Crime, heist, kidnapping.

This book has a great opening.  Military contractor Kyle Logan messes up his already messed up life by assaulting his wife's divorce lawyer, who also happens to be her lover.  He's then offered a role in the theft of some pieces of valuable artwork, by his friend Ryan.  Kyle is also suffering from injuries caused by an IED when he was in Iraq.  

I warmed to the characters and the writing style straight away.  There's plenty of dark stuff going on, but lots of humour, too - I liked the observations about characters, and often just the way stuff was phrased ('I hated losing her to a puke like Fenster').  The guy-on-his-uppers-with-wife-who-has-moved-on-to-a-more-straight-and-successful-new-man thing is an oft-used scenario in this genre in both books and on screen (I'm currently watching the TV series Get Shorty - there it is again!), but it works every time, and J Gregory Smith has painted all participants most colourfully.

When Kyle realises that involvement in Ryan's criminal schemes means re-acquaintance with childhood chum-turned-gangster Danny 'Iceballs' Sheehan, he knows his life is not going to be easy.  Smith has portrayed the atmosphere of the criminal underworld of Philadelphia so well; this book is fast-paced and flows very well, with a convincing plot, and is, basically, a good, solid novel.  I haven't got anything negative to say about it.  Nice one.

MURDER BY INCREMENTS: A CITY OWNED and KILLING COUSINS by O J Modjeska @OJModjeska

5 out of 5 stars

On Amazon UK
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On Goodreads

How I discovered this book: I had already bought Book #1, because I'd read and loved GONE: Catastrophe in Paradise by this author, but then it appeared on the Rosie Amber's Book Review Team list; as a member of this review team, I said I would read it for Rosie's blog, too.  I bought the second book, about the killers, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, as soon as I'd finished it.  Thus, I am reviewing the books as one. 

Genre: True Crime (non fiction); serial killers.

This two part series, Murder by Increments, is about the crimes of the Hillside Stranglers, who made LA a frightening place to be in the late 1970s.  The first book, A City Owned, starts with a picture of what LA was like back then.  Such a clever way to start; to understand the lives of the victims and why Bianchi and Buono went undiscovered for so long, we have first to be aware of the culture of the time.  LA was a seedy place indeed, peopled by many who'd arrived seeking the Hollywood dream, only to be sucked into the underworld of prostitution, porn, drugs and crime.  The cops were overworked and jaded, with few resources; these were the days before the internet, before reliable criminal profiling, and before DNA databases.  Reading how carelessly they bungled the investigations, over and over again, made me think that crime solving had moved on very little in the hundred years since the London police tried in vain to identify Jack the Ripper.

O J Modjeska writes about the victims with great respect for each girl's short life, drawing a heartbreaking picture each time.   These are not just names, and the book is far from being just a list of heinous crimes.  Only towards the end of the book do Bianchi and Buono themselves appear, and by then I had to know the whole story; I went back to Amazon and bought Killing Cousins as soon as I'd finished A City Owned.  

I found Killing Cousins the most absorbing of the two books, as I am more interested in the psychological background of killers than the solving of crimes.  The drawn out trial was at times farcical, not only because of Bianchi's attempts to convince psychiatrists that he suffered from Multiple Personality Disorder, but because of the self-interest and prejudice of many involved.

'There were the cops who thought the lives of prostitutes were worthless, the officials who wanted to look good in front of the media, the shrinks seeking professional recognition, the prosecutors who assumed middle-aged women were crazy, and the politicians seeking office.  There was stupidity, there was self-aggrandizement, there was sexism and the tyranny of the herd.' 

This two-book series is everything that true crime should be, without being in any way sensationalised.  O J Modjeska has not only written a riveting account of the victims, perpetrators and law enforcement bodies, but also shown how very different attitudes in general were, only forty years ago; if just a few incidents had not taken place, a few people not spoken up, if a few jurors been swayed by the individuals who defended these two monsters, the outcome might have been very different.