Lee Penney

I haven't read any of Lee Penney's work before. It's jolly good action adventure stuff. 

Holdfast

Amazon.com Holdfast

My review - 

The human inhabitants of earth have been forced to live under the sea because of the cosmic radiation now flooding the surface. Calder is a scavenger and supplements his income from fish preparation by going right down to the Holdfast – the structure anchoring the city he lives in to the seafloor. It’s made up of sunken or scuttled ships and a few people make a living from salvaging anything they can find. There he meets and is befriended by Trice and she’s a scavenger from the Holdfast too. 

There were intriguing mentions later on of a research facility developing a serum which could allow people to return to the surface, if only for brief spells. I’m pleased to see that by the end of this book there’s the promise that we’ll be reading more of that. This story begins as though it’s going to be hard-core science fiction but in all honesty, the heart of the story could have taken place anywhere. It deals with kidnap, family relationships – father to daughter and brother to sister – and friendship. It’s a rollicking good action adventure story which I enjoyed a great deal.

Faith Mortimer

Faith is an author whose name I see around occasionally. I read most of this book in one afternoon and evening - it's addictive!

Behind a Twisted Smile

Amazon.com Behind a Twisted Smile

My review - 

Moya has a brief fling with Martyn but after he effectively breaks into her flat and uses her computer without her knowledge, she realises there’s no real relationship there and she dumps him. Just a few weeks later, she finds he’s going out with her sister and making out to her family that he finished the relationship and she’s bitter about it. He has every appearance of being a gold-digger but nobody else can see past his immense charm. As the story progresses, more people are taken in by Martyn and Moya feels increasingly isolated, until she meets Jon. The story had me so paranoid I wondered about him, too.

As I read on, I felt Moya’s frustration at the degree of manipulation Martyn brought into play. I seemed to be the only one who believed her! The final acts of the story were very tense and exciting and I enjoy this a great deal. I think I need to read more of Faith Mortimer’s books!