Alison Baillie

A second psychological thriller from this author. Eminently readable in a beautiful setting. Loved it!

A Fractured Winter

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My review -

When a neighbour’s small daughter is abducted from their idyllic Swiss village, Olivia becomes obsessive about the safety of her own children, particularly Lara, the missing girl’s best friend. Events from Olivia’s past loom large in her mind. This is a psychological thriller in which the beautiful setting is almost a character in itself. It’s a study in watching a person’s past come back to trouble her. It begins with a feeling of unease which ramps up until there’s a definite knowledge that something is very wrong. Only Olivia seems to see that – and the reader. At the climax of the story, things come very close to home for Olivia. I enjoyed this story very much. I love the author’s clear and easy style. Always a pleasure to read.

Kelly Clayton

I've only just got around to reading this book, though I've had it on my radar for ages. Should have read it sooner!

Blood in the Sand

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My review - 

A rich widow apparently overdoses on her insulin and falls to her death from her balcony. Things are just too perfect, though. Can it really have been an accident? This is just the beginning of an increasing body-count for DCI Jack Le Claire. The holiday island of Jersey suddenly has a surfeit of ‘blood on the sand’

This author and her books have been on my radar for some time but I’ve not had a break in my reading schedule until now. I bought this and read it – devoured it – in two days. The story is complex, interesting, plausible and exciting. It’s peopled with three-dimensional characters who are so real, so human, that you can’t immediately say who is the perpetrator. Everyone has some financial need or some family feud and it’s only right at the end that the tangle is sorted out. I enjoyed it immensely and I’m going to do what I very rarely do and immediately buy Book 2 in this series.

Highly recommended.

Dean C Moore

A new author to me and his book is fun, cheeky, dowright rude and very thought-provoking. 

Unkillable (The Futurist Book 1)

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My review -

It’s not often I finish a book and think, well, I’ve never read anything like that before. The futurists are FBI personnel who detect scientific and technological advances which will put the future of humanity in danger. They are in the top 1% of humanity, not in terms of income but of intelligence. Our little group of protagonists are trying to find who is behind an unkillable man, first brought to their notice through dead bodies which become reanimated.

The first part of the book is a real action-packed ride but the second part became, to my mind, more thoughtful. The vision opened out and the view it gave was unexpectedly broad. There’s a lot of humour and invention in this book but if you’re allergic to sex and violence in your reading matter, be warned and don’t upset yourself by reading it. I felt in some cases that the author was writing this with a big wink. There was a brilliant scene towards the end when four of the characters drove a psychiatrist to the end of her tether. However, this layer floated upon another which was deeper, more philosophical and, if you let yourself take it up, very thought-provoking. A most unusual book and challenging to some, but I enjoyed it very much.