Nick Wastnage

A great story which makes you think.

Night Running

Amazon.com

My review -

Kate is still grieving for the loss of one of her twin daughters to cancer, a circumstance which destroyed the dregs of an ailing marriage. She meets Mark who comes to make shelves for her new cottage. He has experienced the loss of his partner Emma’s young son in a house-fire for which Emma blames him because he slipped out for a few minutes to the shops and that was when the fire broke out. Then children die in fires up and down the country – wherever Mark is. He knows he is in the frame. Can Emma believe him?

The story touches on guilt, family rivalry – Kate’s sister is a detective working on the cases – friendship, loyalty and love. Kate’s husband reappears to insist on taking his daughter out at weekends and also, to Kate’s horror, refusing to allow her to be alone in Mark’s care. It’s an interesting study in why people fall apart and what helps to pull them back together to remake their lives. I enjoyed this story which is a thriller with a psychological edge. Highly recommended.

I received an advance copy of this book for review purposes.

Nick Wastnage

Death in the Fishing Net

Amazon.com  Death in the Fishing Net

My review -

This is a short novel which I was able to read in an evening. Nevertheless it is packed with action and stuffed with believable characters. Monroe has a row with his wife, after which she leaves him. She is found murdered shortly afterwards. He later meets a new woman, Stevie and they marry. Stevie, through a series of discoveries, comes to believe that Monroe himself did away with his first wife. We follow her and Monroe's son Greg as they try to make sense of all this and begin to unravel the truth.

The writing is very good, crisp and immediate. I was very soon sucked in to the story and made to care about the characters. I found Stevie and Greg to be very sympathitic characters although perhaps the Police Inspector was too rude to be true! (Maybe I've only met the polite ones?) The last part of the story, as we came to realise what had happened, became very tense and exciting. A great little read, this!