Sleep

CL (Cally) Taylor writes jolly gripping psychologial thriller. This is a good example.

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Book description

All Anna wants is to be able to sleep. But crushing insomnia, terrifying night terrors and memories of that terrible night are making it impossible. If only she didn’t feel so guilty…

To escape her past, Anna takes a job at a hotel on the remote Scottish island of Rum, but when seven guests join her, what started as a retreat from the world turns into a deadly nightmare.

Each of the guests have a secret, but one of them is lying – about who they are and why they're on the island. There's a murderer staying in the Bay View hotel. And they've set their sights on Anna.

Seven strangers. Seven secrets. One deadly lie.

Someone’s going to sleep and never wake up…

My review -

What would deprive you of sleep? In Anna’s case it was guilt. Her involvement in a car accident in which two co-workers were killed and one paralysed, even though it wasn’t her fault, leaves her afraid of sleeping. When she does, she has night terrors and wakes screaming. She feels someone is stalking her and continues to feel like then after she moves to a remote Scottish island.

The author has always, to my mind, been good at creating tension, paranoia and fear. I have my eye on a suspect time and again only to be proved wrong. I really enjoyed this book and the snapshot of the lives of those staying on the island with Anna.

About the author

C.L. Taylor is the Sunday Times bestselling author of six gripping psychological thrillers. They are not a series and can be read in any order:

2014 - THE ACCIDENT
2015 - THE LIE
2016 - THE MISSING
2017 - THE ESCAPE
2018 - THE FEAR
2019 - SLEEP

She has also written a Young Adult thriller, THE TREATMENT, which was published by HarperCollins HQ and is currently writing her second, which will be published in June 2020.

C.L. Taylor's books have sold in excess of a million copies, been number one on Amazon Kindle, Kobo, iBooks and Google Play and have been translated into over 25 languages and optioned for TV. THE ESCAPE won the Dead Good Books ‘Hidden Depths’ award for the Most Unreliable Narrator. THE FEAR was shortlisted in the Hearst Big Book Awards in the 'Pageturner' category.

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Just a thought - 

My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid.
― Joan Bauer

Savage Games

A worthy follow up to Savage Lies - and I think it's even better. Well developed characters and a cunning story.

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Book description

Deep in the New Forest, a body is hidden in the branches of a towering fir tree in an area known as Dead Maids Wood. When John Savage learns that the body belonged to an old school friend, he sets out to discover who was responsible.
 
Together with brilliant computer hacker Tannaz, he discovers his friend was down on his luck, living among those who society would rather forget - the dregs, the desperate and the homeless. Entering this dark and hidden world, Savage soon discovers that the death of his friend was just the tip of the iceberg...

My review -

Savage Games is that difficult to pull off second in a series. I loved Savage Lies and I think this is even better. Ex-SAS John Savage, still battling his own PTSD demons, determines to right some serious wrongs after an old friend from school is found dead. The plotting is tight, the pace fast and the characters are believable. For such a serious subject it’s surprisingly funny too. Savage and his assistant and IT expert Tannaz have clever mouths and don’t know when to button them. I cringed a few times expecting the worst but these two can fend for themselves. Even though it’s a second book, it would read well as a stand-alone. I’m now a huge fan of these characters and look forward to more from John Savage. Erm, I mean Peter Boland!

About the author

After studying to be an architect, Pete realised he wasn't very good at it. He liked designing buildings he just couldn't make them stand up, which is a bit of a handicap in an industry that likes to keep things upright. So he switched to advertising, writing ads for everything from cruise lines to zombie video games.

After meeting his wife Shalini and having two awesome children (their words), he was amazed when she sat and actually wrote a book. Then another and another. They were good too. Really good. So he thought, I'll have a go at that.

He soon realised there's no magic formula. You just have to put one word in front of the other (and keep doing that for about a year). It also helps if you can resist the lure of surfing, playing Nintendo Switch with his son, watching America's Next Top Model with his daughter and drinking beer in a garden chair.

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Just a thought 

 You cannot open a book without learning something ― Confucius

The Passengers

Have you ever heard of a technological innovation and thought ironically, 'What could possibly go wrong'? Well - here it is!

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Book description

When someone hacks into the systems of eight self-drive cars, their passengers are set on a fatal collision course. 

The passengers are: a TV star, a pregnant young woman, a disabled war hero, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife - and parents of two - who are travelling in separate vehicles and a suicidal man. Now the public have to judge who should survive but are the passengers all that they first seem?

My review -

John Marrs is very good at taking a modern scientific or technological breakthrough and then transposing it into a near future. As he did with DNA in The One, he now does with driverless cars. I can’t be the only one who’s thought, ‘Self-driving cars? What could possibly go wrong?!’ but the author takes things a step further. We can all envisage possible failures and breakdowns but it takes a vivid imagination to create this story. Your heart will be in your mouth. It becomes exciting, horrifying, heart-breaking. You must read it.

About the author 

John Marrs is the author of #1 Best Sellers The One, The Good Samaritan, When You Disappeared, Welcome to Wherever You Are and Her Last Move. The One has been translated into 20 different languages and is to be turned into a a ten-part Netflix series in 2019.
After working as a journalist for 25-years interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers and magazines, he is now a full-time writer.

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Just a thought 

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.― Anne Herbert

Crow's Cottage

A supernatural thriller that ticks all the boxes. John Bowen has done it again.

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About the book

A dead man. A missing woman. A haunted cottage. A secret hidden for thirty years…

 In 1988 a famous record producer took his own life and a woman vanished after attending a party at Crow’s Cottage.

 When the cottage’s owner passes away decades later, the property falls into the hands of his nephew, who finds a strange box hidden there. It is a replica of an infamous occult device called the Mephisto Arcane. In the wake of its discovery come sightings of an apparition. The crew of the paranormal TV show Where the Dead Walk are invited to investigate the haunting.

 They are about to find the past guards its secrets jealously, and that unlocking them has consequences.

My review -

I love a bit of a supernatural tale and John Bowen really has a way of telling them. Renovations at the cottage produce a mystery artefact and the Where the Dead Walk team are called in to investigate. There’s a really spooky atmosphere here but, as with WTDW, it’s often what goes on in real life that’s the big deal. John Bowen has a brilliant way with atmosphere and tension. It’s not necessary to have read WTDW which I think he’s surpassed with this book. Completely engrossing. A brilliant stuff!

About the author

John Bowen is a multi genre thriller author who lives in the UK. When not playing video-games, reading, catching up on movies, going to the gym, and enjoying time with his wife and children he occasionally finds time to write…

His debut novel supernatural suspense thriller WHERE THE DEAD WALK is an Amazon Top #100 Bestseller, his most recent novel, murder mystery, DEATH STALKS KETTLE STREET is an Amazon Top #10 Bestseller, his action adventure thriller, VESSEL is a #1 Bestseller in Kindle Thriller and Mystery, and his short story collection COLD SWEATS & VIGNETTES is a #1 Bestseller in Short Fiction. 

CROW'S COTTAGE is the the sequel to WHERE THE DEAD WALK.

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Just a thought - You cannot open a book without learning something.

― Confucius

A Body in the Lakes

Second in a fantastic series by Graham Smith. Highly recommended (both books).

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Book description

When a hiker finds the body of a woman by the shores of Lake Ullswater, the police are put on high alert. Felicia Evans was known to be a tough character, but who would have strangled her?

Detective Beth Young quickly spots the links to three cold cases. Three women strangled and discarded in the stunning, wild hills of the Lake District.

As Beth begins tracking down witnesses, the team receives an anonymous letter claiming the charming mayor of Carlisle is behind the murders. There’s pressure from the top to clear his name. But Beth is determined to find the truth no matter whose feathers she ruffles in the process.

Beth knows the clock is ticking. The killer is hunting again. And it’s down to her to find who’s responsible before another woman becomes his prey…

My review -

This is a second in the DC Beth Young series and a great story. The body of an elderly woman is discovered and there are links to the charismatic local mayor. Beth’s individual strength is her analytical thinking, and she discovers three previous murder/rape cases in the area in the past few years. Bad news for previous investigators who should have found that link. The story is wide ranging, complex and interesting. Beth’s personal life is expanded upon in this book and she faces danger from more than one of the suspects. It’s an exciting, well-paced story that links cold cases with a current one. It left me breathless on a few occasions and I really look forward to more.

About the author

Graham Smith is a time served joiner who has built bridges, houses, dug drains and slated roofs to make ends meet. Since Christmas 2000, he has been manager of a busy hotel and wedding venue near Gretna Green, Scotland. 

He is an internationally best-selling Kindle author and has six books featuring DI Harry Evans and the Cumbrian Major Crimes Team, and four novels, featuring Utah doorman, Jake Boulder. His ‘Lakes’ series featuring DC Beth Young has received much critical acclaim.

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Just a thought - A book is a gift you can open again and again.” 

― Garrison Keillor

Offstage

This new novella by Jonathan Hill is just as deep and emotional as we've come to expect from him. 

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Book description

That Thursday, the day he started, was the first day in what felt like forever that I didn't consider what the world would be like without me in it.

From the author of the award-winning 'FAG' and 'Not Just a Boy' comes a story of youthful lust, the agonising ambiguity of a close friendship and the fragile nature of truth. 'Offstage' is the tale of a young man's first love in a sleepy seaside town he is desperate to escape.

My review - 

We all remember our first love. We have all loved someone who didn’t love us. There are so many common themes here that I really felt for Daniel, the narrator of the story. He had the added difficulty that he didn’t know if Nathan, the object of his desire, was gay. The anxiety, the elation, the misinterpretation of simple gestures and words, it’s all in here. There’s also a darkness. Daniel finds himself, initially by mistake, embroiled in something deeper than he knew. The story is beautifully written and the Daniel’s feelings displayed in honest and heartfelt prose. It’s both sad and uplifting. Highly recommended reading.

About the author

Jonathan Hill is an author from Manchester, UK. 

His work isn’t confined to one genre, but he has already published a number of gay literary fiction books to high critical acclaim. His debut novel 'FAG', a hard-hitting story set in an English boarding school in the 1930s, was named as the overall winner in the Self-Published and Small Press 2014 Book Awards.

He has also penned the hit comedy series of Maureen books, in addition to numerous short stories and 100-word drabbles. Jonathan firmly believes that writing should not only entertain but also enhance and change the way readers view the world.

When he’s not writing and working as a pharmacist, he enjoys painting, photography and going to the theatre.

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Just a thought 

 People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.  Malcolm X

The Secret Child

This second in a new series is Caroline Mitchell at her best.

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Book description

DI Amy Winter knows evil. She’s lived through it.

Four-year-old Ellen is snatched by a stranger in the dead of night. Her devastated mother, Nicole, receives four identical phials and a threatening note in a familiar scrawl that chills her to the bone. But she always knew this would happen. She’s been expecting it for years . . .

According to the note, one of the phials is poisoned. Nicole is given a deadly challenge: if she drinks one, the sadistic kidnapper will notify the police of Ellen’s location. The sender claims to be Luka Volkov but Luka is supposed to be dead, killed long ago in a fire that haunts all those involved.

DI Amy Winter is still reeling from the discovery that she is the daughter of a serial killer, and her childhood trauma only makes her more determined to bring Ellen home. When another child is taken, Amy finds herself in a race against time. To rescue the children, must she seek help from the one person she wants to forget?

My review - 

This is the second DI Amy Winter story and it’s as fast and furious as the first (Truth and Lies). Two child kidnappings open the curtains on a scientific institute in the 1980s. Someone is seeking revenge. This is an interesting study of childhood trauma, comparing and contrasting the kidnapper’s with Amy’s own. It’s a fresh look at an old subject and given Amy’s background, she’s uniquely equipped to investigate. I’m really enjoying this series. Many a fictional DI is portrayed as deeply flawed and it gets a bit samey. Amy Winter is burdened by her genes. Her fear of her parents’ flaws. A very good story and refreshingly different.

About the author 

Caroline writes psychological and crime thrillers. The most recent, Silent Victim reached No.1 in the Amazon charts in the UK, USA and Australia. It has been described as 'brilliantly gripping and deliciously creepy'. 

Set in Notting Hill, London, her new DI Amy Winter thriller, Truth and Lies, is published by Thomas & Mercer.

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Just a thought 

A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

― G.K. Chesterton