The Lost Children

I'm a new reader to Theresa Talbot's work but I really enjoyed this book.

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Book description 

Investigative journalist Oonagh O'Neil's instincts tell her when a story is worth pursuing. And the death of an elderly priest on the altar of his Glasgow church, just as she is about to expose the shocking truth behind the closure of an infamous Magdalene Institution, tells her a sinister cover up is in play.

DI Alec Davies is appointed to investigate the priest's death. He and Oonagh go way back. But now they're united in uncovering not only what happened to the lost babies secretly born in the Institution, but what happened to the young women that survived by vowing loyalty to one another... forever.

The doors of the Magdalene laundries hid the most harrowing secrets from the world – secrets Oonagh is determined to reveal, whatever the price...

'The Lost Children is Theresa's debut crime novel.

My review 

Oonagh O’Neil, the main character in the book, is an Irish-born investigative journalist living in Glasgow. The book is a long one but covers so many threads which the author cleverly weaves together so it seems to fly by. She is investigating the stories of the Magdalene Houses where young girls were sent to have their illegitimate babies. They were effectively prisoners and those who put them in that condition were, in some cases, those who should have been their protectors. Oonagh becomes embroiled in the story to her own detriment and the denouement is exciting. I was completely in thrall to this book and heartily recommend it.

About the author

Theresa Talbot is a freelance writer, journalist and radio presenter, perhaps best known as the voice of Traffic and Travel on BBC Radio Scotland and as the host of The Beechgrove Potting Shed. Prior to working with the BBC she was with Radio Clyde and the AA Roadwatch team. Theresa worked in various roles before entering the media as an assistant in children's homes, a Pepsi Challenge girl and a library assistant. She ended up at the BBC because of an eavesdropped conversation on a no.66 bus in Glasgow. Her passions include rescuing chickens, gardening, music and yoga.

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Just a thought

A book is more than the sum of its materials. It is an artifact of the human mind and hand -
 Geraldine Brooks

The Assistant

I love The Ice Twins by S K Tremayne, and when offered the chance to review this, I leapt!

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Book description

What would you do if your home assistant turned evil?

She’s in your house. She controls your life. Now she’s going to destroy it.

She watches you constantly.
Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous Home Assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights – and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company.

She knows all your secrets.
Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did.’ And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.

Now she wants to destroy you.
Only two other people in the whole world know Jo’s secret. And they would never tell anyone. Would they? As a fierce winter brings London to a standstill, Jo begins to understand that the Assistant on the shelf doesn’t just want to control Jo; it wants to destroy her.

My review

I was engaged by the concept that electronic Assistants in the home (this one’s Electra) may work with a sinister purpose. I was blown away by the execution of the story. There was a relentless feel to the way it evolved and I couldn’t see a way out for poor Jo. It’s a fear many of us have, that we don’t want to put our life in the hands of a piece of technology. In a way, Jo has had no option as she’s living in a friend’s flat and these things are part of the deal. The last part of the book is very exciting. I read the ending breathlessly and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to you.

About the author

Sean Thomas is the real name of thriller author S K Tremayne. Sean writes books where real places becoming menacing, and where ordinary people experience something extraordinary.

Born in Devon, Sean now lives in London, but he travels a lot in his second job as a journalist, sometimes visiting places which inspire the books. His first S K Tremayne thriller, THE ICE TWINS, was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. The S K Tremayne novels have been translated into thirty languages, and have been bestsellers around the globe.

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Just a thought

A good book should leave you....slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.
― William Styron

Silent Winter

Maggie James gives a real insight into the results of sensory deprivation in this new psychological thriller.

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Book description

On an icy November night, Drew Blackmore is beaten unconscious, then abducted.  He awakes to find himself in total darkness, naked and chained to the floor.  Fed just enough to keep him alive, Drew is unable to identify his captor, or the reason for his incarceration. As reality fades, hallucinations take over. Can Drew escape his prison before madness claims him?

Meanwhile Drew's wife, Holly, despairing of ever seeing him again, turns to his brother for comfort. As the worst winter in decades sweeps the UK, she learns of Drew's tragic past. Could his disappearance be connected with that of a prostitute years before? 

My review

Drew is abducted and kept in a dark place for four months, chained to the floor and with very low food and water. Maggie James brilliantly describes the psychological effects of this and the hallucinations it brings on. At home, his wife, brother and sister-in-law struggle to cope too. Drew is released, in a very bad way both physically and mentally, presumably by one of his abductors. His imprisonment takes up the first part of the book and the ensuing changes in his mental and physical health and the family relationships take up the rest. It’s a very good read and throws up some surprises towards the end.

About the author

Maggie James is a British author who lives near Newcastle. She writes psychological suspense novels.

Before turning her hand to writing, Maggie worked mainly as an accountant, with a diversion into practising as a nutritional therapist. Diet and health remain high on her list of interests, along with travel. Accountancy does not, but then it never did. The urge to pack a bag and go off travelling is always lurking in the background! When not writing, going to the gym, practising yoga or travelling, Maggie can be found seeking new four-legged friends to pet; animals are a lifelong love

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Just a thought

What is reading but silent conversation ― Walter Savage Landor

The Penmaker's Wife

This is a bit of a departure for Steve Robinson and I really enjoyed the way my view of a character changed as the story progressed.

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Book description

In Victorian England, a mother is on the run from her past—and the truth about what she did.

Birmingham, 1880. Angelica Chastain has fled from London with her young son, William. She promises him a better life, far away from the terrors they left behind.

Securing a job as a governess, Angelica captures the attention of wealthy widower Stanley Hampton. Soon they marry and the successful future Angelica envisaged for William starts to fall into place.

But the past will not let Angelica go. As the people in her husband’s circle, once captivated by her charm, begin to question her motives, it becomes clear that forgetting where she came from—and who she ran from—is impossible.

When tragedy threatens to expose her and destroy everything she’s built for herself and William, how far will she go to keep her secrets safe? And when does the love for one’s child tip over into dangerous obsession?

Alias Grace meets Peaky Blinders in this tale of obsession, ambition and murder in Victorian England. 

My review - 

This stand-alone novel from Steve Robinson, hitherto known for his Jefferson Tayte genealogical series, is a real eye opener. I mean I read it with my eyes opening wider as the story progressed. In the Victorian era, Angelica and her small son William really evoked my sympathy at the dramatic opening of the book. She embarks upon a new life which she determines to be all for the good of William. As the story unfolds and the lies begin to turn back on her it becomes very exciting and I really enjoyed it. Some of the twists and turns had a great impact, I felt. It’s a bit of a shocker in places. Strap yourself in for a wild ride.

About the author

Steve Robinson is a London-based crime writer. He was sixteen when his first magazine article was published and he’s been writing ever since. A love for genealogy inspired his first bestselling series, the Jefferson Tayte Genealogical Mysteries, and with The Penmaker's Wife he is now expanding his writing to historical crime, another area he is passionate about. He can be contacted via his website, www.steve-robinson.me, or his Facebook page, www.facebook.com/SteveRobinsonAuthor, where you can also keep up to date with his latest news.

Just a thought -

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When we are collecting books, we are collecting happiness ― Vincent Starrett

Bone Snow

Another great horror tale from David Haynes.

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Book description

When the snowstorm falls and the power fails, Leo Newman’s humble store acts as shelter
for a desperate group of people, all trapped there waiting for the dawn.

As tensions rise among the teenage kids, neighbors, street thugs and an undercover cop,
Leo barely has time to consider the most harmless and innocent ones. The strangers in his
basement – the young girl and her baby.

From the folk tales of Japanese myths, something insatiable has come to stalk the modern
world. The freezing snow rising inside Leo’s store is far hungrier and deadlier than anything
out in the dark.

My review 

In a down-at-heel area in an American town, where gang culture is rife, a power failure in a snow storm traps a group of people together in a failing store. One of them, a vulnerable-seeming young woman with her baby, is not who she seems.

I found this a really claustrophobic story. There was no way anyone could escape from the others, trapped as they were by the elements and the failure of the store’s electric security shutters. There’s a creeping feeling that things are going bad. People lose their tempers and don’t understand why they feel like this. People die – horribly. I always enjoy the author’s books and it’s often the element of ancient myth that pulls me in tight. This one did. A really creepy chiller of a read.

About the author

David Haynes is a horror fan and has been since he picked up a copy of Salem's Lot by Stephen King.

He loves reading books in the horror genre as well as in other genres but he always comes back to horror.

He writes books in the genre he loves and he hopes the readers enjoy them as much as he enjoyed writing them.

He lives in the UK with his wife, son and dog.

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Just a thought

Books fall open, you fall in ― David McCord

The Snow Killer

There are some authors who you know will give you a good read. Ross Greenwood is one of those and The Snow Killer's fantastic.

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Book description

‘Fear the north wind. Because no one will hear you scream…’

A family is gunned down in the snow but one of the children survives. Three years on, that child takes revenge and the Snow Killer is born. But then, nothing - no further crimes are committed, and the case goes cold.

Fifty years later, has the urge to kill been reawakened? As murder follows murder, the detective team tasked with solving the crimes struggle with the lack of leads. It’s a race against time and the weather – each time it snows another person dies.

As an exhausted and grizzled DI Barton and his team scrabble to put the pieces of the puzzle together, the killer is hiding in plain sight. Meanwhile, the murders continue…

My review 

Wrap up warm and read this!

Part of the story is in the words of a killer and part is a third person telling of the team trying to solve the murders. It’s only when a cold case of fifty years ago comes to light that detectives start to make connections. This looks like the beginning of a good series. Interesting characters and guess what? The DI is happily married and has kids. It’s a long time since I read a crime or police procedural that didn’t feature a maverick with an alcohol problem. Ross Greenwood doesn’t write clichés. What he has written here is a fast-paced, action-filled puzzle of a story with believable characters and spiced with a lot of humour. I want to meet Barton and Strange again!

About the author

I was born in 1973 in Peterborough and lived there until I was 20, attending The King's School in the city. I then began a rather nomadic existence, living and working all over the country and various parts of the world.

I found myself returning to Peterborough many times over the years, usually when things had gone wrong. It was on one of these occasions that I met my partner about 100 metres from my back door whilst walking a dog. Two children swiftly followed. I'm still a little stunned by the pace of it now.

Fifty Years of Fear book was started a long time ago but parenthood and then after working in sales management all my life, i randomly spent four years as a prison officer. Ironically it was the four a.m. feed which gave me the opportunity to finish the book as unable to get back to sleep I completed it in the early morning hours.

I've now written five further books. My second book, The Boy Inside, was picked up by a publisher, and Lazy Blood is also out. All my books are thought provoking, and told with a sense of humour. Reading the reviews has been great.

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Just a thought

Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself
― Abraham Lincoln

A Long Way from Home

This Private Investigator story by Brian Caves is totally gripping. Set in Georgia in the early 1960s, it's a memorable story.

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Book description

Set in Southern Georgia during President Kennedy's term in office, this novel centres around an ex Chicago homicide detective, Tom Bale, who is struggling to come to terms with his past. Six years ago, his wife was killed in a hit-and-run, the driver never found. Bale has slowly crawled his way back up from an alcoholic slide into depression and one day receives a phone call that turns his world upside down. He owes a debt to a friend and cannot refuse.

Bale travels a 1000 miles south to the sleepy town of Paradise Creek, Georgia, to find a missing girl. He is immediately at odds in a racially divided town where strangers are not welcome and secrets are kept hidden.

His investigations take him deep into the swamps to find the missing girl. She has been beaten, raped, left for dead. Bale delves further into the case and finds himself immersed in a web of corruption and lies that lead back to events spanning 15 years. Court trials have been manipulated, other girls have gone missing, never found, and innocent people have lost their lives. And it's down to Bale to stop history from repeating itself, even if it costs him his life.

My review - 

What a powerful novel this is, set in the early 1960s in the small town of Paradise Creek, Georgia. It stands against the background of the Civil Rights speeches of Martin Luther King, who stirred up the demand for equality amongst the black Americans. This, naturally, threatened the perceived superiority of the whites, who enjoyed wielding the power and the money. I found it a gripping read. Tom Bale is an incoming PI from Chicago who is searching for a missing black girl. It’s a real story of small town corruption, covered up by those with something to lose. It’s horrifying, exciting and a very good read.

About the author

Engineering, sales, marketing and operations, business consultancy, project management, procurement management. Ageing rock god with a three-piece blues/rock/funk band. And writer. Always a musician, always a writer.

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Just a thought

You want to remember that while you're judging the book, the book is also judging you 
― Stephen King