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8/1/2019 0 Comments

Review: The Banker's Wife

The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger
Page length: 352 pages
Genre: Thriller/Crime Fiction
Publication Date:  10 January 2019 (Paperback)
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars: 5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT THE BANKER'S WIFE
 
Annabel's husband Matthew has just died in a plane crash. But was it really an accident or is there more to the story?
 
Marina's boss has asked for her help on one last investigation - an exposé of a huge banking scandal. Shortly after, he is found murdered in his home.
 
Two women who have lost so much.
 
Two women with so much more to lose.
 
Two women who will stop at nothing to find out the truth.
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My Review:

The Banker's Wife has been out as an e-book since July 2018, and this review coincides with the paperback release (out 10 January 2019).
 
Annabel is the Banker's Wife, and now that her husband is dead, she needs to rebuild her life. She is super suspicious about how he came to be in the wrong country, on the wrong plane, with the wrong wrong. And everyone she talks to her tells her she can trust no one. Marina was looking to retire from journalism when her boss gets murdered and she is determined to follow-up on what he has started.

Ms Alger navigates you through the murky world of private and offshore banking so you know enough without being crushed by boring facts and legal jargon.
 
Annabel and Marina's respective stories merge beautifully. The dramatic pace is brilliant, and every paragraph seems to invoke more tension and drama.
 
It's a dead heat for who can be in the most danger at any one time; Annabel or Marina.
 
I did predict the final twist and it brought a smile to my face as the book came to close. But for the rest it was a riveting romp.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
I have seen that it is soon to be made into a television series, which is perfect, and I hope it brings a bigger audience to this deserving thriller.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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3/12/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Page length: 400 pages
Genre: Crime Fiction/Thriller
Publication Date: 3 December 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT THE HUNTING PARTY
 
EVERYONE’S INVITED.
EVERYONE’S A SUSPECT.
 
In a remote hunting lodge, deep in the Scottish wilderness, old friends gather for New Year.
 
The beautiful one
The golden couple
The volatile one
The new parents
The quiet one
The city boy
The outsider
 
The victim.
 
Not an accident – a murder among friends.
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My Review:

A modern day Agatha Christie.   

As the front covers says everyone’s invited, everyone’s a suspect. Halfway through the book you’re so acquainted with the characters they’re practically friends. And yet you still you have no idea who the killer is OR the victim. The level of suspense is precariously high, but it stands strong. There are clues on every page, from the party of friends, the staff, and the surprise Icelandic visitors. Even as the book was coming to a close, all the secrets and lies kept tumbling, keeping the true killer out of sight until the very end. Bravo Ms Foley!

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review.


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20/11/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Broken Girls

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
Page length: 338 pages
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Publication Date: 29 November 2018 (Paperback)
Publisher: Wildfire
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars: 5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT THE BROKEN GIRLS
 
THEY WON'T FORGIVE. THEY WON'T FORGET.
 
1950 - At the crumbling Idlewild Hall school for unwanted girls, four room-mates begin to bond over dark secrets and whispered fears - until one of them mysteriously disappears...
 
2014 - Journalist Fiona Sheridan can't get over the murder of her sister twenty years ago, near the ruins of Idlewild. And when another body is found during renovations of the school, she begins to uncover horrors that were meant to remain hidden - and a voice that won't be silenced.
 
For fans of Lisa Jewell and S.K. Tremayne, The Broken Girls is a chilling story of murder, revenge, and secrets that refuse to stay buried...
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My Review:

The Broken Girls has been out as an e-book since March 2018, and this review coincides with the paperback release (out 29 November 2018). The story surrounds an old boarding school Idlewild Hall. The school closed in 1979 and in 2014 has been bought.
 
The tale flits between two timelines – when the school was still open and functioning in 1950, four friends who share a dorm room. And one of the girls goes missing. And 2014 when a reclusive millionaire has bought the school with plans to bring it back to life, and a local journalist, Fiona Sheridan, who with a hidden agenda wants to find out why?
 
Fiona is fighting her own demons; her sister was murdered and dumped outside Idlewild Hall, and it's not only ghosts from her past who are scaring her. The stories of the haunted school, the missing girl, the dead sister are woven together beautifully. I was fearful, mystified and curious for answers!
 
Such a good book, I hope we see more of Fiona Sheridan.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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4/11/2018 0 Comments

Review: My Name is Anna

My Name is Anna by Lizzy Barber
Genre: Crime Fiction/Thriller
Publication Date: 1 November 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5

 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

ABOUT MY NAME IS ANNA
 
Two women – desperate to unlock the truth.
How far will they go to lay the past to rest?
 
ANNA has been taught that virtue is the path to God. But on her eighteenth birthday she defies her Mamma’s rules and visits Florida’s biggest theme park. She has never been allowed to go – so why, when she arrives, does everything seem so familiar? And is there a connection to the mysterious letter she receives on the same day?
 
ROSIE has grown up in the shadow of the missing sister she barely remembers, her family fractured by years of searching without leads. Now, on the fifteenth anniversary of her sister’s disappearance, the media circus resumes in full flow, and Rosie vows to uncover the truth. But will she find the answer before it tears her family apart?
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My Review:

Not a spoiler – the back cover says it all. Rosie's older sister went missing fifteen years previously, and Anna wonders about her real parentage is. What I thought was going to be a straightforward thriller, how wrong was I! It got murkier and murkier the further I read. I was completely embroiled in Anna and Rosie's stories respectively. And at one point shouting 'No!!!!!' at the book.
 
A fantastic debut from Ms Barber.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 

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30/10/2018 0 Comments

Review: The Sentence is Death

The Sentence is Death by Anthony Horowitz
Page length: 384 pages
Genre: Crime Fiction
Publication Date: 1 November 2018
Publisher: Cornerstone Digital
Source: ARC via NetGalley
 
Stars:  5 out of 5
 
Link: AMAZON (UK)

 
ABOUT THE SENTENCE IS DEATH
 
You shouldn’t be here. It’s too late…’
 
These, heard over the phone, were the last recorded words of successful celebrity-divorce lawyer Richard Pryce, found bludgeoned to death in his bachelor pad with a bottle of wine – a 1982 Chateau Lafite worth £3,000, to be precise.
 
Odd, considering he didn’t drink. Why this bottle? And why those words? And why was a three-digit number painted on the wall by the killer? And, most importantly, which of the man’s many, many enemies did the deed?
 
Baffled, the police are forced to bring in Private Investigator Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, the author Anthony, who’s really getting rather good at this murder investigation business.
 
But as Hawthorne takes on the case with characteristic relish, it becomes clear that he, too, has secrets to hide. As our reluctant narrator becomes ever more embroiled in the case, he realises that these secrets must be exposed – even at the risk of death…
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My Review:

As I really enjoyed Mr Horowitz's new Sherlock Holmes in The House of Silk, I was very excited to get the chance to read The Sentence is Death. I read the book in two days and couldn't put it down – it was a sumptuous way to spend the weekend.
 
Anthony is a writer, (the writer of this book and many others) and Daniel is an ex-policeman turned private detective. I knew immediately I was going to be a fan of Daniel and Tony's pairing. The book opens on the television set for Foyle's War (I couldn't help but check – yes, Mr Horowitz was indeed a writer for said television programme), when Daniel Hawthorne comes blustering onto set ruining an expensive take.
 
The race to solve the murder was on…. Between Daniel and Tony, and between them and the police. A second death that was possibly a second murder, possibly a suicide, or possibly an accident muddied the waters. There were enough clues and red herrings to keep me wondering throughout the book.
 
I didn't realize this was the second book in the Daniel Hawthorne series.
And luckily I can now binge straight away on more Daniel Hawthorne with the first in the series The Word is Murder.
 
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
 
Thank you so much the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a complimentary electronic copy in return for an honest review. 
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