The Revenge Club by Kathy Lette (Audiobook)

 

Four female friends, all sidelined in some way by men, hatch a plan to wreak revenge.

I will freely admit I haven't been near a Kathy Lette novel in about twenty years. My tastes changed, but now I'm more than happy to intersperse my usual diet of crime and thrillers with something a little lighter, romantic fiction or uplifting fiction fits the bill perfectly. Hence, I decided to give  The Revenge Club a go.

University friends Tilly, Penny, Jo and Cressida haven't seen each other for twenty years. They had a strong bond at university, they even formed a group, but careers and families mean that they have drifted apart. It is therefore a surprise when Jo suggests they rekindle the friendship.

Tilly, Penny and Cressida are detailing what they have done since leaving university when a strange man approaches their table. They are shocked and amazed to discover that it is their friend Jo, masquerading as Joe. Jo explains that her career as a leading special effects artist ground to a halt when a director decided she was "past it". Using her skills she disguised herself as a man and had the chance to work with the same director who thinks her new persona is brilliant and Joe is now in great demand.

Jo/Joe's tale causes the other three women to begin to recount how their lives have changed now they've passed the 40 mark. A successful novelist has been dropped by her publisher (her writing is no longer relevant), a TV journalist has been dropped in favour of a male colleague (too old to be on screen) and an actress is now only being offered jobs aimed at much older people (roles advertising incontinence pads). Added to this a husband has taken on a much younger mistress. The descriptions in which the women have been sidelined will not come as a surprise to female readers, they are the sort of thing we see and hear on a regular basis. It is refreshing to see that the author is now writing about an older generation of females but, as one of the characters points out, forty is hardly old. 

The quartet agrees to seek revenge on the men who have wronged them using Jo's disguise to help. Luckily they discover allies to help them carry out their plans. Some of the allies come from surprising places but also show that not all men are the same.

The dialogue is razor sharp, as you would expect from Kathy Lette, but I felt that it became a little preachy at times. I enjoyed the twists which added unexpected elements to the storyline, making this much more than just a tale of revenge.

Author Details

Kathy Lette first achieved succès de scandale as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues, which was made into a major film and a TV mini-series. She has written 20 books which have been translated into 19 languages. Kathy has two children and divides her time between Sydney and London. Kathy is an autodidact (a word she taught herself) but has three honorary doctorates. She is a TV presenter, newspaper and magazine columnist and also an ambassador for Their World, the National Autistic Society and Ambitious About Autism. Kathy recently completed a tour of her one-woman show, "Girls Night Out", and is pleased to report that she didn't fall out with the cast.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

 

In the middle of the night, a mother gets up to check on her two young children. Hearing a noise she is convinced that there is someone in the house. When she sees the outline of a stranger on the stairs her only thought is of the survival of her and her children.

Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra is another of those books that has gained a buzz on Twitter, hence it joined my TBR pile. I was desperate to read it but I'm a bit of a wimp so had to pick my time perfectly, I have been known to stop reading if a book scares me. Initially, it was going to be holiday reading but I decided against reading this in a strange house. After that, I had to think about the timings of my OH being away from home.

This book is so gripping that you are likely to read it in one sitting. The opening chapter, in fact, the opening line, is chilling and sets the tone for the remainder of the book. The setting adds to the atmosphere; an old house, which some locals are convinced is haunted, a remote setting, heavy snowfall, the middle of the night and a woman alone with young children. 

The old rambling house is as much of a character in the story as the mother and the intruder. The mother's knowledge of all the noises the house makes is what first alerts her. You then feel her terror and the frantic race against time to collect her children together and hide. Luckily there is a panel that leads to a small crawl space, a panel so well disguised that it is almost impossible to spot.

With her children safe they then have to listen as the intruder searches. Once again it's her knowledge of the sounds the house makes that allows her to track his movements. As she listens she realises that somehow this stranger knows them, that she has seen him somewhere before.

I'm not going to add any more, this really is one of those books where saying anymore is likely to spoil the tension. You have to read it for yourself, experience the terror, the loss of control and wonder what you would do in a similar situation.

Author Details

Tracy Sierra was born and raised in the Colorado mountains. She is an attorney who currently lives in New England in an antique colonial-era home complete with its own secret room. When not writing, she spends time with her husband and two children. Nightwatching is her debut novel.

The Chamber by Will Dean

 

A team of six saturation divers face a job where they are confined together, under extreme pressure, to a small capsule. Shortly after the job begins one of them is dead. Was it natural causes or murder?

Will Dean has produced the ultimate in locked room mysteries with his latest offering, The Chamber. The protagonists are saturation divers, they live in a small chamber on the deck of a ship. The chamber has been pressurised to match the depth at which they will be working on the sea bed and takes days to change back to normal. The chamber is one room, the size of an SUV, and a separate ‘wet pot’ for bodily functions and showering. With six people in such a confined space, with nowhere to hide, we are faced with a locked room mystery that leaves no corner to hide.

The story is told from the perspective of Ellen Brooke, the only female among the team of six. Ellen knows four of the other divers, they’ve all worked together at one time or another. The job is so specialised that the field of suitable candidates is small. The sixth diver, Tea-Bag, is new, it’s only his second saturation dive. Within hours of being in the pressurised chamber, Tea-Bag is discovered dead in his bunk. The group are faced with two problems; firstly, it will take four days to return the pressure in the chamber to normal, and secondly, how did their colleague die?

As the crew grapples with their enforced confinement, we learn how dangerous their job actually is. Not only do they face peril from the things we expect, they also have to deal with issues we would consider to be minor. The pressure means that the chamber is a hothouse where bacteria can multiply rapidly. The divers must ensure that everything is kept scrupulously clean. Being so reliant on everyone doing their utmost to ensure everyone is kept safe, along with the specialised nature of their job, gives a sense of camaraderie. As they begin to wonder if that trust is misplaced a sense of paranoia begins to set in, showing us that the dangers are psychological as well as physical.

Confined quarters and growing distrust leads to introspection. The surviving divers share memories of some of the jobs they have worked on previously and this makes for grim reading as we learn about the disturbing reality of some well-known maritime disasters. Thankfully, Will Dean doesn’t go overboard with the descriptions.

The conclusion becomes a life-or-death race against time, with the claustrophobia and tension building to the point of explosion. My nerves were on edge as I was willing away the minutes until the hatch could be opened and the truth revealed.

The Chamber by Will Dean will be published on 6^th June 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for a review copy.

Author Details

Will Dean grew up in the East Midlands and had lived in nine different villages before the age of eighteen. After studying Law at the LSE and working in London, he settled in rural Sweden where he built a house in a boggy clearing at the centre of a vast elk forest, and it’s from this base that he compulsively reads and writes. His debut novel, Dark Pines, was selected for Zoe Ball’s Book Club, shortlisted for the Guardian Not the Booker prize and named a Daily Telegraph Book of the Year. Red Snow was published in January 2019 and won Best Independent Voice at the Amazon Publishing Readers’ Awards, 2019. Black River was shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Award in 2021. The Last Thing to Burn was released to widespread acclaim in January 2021. First Born was published in 2022.

Welcome To Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal

 

Vet Charlotte Walker takes up the offer to study tortoises on the remote island of Tuga. Reptiles are her passion, but she has another motive. Charlotte believes the father she’s never met is from Tuga.

Francesca Segal has created a charming fictional island, filled with eccentric characters, in Welcome To Glorious Tuga. Tuga is a tiny British overseas territory, miles from anywhere, that is cut off from visitors for half the year. When you set foot on Tuga it is like being transported back in time – some say to the 50s but they are unsure if that’s the 1950s or the 1850s.

Despite the location and other drawbacks of Tuga, Charlotte Walker jumps at the chance of a year-long study of the tortoises native to the island. Charlotte is an introvert, better with animals than people, and focused on her study. She does, however, have an ulterior motive for visiting the island. Her mother has never disclosed to her the identity of her father. Just one small clue has convinced Charlotte that her father is Tugan.

During the long sea voyage to Tuga, Charlotte continually suffers from sea sickness. Luckily, one of the other passengers, Dan Zekri, is a doctor. Dan is from Tuga and is returning home after living in England. Over the course of the journey, a friendship is formed, and Charlotte has dreams that it could blossom into something more.

The island is populated by a host of engaging characters, some of whom are used to great effect to further the storyline. One of those characters is the island “bad boy” Levi. Charlotte is initially cold and unfriendly towards Levi, she sees him as rough and uncultured. Levi doesn’t have a high opinion of Charlotte either, seeing her as aloof and unfriendly. You can see immediately where this storyline is heading – will Charlotte end up with Dan or Levi?

While I found it easy to fall in love with Tuga and its inhabitants, I just didn’t warm to Charlotte; I didn’t really care about what happened to her. I also felt that the pacing was a bit erratic. Huge time jumps seemed to come out of nowhere, with little explanation. Characters such as Levi and Taki brought the story alive; for others, such as Grand Mary, I couldn’t see the point in why they had such a prominent role in the story.

Welcome To Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal will be published on 6^th June 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Chatto & Windus for a review copy.

Author Details

Francesca Segal is an award-winning writer and journalist. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Innocents (2012) and The Awkward Age (2017), and a memoir of NICU motherhood, Mother Ship (2019). Her writing has won the 2012 Costa First Novel Award, a Betty Trask Award, and been longlisted for the Women's Prize.

The Mercy Chair by M. W. Craven

 

When a badger disturbs a grave, an unexpected extra body is discovered. Little does Washington Poe realise that this will have connections to a religious cult and a triple murder case.

From the outset, The Mercy Chair by M. W. Craven has a sinister and unsettling tone. The description of the psychiatric hospital in the opening chapter is disquieting. As we then learn that Poe is struggling with the after-effects of a case you immediately know it must be something extreme.

What follows is a conversation, or consultation, between Poe and Doctor Lang as he recounts the events that have left him with PTSD. The leader of a religious group was tied to a tree and stoned to death. We learn that as Poe and Tilly focused the investigation on the remaining members of the group, they discovered that it is more of a cult, with extreme views, some of which are very topical. I was getting “Handmaid’s Tale” vibes the more we learned about the beliefs of the cult and the behaviour of its members.

The conversation outlining the case is linear but M. W. Craven really keeps the reader in suspense. As you reach pivotal moments in the plot Poe will evade direct questions or say that “there was worse to come”. This keeps you gripped and revelation after revelations is more shocking than the last. There are twists galore and the reason for Poe’s PTSD becomes clear about halfway through, however, there still remain questions about some of the comments Poe has made to Dr. Lang. The tension keeps building as layer upon layer of the story is stripped away.

Despite a diagnosis of PTSD we still get to see the gruff, no-nonsense side of Washington Poe. There’s the odd bit of humour (we learn that Poe doesn’t like frozen yoghurt) and some merciless teasing. Generally, this teasing is aimed at an auditor who has been tasked with shadowing Poe and Tilly. The identity of the auditor and their reason for being forced upon Poe and Tilly has far-reaching consequences.

The Mercy Chair by M. W. Craven will be published on 6^th June 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. I received my copy as a prize in a competition organised by Capital Crime (@CapitalCrime1)

Author Details

Multi-award-winning author M.W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle. He joined the army at sixteen, leaving ten years later to complete a social work degree. Seventeen years after taking up a probation officer role in Cumbria, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author. He is an instant Sunday Times bestseller and, for his Cumbria-set Washington Poe series, a recipient of the 2019 Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger, the 2022 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2023. The series has now been translated into twenty-seven languages 

Nosy Neighbours by Freya Sampson

 

Dorothy Darling is the longest resident of the flats within Shelley House. The residents of the other flats just about tolerate her busybody antics. When everyone receives an eviction notice they have to decide whether to fight together or simply give up and leave.

Nosy Neighbours by Freya Sampson is one of those uplifting books that will have you siding with the characters against the greedy arch-villain. The story centres around seventy-seven-year-old, long-time resident of Shelley House, Dorothy Darling, and twenty-five-year-old newcomer, Kat Bennett. These are two women who have nothing in common apart from the place where they live.

Dorothy, or Ms. Darling as she keeps correcting everyone, has lived in flat two of Shelley House for over thirty years. Her days follow a strict routine, with many of the hours sitting in a chair at the window watching everything that is happening. If anything is unusual, suspicious, or unacceptable it is committed to a notebook. Each day Dorothy also takes the time to carry out an inspection of the Victorian building itself, sorting the mail from the junk, noting any rule violations by other residents, watching for minor repairs, but, mainly checking on the fire escape door which gives access to the roof. Dorothy prides herself on not being nosy, she's simply keeping an eye on everyone for safety reasons.

Kat Bennett has recently returned to the area after fifteen years. She has lived a nomadic lifestyle for a decade, never putting down roots for long, hence her interest in sub-letting a room in flat one at Shelley House. Kat doesn't want to get involved with anyone, particularly as she doesn't plan on staying long. She's not even sure why she was drawn back to the place she spent much of her childhood until her grandfather disowned her.

The remaining residents of Shelley House are a mixed bunch, simply getting on with their day-to-day lives, although some have personal issues they are dealing with. When they all receive an eviction notice they initially accept their fates are sealed. Dorothy, however, is adamant she's not leaving and some of the other residents take strength from this and decide to fight. Kat, along with a local journalist, digs into the background of the landlord, a shady property developer who uses underhand tactics to get what he wants.

As the battle between the residents and the property developer continues we learn about both Dorothy and Kat's background. We begin to understand why Kat is constantly on the move and why Dorothy refuses to move. 

Mistrust makes it almost impossible for either woman to accept the help they are offered and difficult for them to change their ways, they've spent a lifetime protecting themselves and keeping their hurt a secret. Dorothy and Kat are as stubborn as each other but through the support they offer each other and the wider community, they realise that forgiveness exists. I was pleased that this story didn't have a magical happy ending where everyone got what they wanted, the ending felt realistic and this made for a much more believable story.

Author Details

Freya Sampson is the USA Today bestselling author of The Last Chance Library and The Lost Ticket/The Girl on the 88 Bus. She studied history at Cambridge University and worked in television as an executive producer, making documentaries about everything from the British royal family to neighbours from hell. She lives in London with her husband, children and cats. Nosy Neighbours is her third novel.

April 2024 Reads

 

Although my NetGalley shelf is packed with books to read and review I decided to make a little inroad into my TBR last month. I've got a holiday shortly and realised that my holiday reading pile was quite large, so in an effort to reduce it slightly I decided to alternate between my TBR and my NetGalley shelf. As a result of this, some of April's reads are books that have already been published. I also had, for the first time in a very long time, a book that I gave up on. I'm not going to name names, but I did feel extremely guilty. I don't give up on books very often, I've persevered with some "slow burners" to eventually fall in love with them by the end because of the way the plot has developed. Unfortunately, in April my DNF was down to the language, I really struggled with the "slang", the book was obviously written with a much younger demographic in mind.

Fans of the Roy Grace series by Peter James will be familiar with the story of his missing wife, Sandy. Over the space of a dozen books, we found out where she disappeared to. In They Thought I Was Dead we get the full story from Sandy’s point of view, gaining answers to many of the questions those who have followed the story have had.

Next up was a classic “stranded on a remote island” style thriller, Truth Truth Lie. Author Claire McGowan’s spin on the style was that all the individuals were responsible for the death of another person, and someone was going to make them pay. Panic mode ensued as everyone thought about their own survival.

I was really excited to get an early copy of Think Twice by Harlan Coben, the twelfth book in the Myron Bolitar series. Myron has returned to representing clients and the FBI approaches him wanting to know the whereabouts of one of those clients, Greg Downing, as he has links to a recent murder. Myron knows the FBI is wrong as Greg has been dead for three years, or has he? Fans will be aware that Myron and Greg have a long, and chequered, history. The ending had me holding my breath and not wanting to read on.

The Collapsing Wave by Doug Johnstone is the second book in The Enceladons trilogy. You really do need to read book 1, The Space Between Us, first to fully understand the dynamics in this book. A species of peaceful aliens has arrived on Earth and the military is determined to wipe them out. A small group of individuals are determined to help the Enceladons. Please don’t think of this as science fiction, it’s more of a modern fairy tale and extremely thought-provoking.

Our Holiday by Louise Candlish was a little bit too much of a slow burner for my liking. There are quite a few thought-provoking moments as the story focuses on the conflict between second-home owners from London who descend on a small coastal community for one month a year. Little do the Londoners realise that they are pricing the locals out of existence. The story does pick up in the last quarter as secrets are uncovered and alibis examined.

Having loved the TV series Slow Horses I decided to read the books. Dead Lions by Mick Herron is the second book in the series. As part of the team investigates a long-buried network of Russian spies in the English countryside the rest of the team are seconded to look after a meeting between MI5 and a Russian oligarch. The characters are so well drawn that you worry about each of them as each story reaches its explosive conclusion.

Prepare for a wild ride as you begin Redemption by Jack Jordan. The author writes twisty tales where the lead character faces a moral dilemma. In this novel, it takes it up a notch when a grieving mother plans revenge on the man responsible for the death of her young son. Her husband goes out of his way to try and stop her. There’s an apocalyptic feel as the pair race through the Nevada desert. The body count is high and the descriptions will have you wincing.

Light relief appeared in the guise of The Day Shelley Woodhouse Woke Up by Laura Pearson. The novel is an uplifting story that touches on the serious issue of domestic violence. Shelley wakes from a coma suffering from memory loss. The only thing she is sure of is that her husband is responsible. Those around her are reluctant to engage when she asks questions. As her memories slowly return, we see how Shelley’s life led to where she is today.

Welcome To Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal didn’t quite live up to expectation for me. The thought of a love triangle on a remote tropical island, peopled with eccentric characters, promised much. Unfortunately, I didn’t engage with the main characters and the pacing didn’t work.

Shot In The Dark by Anna Britton regularly features on my Twitter feed. I’m so glad I decided to see what all the fuss was about. A pair of female detectives investigate the murder of a young woman. There are five suspects. As the detectives dig deeper, they uncover lie after lie from each suspect. None of the suspects are remotely likeable, they are only interested in self-preservation. The detectives are both flawed characters, with backgrounds that are hinted at. The ending is one of those that will have you gasping, demanding to know more right now!

Claustrophobia, tension and paranoia feature heavily in The Chamber by Will Dean, an extreme take on a locked room mystery. A group of saturation divers face a month together in a confined space, under extreme pressure. When one of them is found dead, everyone wonders if it was natural causes or murder. The return to normal pressure leads to four days of introspection, distrust and anxiety.

Audiobooks

I managed three audiobooks in April. Firstly, Plot Twist by Breea Keenan played on many of the tropes seen in romantic fiction when Becca decided to run away from her job and go to stay with a friend she’s met online as part of a writing group. Little did Becca realise that her friend Riley was a man, a very handsome man. As the friendship develops there are misunderstandings, jealousy and the return on Riley’s wife to contend with.

My second audiobook was also romantic fiction, The Switch by Beth O’Leary. Leena and Eileen, granddaughter and grandmother, swap homes for a couple of months. The change of scene gives them both a chance to re-evaluate their lives and also offers a fresh perspective on some of the problems around them that need solving. I really enjoyed the way in which inter-generational characters worked together and showed that age is not a barrier.

Finally, I listened to She’s Not Sorry by Mary Kubica, an author who is new to me. I initially thought that the author had tried to incorporate too many different plots into the story. About halfway through everything started to piece together and I ended up enjoying the story far more than I expected to.

Publication dates to watch out for are:

They Thought I Was Dead by Peter James will be published on 9/5/24 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Truth Truth Lie by Claire McGowan will be published on 21/5/24 in paperback, ebook and audio format.

Think Twice by Harlan Coben will be published on 23/5/24 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

The Chamber by Will Dean will be published on 6/6/24 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Welcome To Glorious Tuga by Francesca Segal will be published on 6/6/24 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Redemption by Jack Jordan will be published on 20/6/24 in hardback, ebook and audio format.

Our Holiday by Louise Candlish will be published on 4/7/24 in paperback, ebook and audio format.