My Twitter/X feed was filled for months with pre-publication
praise for The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani. I’m pleased to
say that the book lives up to the hype. Nathan Cole returns to his childhood
home following the suicide of his writer father. Discovering a manuscript that
tells the story of the exploits of a serial killer brings back troubling
memories for Nathan and leads the reader along a dark and sinister path.
A cheating husband forces Celia to re-evaluate her life in The
Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson. An accidental
pregnancy at the age of seventeen has resulted in Celia accepting that “good
enough” is all she’s entitled to. Discovering her husband’s affair and the
sudden reappearance of a long-lost friend sees Celia embrace a new, but not
drastically different, life. A change in her self-esteem and a hint of romance
make Celia realise what she is missing.
Lots of review books meant that I’d kept putting off my next
visit to Slough House but I’m desperate to get up to date for the new book due
to be published in September. My holiday resulted in me reading Joe Country
by Mick Herron, book 6 in the Slough House/Slow Horses series. The
ominous opening makes it clear that lives will be lost as the failed spies find
themselves in unfamiliar terrain trying to rescue the teenage son of Min
Harper. There’s also a new face at Slough House causing problems for Jackson
Lamb.
The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland is the
fourth book in the Major Crimes series and feels very much like the conclusion
of a storyline. DCI Cara Elliott and her team, still reeling from their
dealings with the serial killer known as The Puppet Master, find themselves
dealing with a new foe. Someone is kidnapping and carrying out gruesome acts of
retribution against individuals who seem to have gotten away with their crimes.
It soon becomes clear that there are links to a previous killer.
I’d heard so much praise for Broken Country by Clare
Leslie Hall that I wanted to see what all the buzz was about but was a tiny
bit hesitant that it might be a bit literary so saved it for my holiday
when I’d have plenty of time to devote to reading. I needn’t have worried as
this wonderful love story has got to be one of the easiest, and most absorbing,
books I’ve read this year. A love triangle, with devastating consequences, had
me completely captivated. I so wanted a happy ending for everyone.
Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett is
likened to Four Weddings And A Funeral and One Day. Twenty years after meeting at university, six friends are brought together over the space of a year and we learn
if their lives have gone as they had hoped. All of the characters are perfectly
likeable, I just didn’t really engage with any of them. I did recognise the
feeling that at twenty you assume you’ll have your life sorted by the time you
are forty. This is a book that will probably resonate more with millennials.
My next read was for my new book group. Stolen by Rebecca
Muddiman is set in the northeast and starts with a young mother being
assaulted on a lonely country road and her baby goes missing. A police
investigation draws a blank. While an easy read and filled with emotion I found
the lead detective (this is the first in a series) to be one-dimensional.
I was over the moon to get a review copy of my next read, The
Killer Question by Janice Hallett. Being a fan of the author and
hearing her talk about the book at Bay Tales 25 I had a vague idea of what to
expect. Fans are in for a treat, this is her best yet. Based around a regular
quiz night at an isolated country pub, there’s murder, deceit, blackmail and,
possibly worst of all, cheating! All told via emails, texts and WhatsApp
messages. You won’t want to put this down once you start it.
Another exciting review book was Some Of Us Are Liars
by Fiona Cummins which opens with a court case following the death of a
four-year-old child. The person on trial is the child’s aunt. Over the course
of the book, we learn about the events leading up to the tragedy, events which
tore apart a close-knit family. Another of those books that is impossible to
put down once you start reading.
I rounded off the month with Isabella’s Not Dead from
Beth Morrey. There is a mystery involved in the story when a group of
women meet up forty years after playing hockey together at school, but one of
them is missing. Isabella simply disappeared fifteen years ago, even her best
friend lost touch. Some people think she’s dead, however, her best friend is
determined to track her down and find out what happened. The book is filled
with all the humour and charm you would expect from the author.
Only one audiobook this month, The Antique Hunter’s Death
On The Red Sea by C. L. Miller. Freya Lockwood and her aunt find
themselves on a cruise for antique collectors as they try to track down the
mysterious “Collector”, someone who trades priceless antiques on the black
market. Aunt Carole is as hilarious as she was in the first book, however, she
couldn’t save the story which just seemed to keep going around in circles.
Publication dates to watch for:-
We Live Here Now by Sarah Pinborough will be
published on 5/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
The Countdown Killer by Sam Holland will be
published on 5/6/25 in paperback, ebook and audio format.
The Woman Who Got Her Spark Back by Fiona Gibson
will be published on 7/6/25 in paperback, ebook and audio format.
Births, Deaths And Marriages by Laura Barnett
will be published 12/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
Some Of Us Are Liars by Fiona Cummins will be
published on 19/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
Isabella’s Not Dead by Beth Morrey will be
published on 19/6/25 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
The Killer Question by Janice Hallett will be
published on 4/9/25 in hardback and ebook format.
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