Happy 2026! The start of a new year is always filled with
promise, but what a pity the weather doesn’t support that feeling. I was
fortunate to have a week booked for some winter sunshine, fully intending to
spend the week reading. Unfortunately, I caught a terrible bug and spent half
the holiday (and the subsequent five days) feeling very under the weather. As a
result, I didn’t manage quite as much reading as I’d hoped.
My first read of the month was for my book group, Blood
Orange by Harriet Tyce. Alison is a barrister whose personal life is
spiralling out of control. Alison is finding the cycle of self-destruction
difficult to break, resulting in her husband leaving her. The storyline is dark
and disturbing, with a shocking ending.
I loved Nightwatching, the debut novel of Tracy Sierra, so
I was really happy to get a review copy of Warning Signs. Young Zach
finds himself stranded in the snowy Colorado mountains with his father and some
of his business associates. Danger lurks, but is it from the unpredictable
terrain, a mysterious creature, or something closer to home? From the ominous
opening through to the nail-biting conclusion, you are on the
edge-of-your-seat.
I took part in the Readalong of Behind Her Smile by Caroline
England. The opening chapters hint at lots of possible directions the story
could take: a new romance, a psychological thriller, a possible stalker, an organised
crime thriller, or a horror story. Once the different threads began to coalesce,
I began to take an interest in what was happening to the characters,
particularly the love interest, Finn.
My second Readalong of the month was Sleep No More by
Guy Hale. This is the concluding book in the Shakespeare Murders
series. Set in Stratford-Upon-Avon in 1972, Oliver Lawrence is on a murder
spree to avenge the death of his father and his own failed career. As the
police net slowly tightens, Lawrence becomes more extreme. You begin to wonder
who his next target will be.
I’ve put off reading All The Colours Of The Dark by Chris
Whitaker for so long. My recent holiday seemed the perfect time to dive in. This
starts off with the abduction of a young boy from a small southern US town.
Rather than a standard crime thriller, this becomes a tale of devotion and obsession
as the young boy and his friend spend twenty-five years searching for answers. The
boy wants to find the girl who was held captive with him, while his friend
wants to bring the captor to justice. It is difficult not to become engrossed in the lives of everyone concerned.
In A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford, we
meet twelve-year-old Janey and her Grandmother, Maggie, who live among the tenements
of Glasgow in the 1970s. Janey stumbles across the mutilated body of a murder
victim. As Janey struggles to come to terms with what she has seen, Maggie treads
a fine line between keeping her granddaughter safe and appeasing a local crime
lord. Filled with distinctive characters and a sense of community despite the
obvious deprivation.
The tagline on the cover of Adrift by Will Dean
reads “Three of them aboard. Mother, son, and wickedness,” describes the book
perfectly. Husband and wife Drew and Peggy, along with their son, Samson, are
reduced to living on a narrowboat. Both Peggy and Samson spend most of their
time tiptoeing around Drew, doing everything in their power to placate him. Peggy
simply wants to protect her son, who has problems of his own he hasn’t told his
parents about, but she begins to lose her grip on reality. Drew is one of the
most loathsome characters I’ve come across in a while.
I approached Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward
with a little trepidation. The book is classified as horror, and I’m a complete
wimp. Fourteen-year-old Riley and her young brother, Oliver, escape an abusive
situation and find themselves at Nowhere. The property, which used to belong to
a film star who died in a fire, is now populated by children who will do
anything to protect their way of life. Intertwined with narrative from other
characters, this is more suspenseful than horror, giving a vague sense of
unease the more you read.
The only audiobook I managed to get through this month was The
Mudlarkers’ Club by Jane Riley. A gentle and uplifting tale about a
woman who turns to her unusual hobby of mudlarking to distract her from the end
of her marriage. Along the way, she makes new friends and together they support
each other through their personal problems.
Publication dates to watch out for:-
Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra will be
published 12/2/26 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
The Mudlarkers’ Club by Jane Riley will be
published 12/2/26 in paperback, ebook and audio format.
A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford will be
published 12/2/26 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
Adrift by Will Dean will be published 19/2/26
in hardback, ebook and audio format.
Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward will be
published 19/2/26 in hardback, ebook and audio format.
