Ten years ago, Dani was a student at St. Edmunds University in Dublin. There she met her first love, Theo. But Theo vanished one day without a trace. Dani new that his disappearance had something to do with the medical research program the University is part of. But nobody seems to care what happen to Theo. They just assume that he left her and went traveling. Dani, heartbroken, never finished her studies and left St. Edmont to care for her mother. But now, Dani is back as a history professor. But she is not just back to teach students. She wants to find out what is going on in St. Edmonds and maybe find out what happened to Theo
The story is told in two timelines, 2014 and 2024. The plot is multi layered and well developed. Unfortunately, I did not know that the story was about Alzheimer disease and medical research which are not my favourite topics. So I struggled a bit to maintain an interest. I think it is just me not liking this topic, so you better go and read some other reviews as well. I’ve read a few books by Jo Spain so far and I am sorry to say that for said reasons I did not enjoy this book as much as her other books. But beside that, if medical research is your thing, this is an engaging and solid thriller.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The Escape started quite strong. Adele is a struggling young woman who is trying to become famous on the internet with her vlog. In a moment of great stupidity she uploads a video in which she begs her followers to crowdfund her dream to by a castle in France. It’s an absolutely ridiculous idea which kickbacks immediately. But to everyone’s astonishment an anonymous philanthroper comes forward via their lawyer and offers to buy Adele the castle. But the contract comes with some strange rules. But Adele and her equally stupid husband Jack are blinded by the greedy idea to live of other people’s money don’t think to much about it. So in a hurry they move to France to live in a French chateau leaving behind Adele’s sister Erin and their terminal ill mother. Adele starts her new vlog describing to her rising group of followers her beautiful castle while Erin cares for their mother alone. When her health continues to decline Erin decides to travel to France and get Adele back to their dying mother.
When Erin arrives at the chateau Adele and Jack are nowhere to be found. The castle is empty, no sign of them. And in the village nobody seems to know anything about them. The atmosphere is creepy and there is a sense of something sinister lurking in the chateau. Until then the book was quite good. I liked the eerie setting. Adele being a self-centered and shallow character seems fitting. But it turns out Erin is as stupid as her sister. At that point the mysterious story unfolds and you get an idea what is going on. But somehow the storytelling went south.
SPOILER ALERT!!
The whole idea of Adele and Jack as pawns for the rich and mysterious philanthropist is not very realistic. But Erin became the bigger problem for me to stay connected to the story. She turns into a kind of superwomen, gets hurt and concussed while fighting to find her estranged sister and fighting also against the corrupt French police. That does not keep her, as I said, hurt and concussed, to run and jump and fight, getting her sister from a cellar of a stalker and after their rescue almost immediately into her car and driving twelve hours home to England. Adele, being held captive and drugged for ten days, malnourished and dehydrated, just gets her ankle in a cask and off she goes in the car with Erin. Staying in a hospital after all of that? That’s only for weaklings. Erin has the annoying habit of storming off doing something stupid and realizing soon afterwards what a huge mistake that was. Telling somebody, f.e. her new friend with the local police and love interest that she goes looking into the cellar of someone who possible had something to do with her sister’s disappearance? No need for that Erin. Staying put in the car as your police friend begs you to because he can lose his job for taking you to the side where bodies are found (he should have definitely not taking her there)? Nonsense, just jump out and run all over the crime scenes and make a spectacle out of yourself. I almost got a concussion myself shaking my head so violently because of these hilarious situations. And there are a lot more of them.
So the first half was absolutely fine, entertaining and a bit creepy, as I like it. But the storytelling, the stupid characters and simply the unrealistic way of developing the story further on did not work for me.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Hawthorne und Horowitz are back. Ich habe die ersten beiden Bände dieser Serie geliebt. Sie waren witzig, spannend und herrlich britisch. Deswegen habe ich mich sehr auf dieses Buch erfreut.
Horowitz schreibt gerade an dem zweiten Band seiner Reihe „Hawthorne ermittelt“. Deswegen ist er nicht sehr erbaut als sein Verlag ihn zu einem Literaturfestival auf eine kleine Kanalinsel schickt. Hawthorne soll ihn begleiten. Und der ist, zu Horowitz‘ großem Erstaunen, sofort begeistert von der Idee. Horowitz hat das Gefühl, immer einen Schritt hinter Hawthorne herzuhinken. Und er ist auch ein wenig neidisch, das er im Schatten seines Helden steht. Und nun soll er ihm auch noch die Show auf diesem Festival stehlen. Aber Horowitz ergibt sich seinem Schicksal. Und dann geschieht ein Mord auf dieser winzigen Insel und Hawthorne ermittelt wieder mal. Zeit, sich Notizen für das dritte Buch zu machen.
Ich mag, wie Horowitz sich selbst in die Geschichte einbaut und gelegentlich zu uns Lesern spricht. Seine Schreibweise ist leicht und locker und hat, zumindest im englischen Original, feinen englischen Humor. Horowitz nimmt sich selbst nicht zu ernst und schreibt mit einem sympathischen Understatement, das man ihm auch abnimmt. Leider ist diese Story nicht ganz so packend wie die der beiden Vorgänger. Das Horowitz immer hinter Hawthorne herstolpert und ihm in Beliebtheit hinterhersteht ist inzwischen ein etabliertes Element. Das ist zwar immer noch amüsant aber nicht mehr neu. Die Morde auf der Insel sind zwar mysteriös, aber trotzdem ist die Spannung nur mittelmäßig. So wirklich kam bei mir kein Interesse auf. Die Handlung tritt leider im Mittelteil ein wenig auf der Stelle. Für mich ist es das schwächste Buch der Reihe. Beim ersten begeisterte mich die Einführung der Personen, inklusive des Autors selbst als eine der Hauptfiguren. Beim zweiten fand ich die Handlung sehr spannend. So sehr ich die merkwürdige Beziehung der beiden Hauptakteure mag, sie ist nun aber etabliert und deswegen muss die Story über die Handlung funktionieren. Das tut es hier leider nur bedingt.
Zum Glück legt Horowitz eine kleine Spur zum Schluss die schon wieder neugierig macht auf das nächste Buch. Sehr clever. Ich bin wieder dabei.
This is my first book from him and I loved it. I learned that he writes mostly short stories. Unfortunately I am not a fan of short stories. So I have to maintain the hope that he keeps up writing books like this in the future.
Chizmar makes himself the main character in his story. He mixes his own fond memories of his childhood and his home town with the made up story about a serial killer hunting young girls. The story is very detailed and has its lengths. But is also very atmospheric and creepy. I read it one time on my bus ride home after my late shift and for the first time I was frightened to walk along the short walk to my house in the dark on the lonely streets.
The concept of the book is really good and I loved his writing. It just made it easy to fly through the pages. It really felt like a true crime novel with its pictures and interviews intervened with really life facts from the author himself. That made it really a stand-out from your average crime thrillers.
This book will make your head spin. So many twists and turns are awaiting you until the last page.
Jen is getting married. It is her second marriage and the first one was not a very good one. Her husband disappeared and she has trusting issues. She is afraid that her fiancé is too good to be true. But nevertheless she is gathering some old and new friends for a hen party on a remote island in Scotland in a lavishing luxury mansion. The appeal is that they will be totally on their own. But soon one of them goes missing and they learn that they are actually not all alone on the island. Somebody wants one of them to admit what they have done. The problem is that every one of the women thinks this is about her because all of them have secrets. Real secrets that none of them wants to be exposed.
The start is a bit slow and it took me a while to tell who is who and how they are connected to Jen. But after a while you get to know them und their secrets. Towards the end the twists escalate and on each page awaits you a new reveal. But this was fun and I enjoyed the ride.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am a huge fan of Mark Edwards. His last books all had a creepy atmosphere and an interesting and unusual storyline. So I was excited to read his new book. To say I was disappointed would be an exaggeration but this book did not fulfill my expectation. It is more an action thriller than a psychological thriller and I missed the creepiness.
An elderly lady with the ability to remember every face she ever saw in her life spots a young girl running out of the woods while she travels by train. She immediately knows where she saw that face. It belongs to a missing girl. Scarlett went missing two years ago while visiting her brother in Seattle. She contacts the brother and tells him her story. Aidan is skeptical but he decides to investigate. He arrives in a small town where people get missing all the time. The major won’t answer his questions and the police does not take him seriously. Only when he meets the sister of a missing young man things get interesting. That’s the beginning of a wild and chaotic chase which leads him to a cult who prepares for the end of the world.
As I mentioned, I missed the creepy atmosphere Edwards usually creates. This book is more of an average action thriller than a psychological thriller. The story kept me interested but it also turned into a chaotic and unrealistic mess. The characters are all very flat, maybe except for Aidan. The story is not as carefully developed has his other books and I really missed the psychological horror he used to inflict on his characters. Aidan turn into an action hero, guided by Lana who could be also has been named Lara (Croft). I am not so much into action thrillers and I really missed Edward’s usual psychological suspense. It is still a decent book, but comparing to his other books this one falls behind.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
On New Year’s Eve in 1999 three girls and their young boss are working the night shift in a video store. But when they are about to close somebody enters and kills three of them and leaves one injured. The police makes an arrest only hours later but the evidence is thin and they have to let him go. But the culprit disappears and the case stays somehow unsolved. Fifteen years later a similar crime happens in the same small town. Three girls are working a night shift and two get killed and one survives. Was it the same killer? Or was it a copycat?
I loved the authors first book “Every Last Fear” and I was very excited to get my hands on this one. “The Night Shift” is a complex thriller but not as dark as “Every Last Fear”. The story moves at a good pace and kept my interest. The only weak spot is IMHO Ella. She is the survivor of the first attack and now a therapist. She also lies, cheats and kept some information from the night of the attack to herself. She is the kind of person who always basically does the opposite of what she should do. I had definitely some problems with her. My favourite character was Sarah Keller, the FBI agent. She is pregnant with twins but that does not keep her from catching a killer. For me as a German it was almost comical to read. Here in Germany six weeks before the baby is due you go on paid maternity leave and nobody would let you run around getting yourself in danger. As much as I agree that pregnancy is not an illness I found her reckless because she did not risk only her life but the life of her unborn children. But never mind, I liked her.
Alex Finlay stays on my radar. I loved the complexity and uniqueness of his books. Although I did not enjoy this one as much as his first book I would highly recommend it. It’s was a fun read with some twists and turns and it kept me entertained.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
Julie is the perfect trophy wife. She lives a very privileged life with her super wealthy husband in a million dollar house at the Pacific Ocean. But one day she has enough of her loveless life. She packs up her seventeen year old daughter Jess and moves to a much smaller house she recently bought. Julie is so eager to start her new life that she agrees that the eldest son of the family who lived there before can stay in the carriage house for another couple of days. But it turns out that Tom is not willing to move out. He is angry at the world, at his father for letting him down. Jess is not happy about the situation. She is a spoiled rich kid who wants to keep her careless and luxury life as it is. But over the course of a weekend their lives will be changed forever.
I enjoyed “Best Day Ever” from the author and I was excited to read another book from her. I still enjoyed this one but I did not love it. There are multiple point of views but unfortunately they sound all the same. So there is a lot of telling and much of it is repetitive. This thriller is more on the slower side and could have done with lesser POVs and more action. It is still a quick and nice read and I would read another book from Kaira Rouda.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Charlie Donlea delivers another page-turner. The story is complex (as usual) and there are a lot of characters and some jumping between times and scenes. But I never lost track of where the story was and the short chapters kept me reading.
Avery was at the right place in the right time when she had the chance to get the job as a host of a very popular news show. When she hears that twenty years after 9/11 one of the bone fragments found at the site is identified to a victim she is intrigued. But it turns out that there is more to this than just the sad story about a victim of this horrible event.
I am a fan of Charlie Donlea. I love his unusual and complex stories. At first I was not overexcited about the plot summary. But I trusted the author and I was rewarded with a very gripping story with an unexpected twist at the end.
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Usually I don’t like thriller series. I always get annoyed or bored with the main characters at some point. Or I feel I can see the similarities in the structure of the books. But it seems that Eddie Flynn is the exception from the rule. I just love him and his team. The books about him are entertaining and clever. This is again a captivating thriller and I enjoyed it immensely although it is about a topic I usually don’t read about. But somehow it seems that Steve Cavanagh can sell me any story and I will read it because he is a brilliant writer. Or it is because I simply love Eddie. Either way, I can’t way for the next book.
lavender books 