Hello dear reader!
I thought I’d give you an update on what’s been going on, book-wise. It’s been a busy old month so far.
Currently tracking the TBR pile via a spreadsheet –
total in the TBR pile: 154
Kindle: 72 (35 from netgalley, oops – need to get that number down a bit!)
Hard copy: 82 (53 review copies, 29 mine)
Books read recently
The Other Twin, by L.V. Hay
Sharp and smart, the twists and turns nicely paced, and the characters well-drawn. Highly recommended.
(full review here)
Godsgrave, by Jay Kristoff
Nevernight was one of my favourite books of last year, if not ever. Godsgrave is, dare I say it, even better. Get your hands on a copy as soon as it comes out. Full review soon.
Rattle, by Fiona Cummins
Dark, twisty and downright unsettling. Very very good. Again, full review up soon.
All The Wicked Girls, by Chris Whitaker
Bumper month for awesome books. Tall Oaks was (and indeed is) astonishingly good. All The Wicked Girls is even better, filled with fantastic characters in a small-town America where Raine looks for her missing sister. Just buy it, thank me later.
The Fourth Monkey, by JD Barker
Huge fun, despite spotting the twist (or one of them) early on I really really enjoyed it. Cracking dialogue, brilliant characters, nasty serial killer on the loose. Recommended.
(full review here)
Artemis, by Andy Weir (published in November 2017)
I *loved* The Martian, both book and film. Sadly, Artemis disappointed – there’s a cracking story in there somewhere, it just feels a bit muddled in places. The character comes across as a teenager but isn’t, the dialogue is clunky and the science is, surprisingly, a bit shonky. That said, it’ll sell by the bucketload and make a fabulous film if they get the casting right. Full review up closer to the publication date.
Currently reading:
Yesterday, by Felicia Yap
There are two types of people in the world. Those who can only remember yesterday, and those who can also recall the day before.
You have just one lifeline to the past: your diary. Each night, you write down the things that matter. Each morning, your diary tells you where you were, who you loved and what you did.
Today, the police are at your door. They say that the body of your husband’s mistress has been found in the River Cam. They think your husband killed her two days ago.
Can you trust the police? Can you trust your husband? Can you trust yourself?
Up next
Hannah Green and Her Unfeasibly Mundane Existence, by Michael Marshall Smith
It’s not every day that the Devil knocks on your door
From the critically-acclaimed author of Only Forward comes a delightful new tale about Hannah, a young girl living a mundane existence in California, who discovers that her grandfather has been friends with the Devil for the past 150 years . . . and now, they need her help.
Books received
Two very lovely signed ARCs:
Force of Nature, by Jane Harper (Pan Macmillan – February 2018)
Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case – in just a matter of days she was to provide the documents that will bring down the company she works for.
Falk discovers that far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. But does it include murder?
The Feed, by Nick Clark Windo (January 2018)
It makes us. It destroys us.
The Feed is everywhere. It can be accessed by anyone, at any time. Every interaction, every emotion, every image can be shared through it.
Tom and Kate use The Feed, but they have resisted addiction to it. And this will serve them well when The Feed collapses.
Until their six-year-old daughter, Bea, goes missing.
Because how do you find someone in a world devoid of technology? And what happens when you can no longer trust that your loved ones are really who they claim to be?
From The Shadows, by Neil White (Zaffre – March 2017)
He hides in the shadows, watching, waiting, until the time is right . . .
Mary Kendricks, a smart, pretty, twenty-four-year-old teacher, has been brutally murdered and Robert Carter is accused of killing her.
When defence lawyer, Dan Grant inherits Carter’s case only weeks before the trial starts, everyone expects him just to babysit it, but Dan’s not that kind of lawyer. He’ll follow the evidence – wherever it takes him.
But as Dan and his investigator Jayne Brett look into the case, they discover that there is more to it than meets the eye. In order to do their jobs they need to push the limits of the system, even if it means putting themselves in danger.
Together they will get to the truth – whatever the cost
Scorn, by Paul Hoffman (Whitefox – September 2017)
After an experiment at the Large Hadron Collider goes horribly wrong, depressed scientist Aaron Gall wakes up to discover his mind and body have undergone an astonishing transformation. Now bursting with the joys of life, he is inspired to undertake a radical new therapy: to talk to the priests who brutalized him and his school friends, point out the intellectual dishonesty and inhumanity of their religious beliefs – and then eat them. Aaron enjoys the process so much (as well as taunting the police and MI5) he decides to extend his murderous conversations to include the Archbishop of Westminster, recently converted Catholic Tony Blair, the Queen of England – and, finally, the Pope himself. But a Catholic Church that has given the world the Crusades, the Inquisition, and Papal Infallibility hasn’t survived for two thousand years without a reason. Aaron is in for the greatest shock in the history of mankind.
Wychwood, by George Mann (Titan Books – Sept 2017)
Elspeth May, a young female journalist who never seems to be in the right place at the right time, suddenly gets her big break only to find that no one will ever believe her story
When a local woman is found murdered in her own home, slashed viciously across the throat, the police begin a manhunt of the surrounding villages, unsure exactly of who or what they are looking for. Elspeth, accidentally first on the scene, finds her interest piqued, and sets out to investigate the details surrounding the crime. In doing so she finds herself constantly battling against Peter Shaw, a police sergeant working on the case and under suspicion due to a terrible incident that occurred on a previous investigation. More murders follow, each of them adopting a similar pattern. What links the victims? And why are some of the local people trying to cover things up?
Maria in the Moon, by Louise Beech (Orenda Books – August 2017)
‘Long ago my beloved Nanny Eve chose my name. Then one day she stopped calling me it. I try now to remember why, but I just can’t.’
Thirty-one-year-old Catherine Hope has a great memory. But she can’t remember everything. She can’t remember her ninth year. She can’t remember when her insomnia started. And she can’t remember why everyone stopped calling her Catherine-Maria. With a promiscuous past, and licking her wounds after a painful breakup, Catherine wonders why she resists anything approaching real love. But when she loses her home to the deluge of 2007 and volunteers at Flood Crisis, a devastating memory emerges … and changes everything. Dark, poignant and deeply moving, Maria in the Moon is an examination of the nature of memory and truth, and the defences we build to protect ourselves, when we can no longer hide…
The Shock, by Marc Raabe (Bonnier Zaffre – August 2017)
When Laura Bjely goes missing during a storm on the Cote d’Azur, the only thing her friend Jan finds is her smartphone – with a disturbing film in the memory.
Back in Berlin, Jan’s neighbour is discovered with a bloody message left on her forehead.
As Jan searches for answers about what happened to Laura, he is thrown into a nightmare of madness and murder.
Domina, by L.S. Hilton
Everything you thought you knew about Maestra… You don’t.
Judith Rashleigh returns in the stunning new thriller from the author of the Worldwide No.1 Bestseller, Maestra.
Kill Me Twice, by Simon Booker (Bonnier Zaffre – August 2017)
Karl Savage is dead.
He must be. His ex, Anjelica, is in prison for murdering him in an arson attack. Multiple forensic experts testified to finding his charred remains.
So when Anjelica begs investigative journalist Morgan Vine to prove her innocence, it seems an impossible task. It doesn’t matter that Karl was abusive. That Anjelica has a baby to care for. That she’s petrified of fire. The whole world knows Karl is dead.
Then he walks past Morgan’s window . . .
espresso coco 
Godsgrave is awesome, I agree with you about it being better than Nevernight.👌