#BookReview ‘The Indigo Ghosts’ by Alys Clare #historical #mystery

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This series keeps getting better and better, The Indigo Ghosts by Alys Clare is so captivating I read it in twenty-four hours, picking it up at every opportunity. Third in the Gabriel Tavernier historical mystery series, former ship’s surgeon and now Devon doctor Gabriel faces an inexplicable case that challenges all he believes in, and all he knows to be scientifically true. Alys ClareOctober 1604. Called urgently by his old captain, Zeke Colt, to visit his former ship the Falco, now docked in Plymouth, Gabe walks into an atmosphere of fear, panic and superstition. The ship, everyone on board says, is haunted by a bad spirit, malevolent, making everyone ill. There have been deaths, visions, blue-skinned ghosts, a disgusting miasma that has overwhelmed the air.
Firmly disbelieving the ghost theory, Gabe is confident there will be a factual, scientific answer. But exploring the darkest, tiniest space in the hold – three paces by two – he discovers the source of the stink, finds a dead body, and sees a crocodile. Gabe returns to the Falco the next day with local coroner, his friend Theophilus Davey, and the body is removed for examination. Meanwhile the ship’s crew empty the barrel of waste and clean the area. More discoveries are made, nothing makes sense.
A trail of discoveries unveils an explanation both rational and wild. There is talk of spirits, possession, dark magic and cruelty impossible to imagine. In search of facts, Gabe traces the Falco’s final journey around the Caribbean and back home to Devon, and then re-reads the journals he kept when he was a young seafaring doctor sailing the Caribbean Sea. A solution suggests itself but seems too far-fetched to be possible. Assisted by the silent detection of Theo’s assistant, spiritual support and guidance from the local minister, and suggestions from his sister Celia, Gabe edges towards an answer.
A smashing book. The Indigo Ghosts is a tale of slavery, torture, fear and the worst that man can do to man. It’s about faith and what it can make a man do. And its about the goodness of Gaberiel Taverner, searching for the truth while defending his family and loved ones. This is a very readable series, a bit different from anything else out there that I’ve found.

Here are my reviews of the first two novels in this series:-
A RUSTLE OF SILK BY ALYS CLARE #1GABRIELTAVERNER
THE ANGEL IN THE GLASS #2GABRIELTAVERNER

If you like this, try:-
‘A Good Deliverance’ by Toby Clements
‘The Last Runaway’ by Tracy Chevalier
‘The Armour of Light’ by Ken Follett #4KINGSBRIDGE

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Eva Glyn

#BookReview ‘Death in the East’ by Abir Mukherjee @radiomukhers #crime #historical #India #Raj

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Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee begins as Sam Wyndham, police captain and opium-addict, is on his way to Assam to dry out at an ashram when at a railway station he sees a man he thought was dead. And so begins a two-tier murder mystery dating back to Wyndham’s time as a London policeman before the Great War. Abir MukherjeeThe story alternates between Wyndham’s detoxification in 1922 and 1905 when he was a young constable. That was the last time he saw the dead man. The detoxification procedure at the ashram is brutal and haunted by the sighting of a man he thought dead, Sam’s withdrawal symptoms worsen. The present day merges with 1905 when a young woman was murdered in the East End of London and Sam begins to distrust his ability as a policeman. Is someone telling the truth, or lying. Is the death suspicious, or of natural causes. Should he investigate, or keep quiet.
Isolated in a hillside village without transport, Wyndham is five miles from back-up at the nearest Indian thana and 70 miles away from the district superintendent. He must take the decisions, and action, himself. When the body of a fellow addict is found in a stream, Wyndham trusts his instincts that something is wrong in Jatinga. A telegram sent to his assistant in Calcutta is sent without hope or expectation of a quick reply. Wyndham is on his own, physically weak from his purgative treatment, stepping fawn-like into his post-addiction life, unsure that his instinct for reading people is working. This provides a neat parallel with his youthful self in 1905 when, determined to uphold the rule of law, he is impatient with protocol, healthy, full of energy and a sense of justice. So when Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee finally arrives in Jatinga it seems fitting when he surveys the scene and comments, ‘I have noticed… that wherever you go, people tend to die.’
I missed the presence of Sergeant Banerjee throughout this novel, underlining for me that the inter-play between these two policemen is the delight of these books. The character arcs of Wyndham and Banerjee have moved on since the first novel as the relationship between the sahibs and Indians has also altered. Death in the East is fourth in the Wyndham & Banerjee series, next is The Shadows of Men. The trajectory of the two police officers, set within the changing parameters of power and justice in Raj-ruled India, promises much for the rest of the series.

Here are my reviews of the first three books in the Wyndham & Banerjee series:-
A RISING MAN #1WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
A NECESSARY EVIL #2WYNDHAM&BANERJEE
SMOKE AND ASHES #3WYNDHAM&BANERJEE

If you like this, try:-
‘The Vows of Silence’ by Susan Hill #4SIMONSERRAILLER
‘Dead Simple’ by Peter James #1ROYGRACE
‘The Diabolical Bones’ by Bella Ellis #2BRONTEMYSTERIES

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Alys Clare

#BookReview ‘Death Comes to Marlow’ by Robert Thorogood #cosycrime

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An ingenious closed room murder mystery is at the heart of Death Comes to Marlow, second in the Marlow Murder Club cosy crime series by Robert Thorogood. And no, although I had my suspicions about the murderer, I simply couldn’t work out how the crime was done. Robert ThorogoodThe friendship between the three ladies that we saw in the first book in the series, The Marlow Murder Club, is now firmly established. Crossword setter Judith Potts still goes for naked dips in the River Thames, vicar’s wife Becks is still quiet and afraid of offending anyone, and brash Suzie now has a regular spot as presenter on the local radio station. But each still has secrets and their own peculiar sensitivities, all of which figure in the solving of this crime. Sir Peter Bailey, a bigwig in Marlow, is getting married. Out of the blue, he telephones to invite Judith to the pre-wedding party. Judith, who has never met Sir Peter, is immediately on the alert that something is not right. He fears for his life and she suspects he wants her there as a witness to murder. So of course she takes her two friends with her. When there is an almighty crash of glass breaking, Sir Peter is found dead beneath an enormous wooden cabinet full of scientific equipment. Judith is immediately convinced it is murder, not an accident.
The twists and turns of this crime, the tangling of witness statements and the – decidedly inadmissible – tactics employed by the murder club enable Detective Sergeant Tanika Malik to piece together the truth. The three women are a formidable team, each bringing their own strengths to the problem-solving process. Judith looks for patterns, disruption to those patterns and glaring omissions in the vein of Sherlock Holmes’s ‘the curious incident of the dog in the night-time’, ie the dog that did not bark. Becks is attuned to social niceties, emotions and relationships. Suzie is pragmatic, with clarity she sees the nuts and bolts of the unappealing, the unattractive, and the low-life.
All the suspects have alibis. The key to the locked room was found in the victim’s pocket. There is a family feud, a missing will, secretive telephone calls and a resentful former wife. Tanika has been demoted from her acting detective role when her boss returns from sick leave and, although she believes Judith, Becks and Suzie when they shout murder, her boss doesn’t. So although the three ladies are free to snoop around and ask awkward questions, they do so without police back-up. There are plenty of red herrings, perhaps too many actually, and a secret being kept by Becks is ultimately shared.
Very clever, very entertaining. I gobbled it up.

Here’s are my reviews of two other books by Robert Thorogood:-
THE MARLOW MURDER CLUB #1MARLOWMURDERCLUB
THE KILLING OF POLLY CARTER #2DEATHINPARADISE

If you like this, try:-
‘Agatha Raisin and the Walkers of Dembley’ by MC Beaton #4AGATHARAISIN
‘Murder in the Snow’ by Verity Bright #4LADYELEANORSWIFT
‘Murder on the Dance Floor’ by Helena Dixon #4MISSUNDERHAY

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Abir Mukherjee

#BookReview ‘The Voyage Home’ by Pat Barker #historical #myths

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A dirty, realistic, unflinching portrayal of the women taken hostage by the Greek victors at Troy, The Voyage Home by Pat Barker is unputdownable. I didn’t expect anything less having devoured the first two books in this trilogy, The Silence of the Girls and The Women of Troy.Pat BarkerProphetess Cassandra, taken as war booty by King Agamemnon, is on the boat home; to Agamemnon’s home that is, not hers. After the battle, Cassandra and her maid Ritsa sail away from Troy towards Greece. Awaiting them are Queen Clytemnestra, who has governed in her husband’s absence, and his two remaining children Orestes and Electra. The post-war story told by these three women is familiar after many conflicts. Murder, abduction, rape, abuse, torture, child killing, looting, destruction, triumphalism. All have suffered during this ten-year-long men’s war. Cassandra, the priestess daughter of Trojan king Priam, may wear silk and decorate her hair with flowers, but she is as much a slave as Ritsa who was a noblewoman before her capture. Plagued by visions of her captor’s death, and her own, Cassandra is at times emotionally disturbed, at others she is defiant. Clytemnestra, full of vengeance for her husband’s sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia – in tribute to the gods in return for a fair wind to war – must smile and welcome his concubine to her home. But what a home; plagued by the long-dead voices, handprints and footprints of child ghosts, the palace is an unsettling place.
Witty and, in places, bloodthirsty, Barker writes about the abuse of these women with a delicacy and empathy that makes the pages turn quickly. I read this in two days. She writes with anger and disgust that seems modern, but these are age-old tales of men’s brutality. In a palace full of nightmares, murder is planned. These three women, slave and non-slave, are seeking retribution. But what is revenge? Is it a universal truth. Does it mean the same to each of these woman. Justice. Murder. Survival against the odds. Peace. The ability to rise each morning without fear. Does it mean striking the fatal blow yourself or watching someone else? I don’t see this as a feminist re-telling in which weak men receive their come-uppance. Barker shows the men are arrogant, conniving, self-seeking and brutal. The women can be strong, brutal, selfish and unlikeable too.
A brilliant end to this trilogy. Pat Barker brings mythology to life, making it relevant for life today. One to think about for days afterwards. Highly recommended.

Read my reviews of other Pat Barker novels:-
THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS #1WOMENOFTROY
THE WOMEN OF TROY #2WOMENOFTROY
LIFE CLASS #1LIFECLASS
TOBY’S ROOM #2LIFECLASS
NOONDAY #3LIFECLASS
ANOTHER WORLD
BLOW YOUR HOUSE DOWN
DOUBLE VISION
UNION STREET

If you like this, try:-
‘House of Names’ by Colm Tóibín
‘Stone Blind’ by Natalie Haynes
‘Sparrow’ by James Hynes

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Robert Thorogood

#BookReview ‘The Story Spinner’ by Barbara Erskine @Barbaraerskine #historical

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The Story Spinner by Barbara Erskine is an absorbing time-lapse story which combines the lost romance between a Welsh princess and a Roman general with a modern-day archaeological-investigation, all knitted together by mythical connections, visions and a disappearing dog. Barbara ErskineThere are two distinct storylines. Cadi, ‘the observer, the unseen diarist, the only witness. The Novelist. The story spinner,’ is a modern-day poet with a mystic sensitivity to the people who lived on the ancient site next to her Welsh cottage. Supposed to be writing poetry based on a Welsh myth, instead she finds herself free-writing prose based on visions of the life of Elen, a Welsh princess living in 382AD. Little is known of her life as she appears in few historical documents. So when Cadi imagines Elen as a teenager, she unlocks the story of her marriage to a Roman general.
Cadi has always suspected that the meadow next to her cottage is the site of an ancient army camp. When she starts to hear marching footsteps and the sounds of soldiers on the move, she calls in her druid uncle, Professor Meryn Jones. Their excitement at the potential discovery is deflated by the news that the unknown owner of the meadow is seeking planning permission for a housing development. Draft plans show houses built right up to the hedge in Cadi’s back garden. Bereft at losing her sense of peace and isolation and being unable to walk in the beautiful meadow, she throws herself into investigation. During the day she talks to town planners and archaeologists. At night she sits with pen and notebook writing the story of Elen’s life. In channelling the story of Elen, Cadi also discovers fascinating characters including Branwen, a wise woman.
The unveiling of Elen’s life as a teenage bride and young mother, a Welsh princess who must subjugate herself to the authority of her husband, develops alongside the modern-day investigation into the meadow. Complicating the issue is the re-appearance in the village of Cadi’s ex, Ifan, who throughout their relationship was bullying and threatening. Cadi is afraid he is stalking her again.
This is a tale with complicated connections that Erskine handles with skill. I enjoyed this very much though it’s a trifle long for me, there are sections towards the end that I wanted to move a little quicker. Overall an unusual, compelling read.

Here’s my review of THE DREAM WEAVERS, also by Barbara Erskine.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Prophet’ by Martine Bailey #2TABITHAHART
‘The Confessions of Frannie Langton’ by Sara Collins
‘The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock’ by Imogen Hermes Gowar

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Pat Barker

Great Opening Paragraph 142… ‘The Crow Road’ #amreading #FirstPara

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“It was the day my grandmother exploded. I sat in the crematorium, listening to my Uncle Hamish quietly snoring in harmony to Bach’s Mass in B Minor, and I reflected that it always seemed to be death that drew me back to Gallanach.”
Iain BanksFrom ‘The Crow Road’ by Iain Banks

Here’s my review of THE QUARRY by Iain Banks.

Try one of these 1st paras & discover a new author:-
‘Middlesex’ by Jeffery Eugenides 
‘Super-Cannes’ by JG Ballard 
American Psycho’ by Brett Easton Ellis 

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#BookReview ‘A Cold Wind from Moscow’ by Rory Clements #thriller #ColdWar

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Eighth in the Tom Wilde World War Two thriller series by Rory Clements, A Cold Wind from Moscow takes a post-conflict step towards the Cold War. This is a tale of a top secret nuclear scientist, a South London criminal gangster and a Russian hitman. Rory ClementsCambridge 1947. Life is returning to normal for Professor Tom Wilde after the war. He is teaching history again at Cambridge while his wife Lydia is a medical student in London. On a freezing cold day, he stops at the greengrocer on his way to work. In the window is displayed a rarity; a perfect fresh peach. Wilde buys it as a treat for his son, Johnny, then goes to his rooms where he is expecting a visitor from London, a man he met once before during the war. But when Wilde opens the door, Everett Glasspool is dead with an ice-axe buried in his head.
This is a transitional story set at a time of post-war stasis as global political tension pivots to the Soviet Union. Daily life in England is difficult, in some ways harsher than during the war. And the Arctic-like weather doesn’t help. Wilde finds himself drawn back into security circles where there are old familiar wartime faces and fresh ones, such as his boss at MI5 Freya Bentall. Freya fears she has a traitor on her team and charges Wilde to follow three of her officers. Then a nuclear scientist, who has evidence about the leak of secrets, goes missing. The trail leads Wilde into London’s criminal underworld and also to his old friend Geoff Lancing who is now working at Harwell, the atomic energy research establishment. Who is selling nuclear secrets to the Russians? Is there more than one traitor? And can Wilde find the missing scientist before the Russian hitman?
The end is intriguing, setting up what promises to be another Tom Wilde book. A really pacy read. Very enjoyable.

Click the title to read my reviews of the other books in the Tom Wilde series:-
CORPUS #1TOMWILDE
NUCLEUS #2TOMWILDE
NEMESIS #3TOMWILDE
HITLER’S SECRET #4TOMWILDE
A PRINCE AND A SPY #5TOMWILDE
THE MAN IN THE BUNKER #6TOMWILDE
THE ENGLISH FÜHRER #7TOMWILDE

And from the Sebastian Wolff series:-
MUNICH WOLF #1SEBASTIANWOLFF

If you like this, try:-
‘Blow Your House Down’ by Pat Barker
‘Wolf Winter’ by Cecilia Ekback
‘Invasion’ by Frank Gardner #4LukeCarlton

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Barbara Erskine

#BookReview ‘The Other Side of the Bridge’ by Mary Lawson #contemporary #smalltown

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Mary Lawson is one of those exceptional authors whose way with language seems deceptively simple. With ease, she summarises complex feelings in few words. The Other Side of the Bridge is Lawson’s second published novel, and was longlisted for the Booker Prize. Mary Lawson It is the story of two brothers, in childhood, in adulthood in the remote rural Canadian community of Struan. There is little to do in Struan except farm, to do anything else means leaving for the big city of Toronto. The eldest, Arthur, is a tall farm boy, quiet, most like his father. Not great with words, nevertheless he watches and doesn’t miss much. His younger brother Jake is smaller, lithe, good-looking, the apple of his mother’s eye. With a gift for the gab, Jake thinks nothing of fibbing. He is the risk taker. Arthur, always with an eye on his mother’s fragile emotional state, tries to steer Jake from trouble. But trouble always finds Jake. When new tenants rent the neighbouring farmhouse, both brothers are interested in the teenage girl who arrives with her widowed father.
Twenty years later is the story of teenager Ian, son of Struan’s doctor. He takes a Saturday job helping Arthur, now married, on the family farm. Ian’s motivation is the chance of spending moments near Laura, Arthur’s wife, with whom he is besotted. The story moves backwards and forwards in time zones, always told from a male perspective. I most enjoyed reading Arthur’s point of view, far from being an introverted giant of a man who struggled at school, he has a strong moral core with deep emotions.
The story of the two brothers is intertwined with so much else. The cultural history of the local native American community, the role of German prisoners of war as farm workers during World War Two, the secondary role of women in the home and the dominance of the husband, the financial challenges of rural farming. The differences pre- and post-war are obvious and subtle, as experienced and observed by Ian in the Sixties.
Here are two examples of Lawson’s prose. On the onset of autumn: ‘During the day the sun was still hot but as soon as it dipped down behind the trees the warmth dropped out of the air like a stone.’ On wishing something had been left unsaid: ‘Desperate to find a way round the unalterable fact that once you have said something, it is said. Once it has left your lips, you cannot take it back.’
Picked off the to-read pile, I read this immersive book in two days. What a masterful author Mary Lawson is. A 5* read for me.

Here’s my review of A TOWN CALLED SOLACE, also by Mary Lawson.

If you like this, try:-
‘Amy & Isabelle’ by Elizabeth Strout
‘Natural Flights of the Human Mind’ by Clare Morrall
‘Clock Dance’ by Anne Tyler

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Rory Clements

#BookReview ‘Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt’ by Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker #romance

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Oh my goodness, what an ending to the series. I admit to be intimidated by the doorstep size of Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, last in the Seven Sisters series by Lucinda Riley. This, the eighth and final book, was written by Lucinda and completed by her son Harry Whittaker after her death. I’ve spent the last week enthralled by the story of Atlas.Lucinda Riley & Harry WhittakerEach of the seven books in the series concentrates on the birth story of one of Pa Salt’s daughters, each named after the seven star cluster the Pleiades. Each young woman is different, each book is immersive, unputdownable. Hovering around the edge of each book is Pa himself; an enigmatic figure, wise, wealthy, mysterious, talented, nurturing. He also has a lifelong enemy.
Atlas finally tells Pa’s own story throughout almost a century. As some questions are answered, more are posed. Where was he born. Is he an orphan too. Why is he called Atlas. Did he ever find love. And why is the mild-mannered, gentlemanly, thoughtful Pa Salt being pursued by a man who wants to kill him? One by one, we finally learn the circumstances in which Pa came to adopt each of his girls. The story criss-crosses the globe and the timeline goes back and forth between Pa’s story and 2008 as the sisters gather together to read their father’s diary after his death. There are a lot of character names recurring from the previous books – partners, children, relatives – but I stopped trying to remember who was who and went with the emotional flow. It’s also satisfying to see the early stories of Pa Salt’s staff including lawyer Georg, the girls’ nanny Ma, and cook Claudia.
A fitting end to a fab series and impossible to review without giving away key plot points. Though it is undeniably long, there are a lot of loose ends to be tied up in Atlas and missing decades to fill in. Once started, difficult to put down.

Read my reviews of some of the other novels in Lucinda Riley’s ‘Seven Sisters’ series:-
THE SEVEN SISTERS #1SEVENSISTERS
THE STORM SISTER #2SEVENSISTERS
THE SHADOW SISTER #3SEVENSISTERS
THE PEARL SISTER #4SEVENSISTERS
THE MOON SISTER #5SEVENSISTERS
THE SUN SISTER #6SEVENSISTERS
THE MISSING SISTER #7SEVENSISTERS

… plus my reviews of these standalone novels, also by Lucinda Riley:-
THE BUTTERFLY ROOM
THE GIRL ON THE CLIFF
THE HIDDEN GIRL 
THE LOVE LETTER

If you like this, try:-
‘Shadows in the Ashes’ by Christina Courtenay
‘The Marriage Plot’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
‘Our Souls at Night’ by Kent Haruf

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COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Mary Lawson

#BookReview ‘Beautiful Ugly’ by Alice Feeney @alicewriterland #thriller #mystery

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Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney has so many twists and surprises it feels like an infinite tangle of mobius strips. I read it quickly, thinking I knew what was happening. Sometimes I guessed right, sometimes I was wildly wrong. Alice FeeneyAuthor Grady Green is having a brilliant day until his wife disappears. He doesn’t know if she’s dead or alive, kidnapped or washed out to sea. Abby, a journalist, has been receiving threats related to newspaper stories she’s written. Grady is trapped in a nightmare turmoil of grief and hope, unable to accept Abby is dead, unable to sleep, always hoping. A year later he is ill, not writing, out of money and he keeps seeing Abby everywhere. He thinks he’s going mad. His agent, in a desperate attempt to help him write another bestseller, sends him to a writer’s cabin on a remote Scottish island. Grady likes being alone, that’s when he writes best, so he agrees.
Once the action moves to the Isle of Amberly, Beautiful Ugly becomes a closed room mystery. On the ferry over from the mainland, Grady sees Abby again. Although he starts to feel a little better he still isn’t sleeping, despite copious alcohol and pots of the local herbal bog myrtle tea. He sees things, he hears things; or does he? His only companion is his dog Colombo. Amberly is completely isolated. No mobile or internet signal, no landlines, an occasional ferry to the mainland. His writer’s cabin is in the woods, miles from anyone, and is creepy. The local residents, all 25 of them, are rather strange. And there are rules. No visitor may drive a car. Only residents are allowed to communicate with each other by walkie-talkie. Although everyone seems friendly, Grady begins to feel trapped. And then old newspaper cuttings of stories written by Abby are left in the cabin for Grady to find.
Most of the story is told from Grady’s point of view, which raises the inevitable question: is he a reliable narrator. But we also have chapters from Abby before her disappearance and this fills in some back story. We see how they meet on a plane, their whirlwind romance, but as the years pass there are tensions just below the surface. Both have their secrets, both are obsessive about their work. Abby says to a counsellor, ‘Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t. Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.’
A very clever plot, even if some twists are easy to spot. An unsettling thriller that examines truth and lies in relationships, promises made, things you don’t tell your partner and secrets you don’t admit even to yourself. Throughout the book I was also getting flashbacks to films such as Hot Fuzz and Misery.

Here’s my review of SOMETIMES I LIE, also by Alice Feeney.

If you like this, try:-
‘The Hunting Party’ by Lucy Foley 
‘Before the Fall’ by Noah Hawley
‘The Ice’ by Laline Paull

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#BookReview BEAUTIFUL UGLY by Alice Feeney @alicewriterland https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Dd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Lucinda Riley & Harry Whittaker