Audiobook and Book Reviews by Audiothing

You Can Run by Trevor Wood

Sunday 12 March 2023

Author Trevor Wood

Pub. Date: 16th March 2023

Five Stars

Ruby Winter is surprised when her reclusive father invites a strange soldier into their house. Intrigued, she tries to eavesdrop on their conversation, but is alarmed when she hears a fight break out. She dashes into the kitchen to save her dad, but he's not the one in trouble.

It takes but a minute before the action starts!

Teenager Ruby lives with her dad, Alex, it seems neither are terribly sociable with the other inhabitants of their small English village, Alex in particular keeps to him self.

Next thing we know there is a man on their kitchen floor and he's not very well at all, fact is, he's been stabbed! Ruby is told in no uncertain terms they must go, and go now.

Next comes another act of violence, and, along with some other hair raising and eye widening events makes it obvious that our Ruby is the target! This for me was the most intriguing hook in the story, the girl was but 16 years old, what on earth could she have done or what did she know that held such value for her would be captors?

As the story unfolds the tension rises, you do not want to miss this one!

This book really held my attention, from beginning to end

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus

Bye Bye Baby Fiona McIntosh

Bye Bye Baby by Fiona McIntosh

pub: 2007

It all began in Brighton. Now there is a killer on the loose. Scotland Yard′s brightest talent is chosen to head up the high-profile taskforce, a DCI who must confront his own past as the body count rises.

There are few leads and Jack Hawksworth can only fall back on instinct and decades-old cold cases for any clue to the killer′s motive ... and identity.

With his most loyal team member threatening to betray him, a Chief Inspector pushing for results, a hungry British media clamouring for information, and a restless public eager for a conviction, the high-pressure operation can only end in a final shocking confrontation ...

This is the first book I have read by this author and, as I love a good British Police Procedural, I thought I'd give it a go, sadly this is not one of them. In fact it didn't feel like "British Police" at all, can't put my finger on the problem but something is not right with the police procedures.

I found our hero to be a boring sort of fellow who banged on endlessly about anything and everything, good for the word count I suppose, but not so good for maintaining reader interest.

I also thought that the 'romance' aspect to be a little out of place and a bit predictable, maybe it was intended as a hook, but it didn't work for me.

However!

I am assured that subsequent stories in this series do get better, so maybe I will try again, just wish the author had got it right first time.

Jimmy Dean's Last Dance

Monday 20 February 2023

Author: A.K. Allis Narrated By Johnny Heller, Neil Hellegers, Bill Lord, Jo Anna Perrin & Annaliese Rennie

Description (via NetGalley)

Winner of the Earphones Award, March 2022 - The award is given by AudioFile to truly exceptional titles that excel in narrative voice and style, characterisations, suitability to audio, and enhancement of the text.

Los Angeles, 1962.

Jimmy Dean, bit part actor befriends famed actress Marilyn Monroe. When Marilyn is found dead in her LA home, the ruling is suicide, but Jimmy thinks otherwise. As he starts digging, he comes up against those who wish to stop him from uncovering the truth.

Realising that he's in over his head, Jimmy calls former business partner, Mississippi truck driver Elvis Presley. As Jimmy and Elvis search deeper, they uncover a potential link between Marilyn's death and the highest office in the land.

Jimmy Dean's Last Dance is an alt-history noir detective novel in the tradition of The Big Sleep and Chinatown.

1962. Jimmy Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and a host of famous names get together in this story.

First thing you must do is ignore what history has told us of their lives, truth actually plays no part in this story, it's all make-believe.

Marilyn is dead, her friend Jimmy believes she has been murdered and starts on finding out the truth.

This is where the real adventure begins!

Jimmy calls up an old friend and business partner, a truck driver named Elvis. What they discover leads them in to a world of danger and intrigue involving some of the most powerful people in the land

Never having heard of the "alternative history" genre I do believe I am a convert, You really can't ask more of a story than that it be entertaining, interesting and fully engrossing, I will certainly be looking out for more great stories by A.K. Alliss.

Great narration, Johnny Heller has always been a favourite of mine, I'm not so familiar with the past works of the others but in this case, I enjoyed their work

Thanks to NetGalley

Dead Rich, G.W. Shaw

Tuesday 4 October 2022

Author: G.W. Shaw (William Shaw)

Pub date (paperback) November 2022

Publisher Riverrun Quercus Books

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1529420032
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1529420036

Blurb:

Super yachts are secretive, like their owners. The bigger the richer. Like castles, they are created to inspire awe. Like castles too, they are defended. They are an entire world, separate from the rest of us.

Kai, a carefree once-successful musician is invited by his new Russian girlfriend Zina to join her family's Caribbean holiday. Impulsively accepting he learns that Zina is the daughter of a Russian oligarch, Stepan Pirumov and that the trip is aboard his yacht, the Zinaida, moored in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The crew consists of Captain Marius Falk, the first mate Erin Wade and a hastily assembled staff, including a chief stewardess Marissa from Miami, a chief engineer from Lagos and a personal trainer from Los Angeles. All know how to behave around the very rich.

On arrival Kai discovers that the head of security has been arrested, armed guards are below deck, there's an onboard panic room and a strong sense of all not being quite right beneath the gleaming surfaces of the Pirumov's lives. An unnerving presence punctures the atmosphere: a murderous imposter is on board the Zinaida, but who is it?

Kai will find that the only person he can trust will be Erin and that the world of the super-rich will become a prison from which they must escape. Part locked-room suspense, part adventure story, Dead Rich is an unforgettable, edge of the seat thriller set in the blazing heat of the Caribbean

Review

The Best Read of the year

This is something a little special from William Shaw, all his stories are guaranteed to keep noses to books yet this is something a little different, a real, heart pounding thriller! It has everything, including a glimpse into the glamorous world of the super rich, travel to exotic and distant shores, intrigue, plots and counter plots, the world of music and much more.
The further I got in to the story the faster I read, I had to slow myself down so as not to miss anything.
As is usual with William Shaw's books we learn something new about the world around us.
As with all his work, this is beautifully written, another master class in "how to write"

thanks to NetGalley, Quercus Books

Wednesday 20 April 2022

by Sulari Gentill

Pub Date 07 June 2022

Publisher Poisoned Pen Press

"The ornate reading room at the Boston Public Library is quiet, until the tranquility is shattered by a woman's terrified scream. Security guards take charge immediately, instructing everyone inside to stay put until the threat is identified and contained. While they wait for the all-clear, four strangers, who'd happened to sit at the same table, pass the time in conversation and friendships are struck. Each has his or her own reasons for being in the reading room that morning—it just happens that one is a murderer" ....

Thank you to NetGalley and Poisoned Pen Press for this advanced copy

The plot? yes, well, it's complicated!

First up we have Hannah, a fictional Australian author writing a novel set in the city of Boston, USA. Hannah has a fan/beta reader by the name of Leo, he actually lives in Boston, they have not met as Hannah remains in Australia, they communicate solely by email

Next we have Freddie, who is the star of Hannah's novel, Freddie lives in Boston , there is also a Leo in Freddie's life.

Freddie seeks inspiration for her novel in the reading room of the Boston Public Library, she discreetly studies the four strangers at her table and, in the way of a fiction writer, creates new names and characters for each of them.

Little does she know that one blood curdling scream echoing through the library will connect these strangers to her and to each other in a most unusual fashion!

Meanwhile, back in Australia, Hannah continues to receive both compliments and faint criticism from Leo. Over time Leo's emails get somewhat demanding, he becomes annoyed when his advice and suggestions go unheeded, he also gets downright creepy.

In Boston Freddie is caught up in a series of events that will leave you turning those pages as fast as you can!

I really enjoyed this book except for the ending, it wrapped up a bit too quickly, I felt I was left hanging over the outcome of a certain character. Maybe it's just me and other more perceptive readers will have worked it out.

Now that I've discovered Sulari Gentill I will be looking out for her other works

Pub Date 05 May 2022 Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for uncorrected arc
Publisher summary:
"An old house can hold many secrets. Hollowpark in the west of Ireland certainly does. At the heart of the gardens is an intricate maze, named after a deadly poison, Belladonna. If you know the way through, it's magical, a hiding place and playground like no other. If you don't, it's a place of fear and sinister riddles, where a young girl once went missing and was never seen again.

Grace comes to Hollowpark as a nanny for young Skye FitzMahon. Soon the mysterious past of Hollowpark has seduced her. Who is the woman she sometimes glimpses in an upstairs window? Or the apparition who keeps showing up unexpectedly, pleading, 'Find me'

Our hero is Grace, a professional nanny, Grace has a routine, her summers are spent working on a Greek island and winters are spent working in temporary nanny posts in chilly Britain, that is, until a turn of events leads to her acceptance of a job in Ireland.
This is where the real adventures begin. The story unfolds over two time periods, the 1840s where we meet the then inhabitants of Hollowpark and 2007 when Grace first arrives. The author meshes these different times beautifully
Of course, all is not as it seems and, believe me, there are little twists and turns from beginning to end, all very Agatha Christie!
Oh how I enjoyed this story! You know you have found exactly the right book for you when you find yourself put off doing all those things you ought to be doing, just so as you can get back to reading this intriguing, captivating tale.
This is an ideal weekend read for those who love a good mystery that is a little "other worldly" yet is not too dark

Saturday 5 March 2022

Published May 18th 2021 by Park Row

People don’t just disappear without a trace....

Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.

Now, 11 years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they’ll find....

In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times best-selling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

Oh dear!

I've read books by this author, some I really very much enjoyed and one other I very much did not, anyway, I decided to give her another go
If one were to outline the plot it would seem to have all the ingredients for a really good book, but somewhere something went wrong, maybe it was written in a hurry!
There were too many implausible incidents, other little things were never followed up on or indeed, never even mentioned again.

All in all too many holes in the story making for an unsatisfactory ending which stretches credulity to its very limits