How Will I Know You: Jessica Treadway. 2 STARS

Tuesday, 27 December 2016

ISBN: 9780751555295 ISBN-10: 0751555290

Genre: Psychological Murder Mystery

Format: Paperback

Number Of Pages: 416

Published: 13th December 2016

Publisher: Sphere

Source: Hachette Australia

Publishers Summary:

Someone knows what really happened . . .

On a cold December day, teenager Joy Enright is found drowned at the edge of a frozen pond. When an autopsy reveals she was strangled first, suspicion is thrown onto Martin, the young graduate who was last to see her alive.

Someone who is prepared to keep their secret at any cost.

In a small community, secrets are hard to keep and as the web of lies around Joy's life and death unravels, the truth will either bring one family closer together, or tear them further apart.

Suspenseful, engaging and shocking, HOW WILL I KNOW YOU? will make you question everything you thought you knew about the ones you love.

Review

The victim is Joy Enright, a young girl who goes missing, they all believed that she had drowned by accident, that is until her strangled body is discovered in nearby woods.

Four characters are each telling the story from their own viewpoint.

Suzanne, her mother, who seems determined to blame herself because she has been up to no good.

Harper, once Joys closest friend, spends her time wondering how and why their relationship went so wrong.

Tom, the rescue diver who had a strange experience when looking for Joys body in the pond.

Martin, the “black guy,” art student arrested for the murder of Joy.

Doug Armstrong is the stand-in chief of police, and he is determined to get a quick arrest and conviction Not bothering with a by the book investigation, he quite simply, arrests the “black guy” as Martin is referred to. He achieves the arrest by leading the witness and, possibly, by planting evidence.

To be honest, I couldn’t get past the racist attitude of the police. The author presented them as stereotypical racist haters, they called him names, jeered at him at every chance and showed him no respect whatsoever. Does this really happen? Fixing someone up for murder merely because he is black? I wouldn’t have thought so, not in these times.

Much of the story consists of the psychological meanderings of these four giving me the feeling that I was reading more a study in psychology than a murder mystery. I tended to lose interest in these people.

I am sorry to say that I also found the ending a little disappointing, after ploughing through the rest of the book I was rather hoping that a really good denouement would justify the time spent reading.

Review copy provided by Hachette Australia

Lie With Me. Sabine Durrant

Tuesday, 2 August 2016

Author: Sabine Durrant

ISBN: 9781473608344

Publication date: 26 Jul 2016

Page count: 352

Imprint: Mulholland Books

Source: Hachette Australia

Publishers Summary

5 STARS

A rich widow. A Greek island paradise. A missing teenage girl...the past comes back to haunt a group of carefree holidaymakers in the new, brilliantly tense psychological thriller by Sabine Durrant.

"The truth is, we all tell lies... take a deep breath and get ready for the most twisty, tense and unsettling book of the summer.

It starts with a lie. The kind we've all told - to a former acquaintance we can't quite place but still, for some reason, feel the need to impress. The story of our life, embellished for the benefit of the happily married lawyer with the kids and the lovely home.

And the next thing you know, you're having dinner at their house, and accepting an invitation to join them on holiday - swept up in their perfect life, the kind you always dreamed of...

Which turns out to be less than perfect. But by the time you're trapped and sweating in the relentless Greek sun, burning to escape the tension all around you - by the time you start to realise that, however painful the truth might be, it's the lies that cause the real damage...

... well, by then, it could just be too late."

Review

This is one of the most intriguing, surprising and unusual tales that I have read in a long, long time; there is no hero, no obvious crime and there are no clearly identified goodies or baddies. Yet the prologue makes it clear that something very, very bad has happened.

The narrator, Paul Morris lives his life with the arrogance and vulgarity of a Hoorah Henry who has never grown up. Despite his humble beginnings, winning a bursary to an elite school and then a Cambridge education allowed him to mix with the more privileged, the icing on his social climbing cake was his best selling book published during his final year at Cambridge. He once lived the high life, but, not able to repeat his literary success, he maintains the illusion of being a prospering man about town with the help of smoke and mirrors - he tells lies.

He beguiles people with superficial charm, he lies outrageously to fulfil his huge sense of entitlement. He lives off the handouts of others as much as possible and, such is his conceit, he fails to see that his 42 year old self is no longer attractive to those young girls he continues to pursue.

House sitting for a friend had given him a prestigious address but now even that is coming to an end, the owner was coming home. Paul is faced with the (to him) demeaning prospect of having to go and live with his mother in her very humble home.

He bumps into a fellow Cambridge student, Andrew, who invites him to dinner. Paul accepts, he attends the dinner party and meets Alice. Alice is a middle aged widow with teenaged children and, according to her friends, she is something of a saint. She is a lawyer working on behalf of the underprivileged, she seems to do good everywhere, she even heads the ten year campaign to find out what has happened to Jasmine, a girl who disappeared on the island of Pyros whilst Alice and her friends were staying there in her holiday home.

Alice has reminded Paul that they had met before, on Pyros, the night that Jasmine went missing. Pauls’ memory of that night are hazy and vague because he was so drunk. He becomes interested in pursuing Alice when he discovers that Phoebe, her teenaged daughter, is soon to leave home. Paul decides to manipulate Alice in to allowing him to eventually move in to her house.

He manages to inveigle Alice in to a relationship and has no scruples about taking advantage of her home and her largesse, all the while concealing from her the truth of his impoverished life and failed career.

Paul manages to get himself included on the annual Pyros holiday along with Andrew and his family, but he can't afford the same flight, a fact his pride won’t allow him to admit to Alice and so he pretends to have an important meeting with his publisher to cover for his delayed arrival.

Yes, he is an awful man, selfish and horrible, and yet, now and then the author allows a glimpse of a redeeming factor.

This “pre holiday” part of the book does lag a little, but it is the slow burning fuse before the action. Once they are all together on Pyros the tension builds towards an explosive, shocking and totally unexpected ending, one that you will find yourself thinking about long after putting down the book.

This was a truly satisfying read.

Thanks to Hachette Australia for providing a copy of the book in return for an unbiased review.

In Her Wake

Sunday, 12 June 2016

Author: Amanda Jennings

Narrated by: Kate Rawson

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release Date:04-01-16

Publisher: Audible Studios

Source: purchased from Audible dot com

5 STARS

Publishers Summary

A tragic family event reveals devastating news that rips apart Bella's comfortable existence. Embarking on a personal journey to uncover the truth, she faces a series of traumatic discoveries that take her to the ruggedly beautiful Cornish coast, where hidden truths, past betrayals and a 25-year-old mystery threaten not just her identity but her life.

Chilling, complex and profoundly moving, In Her Wake is a gripping psychological thriller that questions the nature of family - and reminds us that sometimes the most shocking crimes are committed closest to home.

Review

Tread carefully dear reader, all is not what it seems!

A slow start, in fact I began to think it might be a tad to "literary" for me, and maybe a bit too intellectual as well. You know, like one of those prize winning books we think we ought to read but never do.

However, don't be fooled.

The writing is so good that before I knew it I was getting mad at one of the characters, you know it has to be good when you are getting mad at a fictional person, so I would advise you to stick with it, it is so worth it

At times I didn't much like Bella, it was in the way she behaved towards the family that she so desperately wanted to know. She seemed to have no understanding of human needs nor did she seem able to recognise the feelings of others.

Yet how could she?

She had a cloistered childhood, raised as she was under the smothering wings of an abnormally protective mother and a complicit father. She was home schooled and so never mixed with other children. Her husband David isolated and manipulated her. Bella had never had the chance to acquire social skills.

It happened when Bella and her husband were at her childhood home to attend her mothers funeral. Henry, her father, had a long held secret to tell Bella but he simply could not bear to speak the words, and so he informed her in the most horrific of ways.

With nobody left but David, Bella takes the secret and runs, she tells David nothing, he doesn't know the secret nor does he know her destination.

The secret has led her to Cornwall where she seeks out and finds the Tremaynes, Dawn and her sick and totally dependant mother Alice, they live in humble conditions and in not so genteel poverty. Dawn accepts no help and is her mothers full time carer.

Dawn has her own secrets and though she knows who Bella is, she is not willing to allow her to impose upon them. Bella is not welcome.

There is one particular chapter that stays in my head; Dawn has a strong reaction to Bellas behaviour and the way the author conveys those feelings is masterful, each well chosen word conveys Dawns thoughts and feelings so perfectly.

For me, it is was when Bella reached Cornwall that the real story began, the secret had been revealed, or had it?

There is so much more to be discovered....

I loved reading about Cornwall, I was born and raised there and was delighted to hear some of the old expressions included. It was good to hear mentions of the Cornish Language, especially of the attempts of coffee shop owner from "up country" to learn it which added a few light hearted moments to the story.

And, of course, to be reminded of the legend of Morveren, the maid from the sea "the Mermaid of Zennor"

Narrator

Kate Rawson captures the beautiful musical lilt and cadence of the West Cornwall accent perfectly. It's rare to hear an actor produce such a good Cornish accent and I marvelled at her authenticity, then I discovered she spent the first years of her life in Cornwall!

Kate gives each character, male and female, a distinct and easily identifiable voice making it easy for the listener to follow the story.

Her sensitive and skilled interpretation of the authors beautiful writing immerses the listener in the story adding an extra dimension of pleasure to the experience.

This audiobook is my own copy.