The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell

Agnes Darken is a silhouette artist, with paper and scissors summoning up a person's likeness. In Bath's heyday it was a profitable occupation but now, like the city itself, it's fallen out of favour, and Agnes struggles to make enough income to support herself, her elderly mother, and orphaned nephew. Then, one of her clients is murdered shortly after posing for a portrait. Then another ... and another ...

Trying to make sense of these events, Agnes decides to contact those who've died through a medium - a young girl, Pearl, who's managed and manipulated by her older half-sister - but instead of clarifying anything, Agnes and Pearl manage to raise troubled spirits out for revenge. 

 Part ghost story, part whodunit, The Shape of Darkness is gripping and enthralling; a book I didn't want to put down.

I loved the depiction of Bath; shabby and down at heel, full of memories of better times when visitors flocked there to 'take the waters', but by the mid-1800s no longer popular with the leisured upper classes. Agnes' fortunes have mirrored those of the city. Her hopes of love and marriage were dashed, and now she's a lonely middle-aged women struggling to get by, and desperately trying to avoid her memories of the past. 

Through Pearl and her sister the reader enters the world of professional mediums and mesmerists. As you might expect, it's a world where things are not quite as they seem. Pearl may have some ability to contact the dead, but her sister knows that isn't enough to bring people back time and again, that a certain level of showmanship is required to make a living out of it. 

There's a dark, brooding atmosphere throughout, as is fitting for a ghostly thriller. It's a book in which nothing is quite what it seems, and in the best tradition, it has a twist (or more) waiting at the end for the reader. 

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Raven (Bloomsbury) 
Genre - Adult  gothic ghosts

Glowglass by Kirkland Ciccone

Review by The Mole

Starrsha Glowglass's face is on the front page of every newspaper. She isn't a model, Vlogger, or reality TV show contestant. Starrsha is famous for something darker: she survived a massacre that claimed her Brothers and Sisters. Hers was no ordinary family. They were The Family Glowglass - a religious order set up by an eccentric businessman as a tax dodge. One morning the parishioners sat down to breakfast...Most didn't get back up. Only Starrsha and her mute Brother, Simon, survived. Both now have a chance to lead an ordinary life. For Starrsha that means high school. Can a videotape bring back the dead? What's behind the red door? Why won't Starrsha's best friend reveal her true sexuality? When is a poster on a wall actually a trap? Will My Chemical Romance reform? Why is Father obsessed with vintage technology? Why does Barbie freak out Starrsha? How many rich husbands has Aunt Imelda bumped off? And why is God crank-calling Starrsha? All will be revealed when someone presses PLAY...

Ciccone's books have all been unusual in some way and this is no exception. A single video tape is left and Starrsha keeps adding parts of the story to it until the 3 hour tape is full and we know the complete story from Starrsha's point of view. And it's not what I expected.

We know of the deaths in the cult and we know of the how but "who"? Only Simon and Starrsha survived... coincidence or planning - that's what we need to find out and this tape contains Starrsha's confession. Or does it? This young impressionable childlike girl is too naive for anything so horrendous surely?

I was sceptical of the format at first but found that it worked well. Very well. Having just the one voice throughout taking the story forward and backward before reaching the conclusion felt very genuine - no contrived conversations using second voices that didn't really gel. We do hear from other characters but they are retold by Starrsha in the words she chooses and so we see how the characters come over to her and not to each other.

The reader also gets an insight into cults and modern day slavery - or at least one aspect.

This is, once again, another great story told in the author's distinctive style. It sounds like a YA book but, frankly, apart from the very young, this book will sort all ages and genders and I'd recommend widely.

Publisher - Strident Publishing
Genre - YA/Adult/Thriller

A Question of Trust by Jonathan Pinnock

Life always seems unnecessarily complicated round Tom Winscombe. Just when he thought things were settled, his bizarre luck strikes again and everything comes unraveled. His girlfriend Dorothy has gone missing, and her company's offices have been cleared out; all the PCs stolen, all the money gone.

Now Tom is having to share a bed-sit with Dorothy's business partner, Ali (not Tom's biggest fan). While she desperately tries to keep their company going, Tom's priority is to find out what's happened to Dorothy. Is it feasible she's run off with the money and equipment? Could someone else have stolen it and be holding Dorothy hostage? 

Meanwhile, Tom's father has got tangled up in some cryptocurrency scam, an old presumed-dead acquaintance has re-surfaced, and another definitely-dead acquaintance is sending him LinkdIn messages. Life's certainly not dull around Tom!

So off he goes on another escapade; an innocent caught up in a world of criminal activities and dodgy dealings, with little but his luck to help him. This time he gets mixed up with questionable city types, an off shore independent country in the Bristol Channel, crashing a stag weekend, an escaped python and an unusual use of the Fibonacci sequence - with plenty of dangerous James Bond style stunts (though Bond would probably have pulled them off with a bit more grace and panache). It's hectic, frequently dangerous, sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes laugh out loud slapstick.

As with Tom's previous mis-adventure The Truth about Archie and Pye, it's not a serious, grim Nordic Noir thriller, more 'James Bond meets Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright', or Adam West's Batman without the cape. It could all turn deadly, but it's undeniably fun.




Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Farrago
Genre - adult thriller 

The Wolves of Winter by Tyrell Johnson

When society started to crumble around them, Lynn McBride's extended family left home and headed to the wilds. Here they survive on the animals they can hunt and eat, and the few vegetables that will grow in the inhospitable Arctic conditions. Life's hard and monotonous. Their small settlement hasn't seen other people in years - then one day a stranger, Jax, wanders by, bringing with, or at least behind, him remnants of the old world, and trying to survive takes on a whole new meaning. Lynn is forced to face up to her father's past, to come to terms to what he had been doing, and how it could affect them now.

I've tried my best but there are bound to be spoilers here - sorry.

I seem to be reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction recently. I'm not sure if this is reflecting a publishing trend, or just my personal tastes, but, anyway, here we are again after the 'end of the world as we know it', in the Canadian Yukon this time.
The familiar mix of war and flu have cut the population drastically, and if there are more survivors than Lynn and her family, they too are living hand to mouth. One aspect of the past that has managed to survive though is a government scientific programme, which has a particular interest in Jax, and, now she's been brought to their attention, Lynn. What you end up with is part post-apocalyptic survival story, part government conspiracy thriller - and it works well, although ti wasn't at all what I was expecting. After a slowish start, things kick off and you'll be hooked (I was).

The setting is unusual - the cold, snowy north - and brilliantly brought to life, even when I quibbled about some of the details of survival there.


One aspect that marginally disappointed me was that the ending seemed to be setting up for a sequel, maybe even a series. Don't get me wrong, I liked The Wolves of Winter, and it does round off to a nice conclusion, but I'm happy for it to end there, rather than have the story spin-out forever.






Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - HQ 
Genre - post apocalyptic adult adventure/thriller

Beauty Sleep by Kathryn Evans

review by Maryom


Like a real life sleeping beauty, Laura has been sleeping for forty years. She and her little brother Alfie were seriously ill and cryotherapy, suspending them in a deep-freeze-like state, was seen as the only way they could survive. Now a cure has been found for her illness, and it's time to wake up.

For a 1980s girl, 2028 is a shock. For one thing, she's a celebrity  -  everyone knows of her ground-breaking treatment, they want to see her, talk to her, copy her '80s fashion - and the world has changed so much -  tiny computers, cashless payments, data imprints, and everyone's flawless complexion and brilliantly perfect teeth.
Befriended by Miss Lilly, the owner of the clinic which pioneered her treatment, Laura soon has a new life - new school, new friends - but nothing can replace her family or her old friend Stacey.
There's another side though to this bright future in which Laura finds herself. Children are living rough on the streets, homeless people being classed as vagrants and taken away - but to where? Shem and his dog are trying to stay one move ahead of those tracking them down, but his sinister pursuers aren't so easily shaken. When his story and Laura's collide, an unthinkable, horrific crime is exposed.

Kathryn Evans' debut novel More Of Me was a real knock-out of a read, and with Beauty Sleep she's done it again, mixing the personal problems of a teenager coming back to life after 40 years of 'sleep' with unscrupulous science that belongs in a horror film.
The story is fast-paced and compelling. I read the sample first chapter (here on the Usborne website) and knew I HAD to read the rest. Laura's confusion and lack of memory grabbed my sympathy and intrigued me, at the same time. As her past story is slowly revealed, I couldn't help but wonder how much was being withheld or distorted by people who claimed to care for her. Which of the conflicting versions of events should Laura (and the reader) believe? 
Her story intertwines with Seth's, and it's hard to see how the two will join. Laura's new life is a privileged one of a luxurious apartment, servants, and private school. Seth's is one of living hand-to-mouth, and having no permanent home. Society doesn't seem to have become any fairer in the next decade!
A truly imaginative thriller for teens/young adults, though maybe some will find some 'medical' aspects somewhat horrific - the true horror of it though is that perhaps it isn't ALL that far-fetched!


Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Usborne
Genre - Thriller, Teen, sci-fi, YA 

Evolution by Teri Terry

review by Maryom

Here we are at last at the concluding part of Teri Terry's YA sci fi/conspiracy theory thriller trilogy, and there's been a lot of change and upheaval since Shay and Kai started looking for his missing sister Callie, back in book one, Contagion. In fact, normal life for most of the country has ceased as a flu-style epidemic spread rapidly causing unknown numbers of deaths. Very few survive, those who do are changed forever, and hunted down by the remaining authorities as a threat. The search for Callie has become part of the search to discover more about this dreadful disease, where it came from, and if there's any possibility of a cure, or at least for something to stop the virus's spread.
Shay and Kai have meanwhile become separated again; although sharing the same goals, they each believe their way is the best to proceed. In a normal world this would probably be little more than a lovers' tiff, but the world isn't normal any more, and the decisions they make could mean life or death.

These three books have definitely been a roller coaster of a read, with the tension constantly cranked high, and just when you think the story's moving towards a happy ending there are some nasty shocks to come. It's been absolutely brilliant though. The plotting is ingenious and devious. Conspiracy is hidden behind conspiracy. Whisk away a layer of secrets and lies, and there'll be more beneath, like peeling an onion, or opening a Russian doll. On those rare occasions when Shay, Kai and the reader thought they'd found the heart of the web of secrets, events would take an unexpected turn, and you'd realise nothing had been half as simple as you thought.
The author doesn't pull punches, or hold back on violence. The evil mastermind is unscrupulous, not held back by any normal human 'weaknesses' like fair play or sympathy for others, and, unsurprisingly perhaps, behaves as ruthlessly and single-mindedly as you would expect evil villains to.
An excellent series - but be prepared for your favourite characters to suffer.





Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Orchard Books
Genre - teen, sci fi/ conspiracy theory thriller

Operation Hail Storm by Brett Arquette

Review by The Mole

"Marshall Hail was a husband, a father, a Physics Nobel prize winner and industrial billionaire. But when Hail's family was killed in a terrorist attack, he became a predator and redirected his vast industrial assets toward one goal"

As an industrialist he opts to build drones and a team to operate them, in order to direct his energies towards his revenge.

I found this to be very much a book of two parts. The first part felt like a game they were playing and it reminded me hugely of a comic book hero from about a thousand years ago. General Jumbo! In those days they weren't 'drones' but 'radio controlled toys'. General Jumbo would set the world to rights each week with the aid of his toys that were operated from a single controller work on one arm. How DID that work?

In the second part of the book the tone, tempo and voice changed and it became far more focused and less like a game. I started to feel more involved and less like a spectator as Hail and his team took on a far more volatile mission.

I would stress that I did enjoy both parts of the story although the change in the second part was very welcome.

This was book one and sets up a scenario where there could be any number of books to follow based on Hail and his crew.

If you are into high-tech thrillers then this is an ideal choice that I'm sure could make excellent TV one day when the series is more mature.

I was donated a Kindle review copy of this book which is self published on lulu.com

Genre - YA action thriller

Deception by Teri Terry

An epidemic is sweeping the country.
You are among the infected. There is no cure, and you cannot be permitted to infect others. You are now under quarantine. 
The 5% of the infected who survive are dangerous and will be taken into the custody of the army.

As the epidemic spreads, survivors are being hunted like witches, for the authorities fear their strange new powers.

Kai is desperate to trace Shay, who tricked him and disappeared. Meanwhile, Shay is searching for the truth behind the origins of the epidemic ... but danger finds them wherever they go. Can they outrun the fire?

review by Maryom

It's always difficult to know where and how to start with a review for a second (or third) book of a series, so my first simple step is to just quote the synopsis above which appears on the book itself, adding that Kai and Shay have been on the trail of his missing sister, and uncovered far more than they'd expected, especially that her disappearance was somehow connected to the 'flu' epidemic sweeping the country.
The end of the first book of the series, Contagion, left them at a logical sort of place but with so many questions unanswered that I've been longing to read more. Deception is definitely the name of the game this time. Kai and Shay are trying to find answers - how did the epidemic begin?  is their ever likely to be a cure? what happened to family and/or friends? - but it's not easy to find any when so many people, at both a personal and official level, are covering up the truth. It seems at times that one layer of deceit is removed, only to find another hidden below. When I'm reading adult crime fiction, I always pride myself on guessing the villain and having an inkling of how the plot will pan out - here, I'm stumped. Although I feel I'm better than Kai and Shay at picking who to trust, or not (yes, I was mentally shouting 'Don't believe X. They're up to no good'), I still can't guess how the plot will develop or who, if anybody, could be the 'good guys' in this scenario.
Add in some fast paced action, secret hideouts and military bases, the possibility of some secret research lab experimenting without any official control, and a hint or perhaps more of a love triangle, and it's easy to see any reader would be hooked.
How would I describe it? Well, definitely a thriller, with a slightly sci-fi/conspriracy theory feel as it involves secret scientific research. Whatever you call it, Deception is an excellent, tense, thrill a minute, unputdownable read. The danger is real and ever-present, any moments of calm are short lived, and before long Kai and Shay are plunged back into action and life-threatening situations. With that in mind, I'd suggest that it might possibly be a little scary for readers at the younger end of its age range, especially if they're inclined to identify too much with characters; I can easily imagine them becoming so engrossed that it becomes 'real'.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Orchard Books
Genre - teen, sci fi/ conspiracy theory thriller

Exile by James Swallow

Review by The Mole

After Nomad Marc Dane is persona non-grata in everyone's organisation but someone has to take him and he's given a dead-end, almost clerical role, in the International Atomic Energy Agency where his boss hopes he'll put the hours in, keep his head down and keep out of everyone's hair. Readers of Nomad will know that's not very likely to happen.

Picking up a lead that he is told is a dead end and a waste of time he starts to track what he believes is a suitcase nuclear bomb. But while the lead seems hot to him no-one else is prepared to take him seriously apart from his only friend in the agency who he ends up putting in the hospital and finding himself totally alone in pursuit of his case - and he can't do it alone.

While mostly fast paced I did find with Exile (unlike Nomad) that there were times when words seemed to be included that increased the page count but did not enhance the story. That is to say, at times the plot slowed for seemingly no real good reason. That said, the publishers liken Dane to Jason Bourne and that's not a bad comparison except I don't recollect Bourne having a right hand man like Lucy Keyes. Keyes is not insignificant in the plot and the book would be a lot poorer without her. Like Jason Bourne, you know where the plot is going to go and where it's going to end up and the only surprises come in getting from A to B. But it's fun on the journey and escapism rules the book.

As far as action thriller writers go, Swallow is up there with the best of them so keep an eye out because the last chapter tells us there will be more to come.

Publisher: Zaffre
Genre: Adult Action Thriller

Killer Christmas by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

Everyone has plans for Christmas, mostly doing again what we did last year, but Geraldine's plans fall through at the last minute and she is stuck in York on Christmas Eve. On her own. With no-one to share the holiday with.

Sitting in a pop-up bar and having a quiet drink when a murder is committed - except no-one saw it happen and Geraldine was on the spot.

This is the first short story by Leigh Russell that I've read and frankly I had no idea what to expect. The normal format of her stories requires a lot of plotting and blind alleys etc. But in a short story how do you tackle  a murder mystery? Well Russell does it very well indeed. I was very surprised the way it unfolded without compromising the genre yet giving the reader exactly what they want.

This short story is still free on Kindle from Amazon or you can go to the No Exit Press website and purchase a hard copy so if you haven't read any Geraldine Steel yet now's your chance to sample for free.

I really did enjoy this a great deal.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller, Short Story

Class Murder by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

"With so many potential victims to choose from, there would be many deaths. He was spoiled for choice, really, but he was determined to take his time and select his targets carefully. Only by controlling his feelings could he maintain his success. He smiled to himself. If he was clever, he would never have to stop. And he was clever. He was very clever. Far too clever to be caught."

First of all, a confession. For the first time I have missed a Geraldine Steel out of the series so her current situation came as a surprise to me.

Demoted for the rest of her career and sent north to a new area she is once again working with Ian Peterson. A girl is murdered and the crime scene is clinically clean leaving the police almost nothing to go on. The case struggles on when a second murder is committed in the small rural area but there is almost nothing to link the crimes together. With the size of the population the only link seems far too tenuous to be substantial. Then the press find the link and start to make a story out of it. Then there is a third murder...

Russell has really returned to her roots with this story. We enter the head of the murderer without finding out 'why' and learn his cold, psychopathic thinking - and hating him more each time. Rooting for Steel and Peterson but we find Peterson wants to play 100% by the rules and do everything that's expected of him while Steel pushes her neck further and further out to the point...

Does their previous friendship have any real meaning anymore? Is Steel really now alone hundreds of miles from home?

Russell at her very best and Steel crying out to be turned into a TV series. I loved this book as much as any of the previous 8 out of 9 that I've read. I really can't wait for number 11.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller

Nomad by James Swallow

Review by The Mole

Marc Dane is a man with a dark past and is working with MI6 on covert activities within the comfort of the support vehicle behind the lines. He is part of the Nomad team, as is his girlfriend Sam, when everything goes pear shaped and he finds himself of the run from MI6. But others also want him dead except a guardian angel who wants him kept alive - but Marc is unaware of this angel.

If you want an action thriller without flaws then you are going to be very hard pressed to find one - ever. But Nomad is as close as they come and it takes you away from your daily routine to an action packed, gory, blood spattered world that won't creep you out. I know because I am the king of squeamish.

The moment you meet Marc for the first time you know that; here is the hero, this guy will still be with us on page 487 and that he won't hurt a fly if he doesn't have to. It sounds a bit sickly sweet, but truly it works very well.

It keeps you on the edge of your seat. No, it doesn't because you KNOW Marc will survive but you still won't put the book down while the action unfolds. And it starts unfolding on page 1 and doesn't finish unfolding on the last page - Pass the sequel.

A great book that should offend no-one and entertain any reader who likes an action thriller.

Publisher: Zaffre
Genre: Adult Action Thriller

October Is The Coldest Month by Christoffer Carlsson

translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles

review by Maryom

Sixteen year old Vega is at home alone when the police come looking for her older brother Jakob. It's lucky for her really because, not only does she manage to fend off their queries, she avoids any potentially awkward questions from her mother, who will realise that whatever it is that Jakob's become involved in, Vega should have been with him. Vega's desperate to speak to Jakob too, but he's disappeared, and trying to find him only draws Vega further into his troubles ...


Set in rural Sweden, this YA crime novel is grittier and harder-hitting than a lot of fiction aimed at that age group. Vega has been drawn unwittingly into the cover up of what she assumes was a murder, though she doesn't know what has happened to the body, or even whose it was. She's also terrified that both she and her brother could now be in danger. Looking for Jakob brings her into contact with two guys she'd rather avoid - Jakob's best friend to whom she's attracted, and a boy she had a very brief, wholly sexual, relationship with.

A tense, claustrophobic atmosphere pervades the whole book. Vega's home is in an isolated village, the kind of place where everyone knows each other, but doesn't necessarily get along with them, where illicit businesses flourish away from the law, and old feuds don't die but slumber on ready to restart. The houses are scattered, hidden from their neighbour by the surrounding forest, where anyone could be hiding. Add some dark, damp autumnal weather, and you've got the perfect Nordic Noir -style setting. As Vega sets about finding her brother, discovering how much the police know and getting some answers about what actually happened, you won't want to put the book down!

It's a dark, brooding novel, that alongside the crime element deals openly with sex and desire, so definitely one aimed at older teens.


Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Scribe
Genre - YA crime thriller

Contagion by Teri Terry

URGENT!
An epidemic is sweeping the country.
You are among the infected. There is no cure; and you cannot be permitted to infect others. You are now under quarantine. 
The very few of the infected who survive are dangerous and will be taken into the custody of the army.



review by Maryom

Kai's younger sister, Callie, has been missing without trace for a year, so when a girl called Shay contacts him with new information, he has no doubts about dashing up from Newcastle to the small village of Killin in Scotland to investigate the lead. Together they try to piece together Callie's last known movements but events in the wider world are working against them.
A secret scientific facility on Shetland has been conducting some very dodgy experiments, and when a supposed earthquake destroys it, a horrendous,highly-infectious, fast-acting flu virus is leaked into the world. Special army units are called in and quarantine zones are soon established across Scotland, making it difficult to travel, but even so the disease continues to claim victims at a dreadful rate. Very few survive, and those who do are considered too dangerous to be left at large.
Against this backdrop, Kai and Shay pursue the leads to uncover what exactly happened to Callie, and why ...

Anyone who's read this blog will know how much I love Teri Terry's teen/YA novels, whether set in the dystopian worlds of the Slated trilogy and Mind Games, or the urban fantasy of Book of Lies. This time the story is  a mix of dystopian horror as a mystery illness sweeps the country, thriller and conspiracy theory as Kai and Shay uncover far more than they'd expected in their search for Callie.
It's a great read, with characters to warm to, and a plot to entice you in - the sort of book you don't want to put down, but read in one sitting (no matter how late you have to stay up to do that!). You'll be left wanting more though, as this is the first book of a trilogy, and, although it ends at a logical point, a lot of questions have been raised and not answered yet. I can't wait to see how things develop in Book 2!

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Orchard Books
Genre - teen, dystopian thriller, conspiracy theory

Red Moon Rising by JT Brannan

review by Maryom

Once a high-powered New York Assistant DA, Jessica Hudson's career came to an end when she was hit by a would-be-assassin's bullet. After months in a coma, she's trying to build a new life, almost as far away as she can get, in the wilds of Alaska. Then late one night a naked, battered girl staggers up to Jessica's door, and her refuge becomes the centre of a murder investigation, with police and on-lookers swarming about ... until Jessica wakes next morning and finds no traces of the previous evening's events. Has she really jumped in time while she slept? woken BEFORE the girl was abducted and tortured? if so, is there a way she can prevent the crime happening? 

It's a bit difficult to know how to describe Red Moon Rising  - is it time travel? psychological thriller? murder mystery? It's probably best to say 'a bit of all',  but it's definitely a story that had me hooked as, along with main character Jessica, I tried to find out exactly WHAT was happening. 
I don't normally read/review self-published books, but I've read JT Brannan's previous novels - Origin and Extinction - published through Headline, and enjoyed both of them (and the Mole has also read Brannan's self-published Stop At Nothing), so I was happy to read Red Moon Rising when approached by the author.  
As I say, the story's a mix of crime thriller and time travel, with Jessica moving backwards and forwards trying to prevent the murder of a teenage girl, while coping with her own personal demons. Obviously things don't go as simply as nipping back a day or so and altering the course of events, but the author's thought through the advantages and drawbacks to travelling through time, knowing what will happen before anyone else, and affecting events, and doesn't leave loose ends (a bugbear of mine). The story is fast-paced, sometimes leaving the reader wondering what's going on - but Jessica's in the same position and as she figures things out, so does the reader - and, while she's wondering whether everything is really happening or some coma nightmare she's trapped in, Jessica has a crime to solve and a would-be murderer to catch. There are plenty of suspects, from her callous ex-boyfriend to locals with prior convictions, and a twist to catch you unaware. 
A bit of warning that the violence and injuries are described a bit too graphically, and may prove unsettling for some readers, otherwise it's an enjoyable, gripping read.

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Genre - adult, crime thriller, time travel

Girl In Danger by Leigh Russell

(Lucy Hall Mystery No. 2)
Review by The Mole

Lucy has taken up a post in journalism in Paris but her work is dull and not the exciting headline grabbing work she had imagined so she starts asking around for stories. Out of the blue her phone rings and a voice arranges a clandestine meeting where nothing seems to happen until she, later that evening, finds a key in her pocket. Returning home she finds her flat completely turned over and her flatmate gone. On reporting Nina's disappearance to the police they are not interested because it's  not been long enough and they almost accuse her of wrecking her own flat. Lost, confused and needing help she contacts a private detective and they set about trying to solve the mystery - but with different agendas!

Lucy has matured a lot since her first mystery and this book is a great deal better for it. She still exhibits naivety, but being the young person she is, that is to be expected and in this context it's a breath of fresh air.

The pace of the story varies from chapter to chapter but continues in the typical Leigh Russell way of continuing menace for the "heroes". Nina's plight is terrifying and it's frighteningly realistic the way that she almost welcomes her inevitable fate.

A very different person to the Lucy we met in the first book and a very much more menacing telling of the story. It reminds me of the first Geraldine Steel books where we spent so much time in the killer's head that we were terrified of what they were capable of. I am sure Lucy will lose some of her naivety as the mysteries go on - but not too much, too fast please.

Publisher: Thomas and Mercer Publishing
Genre: Crime Thriller

Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick

review by Maryom

In the shanty town of Anapra, Arturo scrapes together a living from work at the local garage and making a few extra pesos at cards. It's a hard, hand-to-mouth life but, for that place, on the Mexican side of the border with the USA, it's not that bad. Then Faustino, an old school friend, comes visiting, asking for a favour. He's not only got himself involved with one of the powerful drug gangs in the area but has 'borrowed' from the money he was supposed to be keeping safe for them. His intentions were good - to buy his girlfriend and baby a safe passage to America, then repay the money somehow - but now the money's wanted, and he hasn't got it to hand. Faustino is hoping that through Arturo's skill at cards the missing dollars can quickly and easily be made up before the narcos notice anything amiss; the alternative, A neither quick nor easy death, doesn't bear thinking about. First though Faustino insists they visit the shrine of Saint Death, to leave an offering and ask for her aid, but she isn't a kindly saint, rather a neutral, aloof one, who welcomes both good folk and evil equally.

Somehow, to my mind at least, Marcus Sedgwick's stories are associated with Eastern Europe, cold climates and, frequently, vampires, but this one is set on the Mexican/US border, a dry, dusty place even as the temperature cools down for winter, and the only 'blood-suckers' around are the Mexican drug-dealing narcos and the US corporations, squeezing the life out of the people one way or another. 

The novel follows Arturo as he attempts to turn a few dollars into the huge amount that Faustino needs to repay - and it isn't as simple as the two old friends had hoped, and it has twists and turns that even I wasn't expecting! - but there's more to this book than just a gripping story-line; it's an eye-opener regarding the conditions in which thousands of people live alongside the border. Looking for a new start in the USA, people travel north from Mexico itself or from further away in South America, hoping to escape the drug gangs, government injustice and poverty they've known all their lives. And, for many, the journey ends here, at the border. Unlikely to get through by legitimate means, they turn to people smugglers who are as likely to take their money and run, as to help them to safety on the other side, or end up living in the makeshift shanties, working for a pittance at factories owned by US corporations, but situated in Mexico, and not really bound by the laws of either. The only way to live a comfortably well-off life - able to afford food, a proper house, maybe a car - is to join one of the gangs of drug-dealers that operate almost freely in the area. It's an eye-opener about the conditions and deprivations suffered in this area of the world! 

Saint Death is maybe intended to be a teen/YA read but, like such a lot of books aimed at that readership, I'd recommend it anyone looking for a tense thriller-style read, with less of the graphic blood and gore of an adults' book.  

Maryom's review - 5 stars 
Publisher - Orion Books
Genre - teen/YA thriller

Baby X by Rebecca Ann Smith

review by Maryom

Alex Mansfield was the cool-headed research scientist heading up an experimental human reproductive programme attempting to grow a baby in an artificial womb ... but somewhere along the line she's become emotionally involved - and is now on the run with that baby, hiding out from colleagues, police and the baby's parents. Is she just trying to claim the baby as her own, justifying her actions by claiming he was in danger? or do her fears have any basis in fact?

Surrogate parenting of any sort is an emotive subject, but in Baby X Rebecca Ann Smith has managed to combine thought-provoking insights into the ethics behind the science with the compelling read of a thriller.
By telling the story from the differing perspectives of three women the author, and reader with her, can explore the issue from a multitude of angles - Alex, the scientist who although initially only interested in helping infertile couples becomes emotionally entangled in her work, her junior, Dolly, who manages to stand back and see her work objectively, and Karen, the woman who desperately wants to be a mother but can't. She also shows the uneven coverage such a project could attract from the media - sympathising with the parents in their desire to have a family (providing they play nice with the press) while demonising the scientist who can fulfil their dreams as a Frankenstein figure - and, through the fears of Dolly's mother, the threats that research establishments face from protesters.

This isn't just a fictionalised debate about ethics though - it soon becomes apparent that someone has been accessing data from the project, possibly putting it, and Baby X's life, in jeopardy. The thriller aspect changes from 'will Alex be caught up with and the baby saved?' to ' will she be caught up with and the baby endangered?'. You won't want to put the book down until you know ...

I'm hesitating over how I'd label Baby X - 'medical drama' smacks of House hunting down a cure for a mystery illness, or George Clooney in ER gazing soulfully up at the camera; sci-fi, although artificial gestation is a common enough concept there, seems too high-tech and Star Trek-y. The science involved seems only a step or two into the future, and at heart this a story about people and their motivations, for good or bad, with the reader's sympathy and suspicions moving from one character to another. With such a lot of aspects to debate, it's a story I'd definitely recommend for book groups.

Maryom's review - 4.5 stars 
Publisher - Mother's Milk Books
Genre - adult fiction, thriller

The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena

review by Maryom

When their babysitter cancels at the last minute, Anne and Marco decide, after an argument, that it will be fine to go round to their neighbours for a dinner party as planned - after all, the houses are joined, they'll be able to take the baby monitor and nip back every half hour to check up on baby Cora ... surely nothing could go wrong?

When Anne and Marco return home the front door is open, and their baby gone. At first, guided by what Anna and Marco appear to be thinking, the reader is led to believe that Cora must have been taken by someone who broke into the house, but then the police arrive, and Detective Rasbach's cynical assessment of the situation and detailing of all the ways parents could kill and dispose of a baby, made me stop and wonder if perhaps Anne and Marco weren't to be trusted all that much....

A thriller tapping in on what must surely be any parent's worst nightmare, The Couple Next Door is a gripping, fairly quick read at just over 300 pages. I found it started rather slowly, setting up the scene, calling in the police etc, but after 50 pages or so the drama kicks off, and then I really, really wanted to see how it all ended, so finished it in a day!
Although told in the third person, the reader is still presented with the 'face' that the characters display in public, and their secrets and motivations are only revealed as the plot twists and turns its way to a resolution - and what secrets they're all hiding! Anne's post-natal depression hides a more serious underlying condition; Marco might not have been quite honest about his relationship with their attractive neighbour, Cynthia; and she, too, has a secret or two hidden away ...
To be honest, I didn't feel the characters had much depth - yes, they're all hiding something, but not deep character flaws, the revelation of which would change who they fundamentally are, and a lot is said of Anne and Marco's shock and grief but I didn't feel it. I don't think it really mattered though, because this is a plot-driven story, leading my suspicions first one way, then another, and keeping me guessing till the end.

Maryom's review - 4 stars 
Publisher - Bantam Press
Genre - adult, crime, thriller

Murder Ring by Leigh Russell

Review by The Mole

The eighth book in the Geraldine Steel series.

A man is found mugged and murder in an alley by someone going to work. When DNA evidence leads the investigation immediately to a know criminal it seems like an open and shut case but it isn't always that easy. With the suspect under lock and key a second murder is committed - with the same gun. Clearly it's time to find another suspect.

Cleverly plotted this story also brings a major change to Geraldine's search for her birth mother. Is this too much of a distraction at this point in the investigation and will it bring about the peace of mind that she is looking for?

Easy to read, this story will keep you guessing as to where we are going to end up - and it's most enjoyable getting there. While we spend a lot of time in the killer's head it does mark a return to the "whodunnit" format which the last book had moved away from a little although the story ends up as more of a "whodidwhat".

Great compulsive writing that Russell has become known for.

Publisher - No Exit Press
Genre - Adult Crime Thriller