Six Graves by Angela Marsons

Six Graves by Angela Marsons
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 424

Publisher - Bookouture

Source - Bought

Blurb from Goodreads

An absolutely heart-pounding and addictive crime thriller

It’s a typical teenage bedroom with posters covering the walls and clothes littering the floor. But the girl lying on her bed, wearing a delicate chain around her neck, is lifeless. A circle of red stains her white vest top. How had the girl’s mother looked down at her sleeping child and pulled the trigger?

When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene of a house fire, she’s shocked to discover it’s claimed the lives of two teenage children and their parents. But this tragedy is not quite as it seems. Each body is marked by a gunshot wound and the mother, Helen Daynes, is holding the gun.

The case sparks painful childhood memories for Kim who suffered at the hands of her own abusive mother, but it just makes her more determined to uncover the truth. As Kim untangles Helen’s past, she finds a history of clinical depression. But did it drive Helen to murder her loved ones?

Then Kim uncovers a tiny, vital clue in Helen’s bedroom that throws the investigation wide open. Could someone else have killed the Daynes family?

Just as Kim feels she’s making progress, a deadly threat is made to her own life by a dangerous psychopath from her past. Biting back her fear, she keeps digging. And when Kim hits upon a shocking secret that changes everything she thought she knew about Helen, she realises that the remaining family members are in grave danger.

Kim is under pressure like never before, and the monster circling her is getting ever closer. Four bodies already. Four graves fresh in the ground. Who will be next? Can Kim find the killer and save herself before it’s too late?



My Review

If you haven't read the others just stop and go read them, it is a great series and you need to know the backstories to appreciate the dynamics of the team. Normally I tell you you can absolutely pick up and read as a standalone however the baddy you appreciate more if you read the previous books. Kim and co have came up against many a psycho but this one really pushed the limits and when someone wants revenge nothing will stop them.

As always Marsons does short chapters which I need as my concentration is all over the place and she has a knack for pulling you in from the opening pages. We see a few characters from previous books and Kim is pushed to new limits when she needs to go against everything she knows that gets results. Kim never gives her own safety a second thought, that of her team always but this time Kim knows she is the sought after prize and must adhere to the bosses rules.

We see an emotive side to Kim, she generally is a closed book and keeps her emotions locked up but when you can't do the thing you normally do and high pressure I feel we got a glimpse of a different side.

Warning, the prologue will pull you in, give you palps and for us a AW HELL NAW - so clear your schedule for going in because you won't want to put it down. Pacey, shocking, one very sick and twisted individual who thinks nothing of human torture in fact really gets off on it so a wee bit squeamish reading some scenes, more of the what done than super graphic details, 5/5 for us and as always we very much look forward to the next book!

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The Last House by R.G. Adams

The Last House by R.G. Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 2 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Riverrun

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

Social worker Kit Goddard is convinced that Sandbeach Child Services have let an injured seventeen-year-old boy down, just like they'd done to her brother ten years earlier. Since the referral came in, it had been passed between departments, her own manager Georgia and colleague Tim brushing it off as a low risk, low priority case. But Kit can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right.

Scanning the referral, she notices that the house seventeen-year-old Dylan Meredith lives in with his 'weird' mother had been described as decrepit. The anonymous caller said he was injured, frightened and afraid to tell the truth.

As Kit begins to look deeper into the history of the family, she learns that Dylan's grandmother had been an inpatient at Penlan psychiatric hospital and had died there in 2012. But as her colleague Tim had stressed, this was not a case for psychiatric services.

In a bid to trace the anonymous caller for more information, Kit sets of to the small coastal town of Rock. Only to be confronted with the sense of strangeness that surrounds the Meredith family and the rumours that have troubled this small community for years.


My Review

So if you haven't read the first book in this series I would say it isn't necessary to be honest as Kit is still relatively new to the job and finding her feet. Her recent case is referenced and there are still teething problems to her settling and finding her rythmn. A seventeen year old comes across her radar, a fair few red flags and it seems people in the office are quite eager to close the case. Kit being a kid from a care background feels something isn't right and takes a vested interested getting herself into some hot water, bit of a theme with her.

I think this book is very different pace and feel from the first book, this one has a more slower pace as Kit tries to bond and get a handle on Dylan, his mother and their situation. We also see a lot of Kit's own personal life, issues with her biological parents, her relationships with her siblings and a bit of a curve ball from life causing them all to assess their relationships and actions going forth.

I think the book may prove a tad emotive for some depending on your own personal history and mental health does feature a bit within this book. We also have a look at the issues faced by social workers, red tape. office politics and abuse of power and manipulation especially as Kit is a newbie and does get herself involved more than some of the other workers seem to. Really interesting to read despite not being huge parts of the story I thought it was interesting none the less and how shady and not very nice some of these characters are. It is a bit of a slower start than book one but the last quarter really kicks up a notch and you find yourself not wanting to put it down to see where it goes 4/5.

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The Woman On The Bridge by Holly Seddon Blog Tour

The Woman on the Bridge by Holly Seddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 3 days

Pages - 320

Publisher - Orion

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

A stranger in need - would you invite them into your home? The electrifying new thriller from Holly Seddon.

On the worst night of her life, in the middle of nowhere, lonely Charlotte Wilderwood saves a runaway bride from falling to her death.

Soon Maggie is staying in Charlotte's home, safely hidden from the man that she was so desperate to escape. The immediate bond between the two women eclipses anything they've ever known and before long they will go to extreme lengths to protect each other.

But is Maggie the best friend Charlotte has always dreamed about, or the nightmare she never saw coming...


My Review

Charlotte is heading home FURIOUS after an encounter with her friend and co worker when she clocks a woman in her wedding dress close to her own demise. When Charlotte talks her down and takes her home they strike up a friendship that will have consequences neither could have forsaw.

My reading mojo has been out the window, grieving, stress, loss and just a whole heap of emotive heartache has really mucked up my reading mojo. Concentration is out the window and something we all love reading for is we can escape our own lives/trauma to jump into someone elses. Seddon has weaved a world of chaos and drama that helped me escape my own and start sparking back the missing mojo!

A fast finding friendship, each woman lonely and needing what the other has to offer, an ear, a solution, friendship and trust. Sure don't they say the road to evil is paved with good intentions? Well with the ladies helping each other what could go wrong, the answer, just about everything. We follow Charlotte and Maggie (the damsel in distress) from one chaos to another, even hearing what brings them to their current predicaments, particularly Maggie, I gasped! Talk about bad luck and evil men, ooft. Then you think ok so all this has happened what can possibly happen next? The book gives and gives and I think the reader would be hard pushed to guess ahead the path any of the story line is taking. Well that was the case for me, I didn't know where we were headed next but for the first time in ages didn't want to put the book down and see what these two were about to get into next!

Some utterly shocking characters, skulduggery, shameful, shady, bad, I would even go as far as to say evil or certainly rotten (to their core) in some cases. A page turner that will keep you guessing to what is coming next, hoping this is my mojo back or at least going in the right direction. 4.5/5 for me this time, I have at least one more of Seddon on my tbrm I need to bump up and will see what I am missing from the back catalogue!

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Listen to Me by Tess Gerritsen blog tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for Listen to Me by author Tess Gerritsen, this is a Random Things Tour.

The book is available to buy now, click HERE to purchase from Amazon UK.

About the author

Bestselling author TESS GERRITSEN is also a physician, and she brings to her novels her first-hand knowledge of emergency and autopsy rooms. Her thrillers starring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles inspired the hit TV series Rizzoli & Isles. But Tess’s interests span far more than medicine and crime. As an anthropology student at Stanford University, she catalogued centuries-old human remains, and she continues to travel the world, driven by her fascination with ancient cultures and bizarre natural phenomena.

For my Stop I have my review, non spoiler as always.

Listen To Me by Tess Gerritsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read -

Pages - 336

Publisher - Bantam Press

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

Mothers know best . . . But who will listen?

Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are plagued by what seems like a completely senseless murder. Sofia Suarez, a widow and nurse who was universally liked by all her neighbors, lies bludgeoned to death in her own home. But anything can happen behind closed doors, and Sofia seemed to have plenty of secrets in her last days, making covert phone calls to old contacts and traceless burner phones. When Jane finally makes a connection between Sofia and the victim of a hit-and-run months earlier, the case only grows more blurry. What exactly was Sofia involved in? One thing is clear: The killer will do anything it takes to keep their secret safe.

Meanwhile, Angela Rizzoli hasn’t had a decent night’s sleep in all the years since her daughter became a homicide detective. Maybe the apple didn’t fall too far from the tree. Nothing in her neighborhood gets by Angela - not the gossip about a runaway teenager down the block and definitely not the strange neighbors who have just moved in across the street. Angela’s sure there’s no such thing as coincidence in her sleepy suburb. If only Jane would listen; instead she writes off Angela’s concerns as the result of an overactive imagination. But Angela’s convinced there’s a real wolf in her vicinity, and her cries might now fall on deaf ears.

With so much happening on the Sofia case, Jane and Maura already struggle to see the forest for the trees, but will they lose sight of something sinister happening much closer to home?



My Review

It has been a while since I have read a Rizzoli and Isles, huge fan so jumped at the opportunity to read this one. I don't think I have read all of them but read most, been a while so I have small gaps. In this one jane & Frost are investigating the murder of a nurse, just home from work and killed. Maura is doing her bit, examining the body & keeping busy with something she hasn't told Jane about. Hello Jane's mum, I don't remember huge amounts about her before but she certainly steals the show a bit in this one. Curtain twitching or rather a bit more obvious than that she is clocking the new neighbours, something is up and she is going to get to the bottom of it.

Jane & Maura are fab duo, they are so very different in so many aspects and with this one we get another glimpse of that. Their friendship has been tried and tested and this time they are just working the case. We meet a few new characters central and around the story. The chapters bounce between them, named in some chapters for ease to follow for the readers.

Intrigue a plenty, the murder, we have Amy - young accident survivor, protective parents which is no wonder and a mysterious individual ?following Amy or just coincidence they are in the same place. Angela was the show stopper for me, she is a total card, larger than life, feisty, into everything and like a dog with a bone when she feels she is onto something. You can see where Jane gets it from.

The book has plenty to keep the reader hooked, sub plots and stories, characters a plenty but not so much you get distracted. I hope it isn't too long until the next, shocks, surprises and a very good lesson of Listen To Me because you never know just how important something someone tells you is, 4/5 for me this time!

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I Did It - The Goldman Family

If I Did It: Confessions of the Killer by O.J. Simpson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over 1 week

Pages - 254

Publisher -

Source - Bought

My Review

The only thing I remember about this case was a high speed chase of OJ Simpson with the police being on the news, I didn't give it much more thought, I was young & true crime/news wasn't really on my radar. Of course you learn of the murder of his ex wife and ?her partner or male friend - how it was overwhelming that he was guilty but he got found not guilty. I only knew him from the Naked Gun movies.

I seen someone talking bout this book on a book club and decided to check it out. Simpson apparently wrote a book, If I Did It where he wrote how he would have done that murders IF he did it. The Goldman family sued him and won X amount of money, amount increasing each year he didn't pay then they heard about the book he was writing The Goldmans moved to action.

The start of the book we hear from his, Ron Goldman, family about what they experienced and why they intercepted his book which after they read felt it was a confession. About a quarter in we then read his own words "If I Did It" however this book I have is called I DID IT, the family made it very clear how they feel and after reading his words it is interesting to hear what others think.

In Simpsons words he goes over his life, relationship before he met Nicole Brown, how they met, their life and time together and what lead up to that night and the immediate before and after. Whilst he doesn't document him doing XYZ injuries there is absolutely no doubt of what has happened.

The Goldman family got a lot of grief apparently for taking this on and doing this book, please read their words as it is very understandable why they did what they did. It is a shame they had hate and threats after losing their son in such a horrific way, 4/5 for me.

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What I Hid From You by Heleen Kist Blog Tour

Today is my stop on the blog tour for "What I Hid From You" by author Heleen Kist. For my stop I have my review, non spoiler as always AND if you are in the UK you can win x1 ecopy of the book. Head to our Twitter, Follow us and RT the pinned tweet CLICK HERE to be taken straight to the tweet to be entered, good luck.

This is a LOVEBOOKSTOURS blog tour organised by Kelly.

Blurb for the book

A DEATH
AN ACCIDENT
A STUPID MISTAKE

Traumatised by the death of a patient in her chair, Glaswegian dentist Radha Bakshi succumbs to an addiction to Valium she can’t acknowledge – even to herself.
The pills take the edge off trying to be a consummate professional, a perfect daughter, a devoted wife and a not-too-embarrassing mother to her teenage son.
When increased scrutiny of her work forces her to find a new source of supply, she stumbles into the menacing clutches of blackmailing drug dealers.
A mistake that could cost her everything.
Author Bio

Heleen Kist is a Dutch, formerly globetrotting career woman who fell in love with a Scotsman and his country, and now writes about its (sometimes scary) people from her garden office in Glasgow. What I Hid From You is her third novel.

She was chosen as an up-and-coming new author at the international crime festival Bloody Scotland 2018. Her debut, ‘In Servitude’ won the silver medal for Best European Fiction at the Independent Publishers Book Awards in the USA and was shortlisted for The Selfies awarded at London Book Fair. Her feminist thriller ‘Stay Mad, Sweetheart’ was a finalist in the Next Generation Indie Book Awards and won third place in the inaugural Book Bloggers’ Novel of the Year award 2020

Buy links Waterstones & Book Depository

What I Hid From You by Heleen Kist
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - as able over a few days

Pages - 366

Publisher -

Source - ARC

Blurb from Goodreads

A DEATH - AN ACCIDENT - A STUPID MISTAKE

Traumatised by the death of a patient, and crippled with anxiety, Glaswegian dentist Radha Bakshi succumbs to an addiction to Valium she can’t acknowledge, even to herself.

In truth, she relies on the pills to juggle being the consummate professional, perfect daughter, devoted wife and a not-too-embarrassing mother to her teenage son.

When increased scrutiny of her work forces her to find a new source of supply, she stumbles into the clutches of blackmailing drug dealers.

A mistake that could cost her everything.


My review

If you are any kind of medical professional, at the start, the letter from the GDC, ooft heart in my mouth. This was like a page or two in, we know very little of the character at this point but again if you know these type of professional bodies your heart skips a beat. Radha Bakshi had a massive shock when a patient dies. Trying to cope with that, the pending investigation and her normal life pressures.

I have bought Kist books before but this is my actual first one I read. Radha is such a good cautionary tale, but for the grace of god go I, here we have a business woman, family business passed over and one instant changed everything. How easy addiction can take hold, how quickly things can escalate, down the rabbit hole and everything that follows!

Tense, shocking, a cautionary tale and whilst this is a work of fiction many people can absolutely relate to how easy it can be to fall into. We also have small chapters with Radha's father and between the two get the feeling of just how important they and family are.

The book takes a few dark turns and from the beginning the reader is hooked into how this respectable professional, wife, mother, pillar of the community can fall into addiction and make so many bad decisions. We see very human emotion and behaviours in this one and I just wanted to see where we were going next. A few times going No No No Radha don't, girl what are you thinking! 4/5 for me this time and hopefully not be too long before I get to the others!

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Countdown to a Killing by Tom Vaughan MacAulay Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for Countdown To A Killing by author Tom Vaughan MacAulay.

As you can see it is a big tour and we all offer different content, please check the other stops out. For my stop I have my non spoiler review, enjoy.

About the author

Tom Vaughan MacAulay is a solicitor and lives and works in London. His first novel, Being Simon Haines, was published in 2017 to high critical acclaim. The novel was selected as a Best Book for Summer by Alex Wade, writing in The Times, Law, while Justin Warshaw, writing in The Times Literary Supplement, described it as “a grand narrative of a young man on the cusp of the realisation of a dream.” Edward Fennell, writing in The Times, the Brief premium, asked whether it would become “the defining no vel for [Tom’s] generation about what it means to be a driven corporate lawyer.

Buy link from Amazon

For my stop I have my review, non spoiler as always.

Countdown To A Killing by Tom Vaughan MacAulay
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - in and out over 4 days

Pages -

Publisher - Red Door Press

Source - review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

London, Sicily, Huddersfield 2016–2017: Wen Li is a deeply kind and sensitive twenty-nine-old British-Chinese woman who suffers from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which manifests itself in an incessant, overwhelming fear that she might have murderous impulses. Unlucky in love and emotionally scarred, Wen falls for colleague, Lomax Clipper, a tremendously frustrated and delusional Englishman. He’s in love with a Sicilian young woman he met while working in Italy, but he and Wen do share a mutual loathing of their boss, Julian Ponsonby. Julian’s struggling too – with a toxic relationship and his father’s refusal to accept his sexuality. On his return to Sicily, via a sabbatical, Lomax befriends Fifi de Angelis, a vulnerable Sicilian man with restricted growth who has been ostracised by his family.

An original concept, this is an innovative novel in literary fiction told through interwoven correspondence, emails and WhatsApp messages, with the suspense around an impending murder steadily building, Countdown to a Killing is a deep exploration of multiple perspectives and points of view of individuals who are inextricably bound. The key themes of love, sexuality, ethnicity, mental health and acceptance are sensitively explored in a unique linear year multi-layered and metafictional narrative. Packed with humour, heartache and a cast of expertly-crafted characters, this contemporary take on the epistolary novel will have you laughing and crying in equal measure.



My review

So this is a bit of a different book, written in excerpts type format, in the form of WhatsApp, messages, email/letter type correspondence - one sided dependent on which character we are following. Wen Li for example is one of the characters who uses WhatsApp to correspond with a friend and family, despite being one-sided through her replies/follow ups we get the conversation content just fine. She starts a new job whilst getting to grips with her mental health and meeting/introducing the other characters into the story.

My concentration levels are pretty bad just now, caring 24/7 for a loved one so demands and stress levels are high. I think whilst the format is quite different and may take some readers time to settle, if you are distracted and struggling to either get stuck into a book or have time to read this one offers relief from that. Some entries are short and snappy and we go between the characters who are linked to one another via work then relationships established.

Lomax is a writer, desperate to finish and publish his first book, he is a bit of a riot, ideas of grandeur and very sure of himself and his book/writing. Wen Li meets him at her new job and finds herself attracted to him but things are never quite straight forward, Lomax is very self involved and all consumed with his book. Julian is their box, clashes with Lomax and has a very volatile relationship with his partner who has addictions and his father who has issues with Julian's sexuality.

The book has a plethora of themes/issues, sexuality, mental health, identity, social acceptance, disabilities, delusions, friendship, betrayals and that is just scratching the surface. Multiple view points and narration but also different formats which you think would be distracting but as I said despite finding it difficult to concentrate lately this book gave me the opportunity and freedom to dip in and out as life allowed. It did take me a little time to settle and get a feel for the characters but once I did I was set.

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The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 164

Publisher - HarperTorch

Source - Bought (ebook) Amazon

Blurb from Goodreads

In a quiet house on a quiet street Frank and Julia are having an affair. Not your ordinary affair. For Frank it began with his own insatiable sexual appetite, a mysterious lacquered box- and then an unhinged voyage through a netherworld of imaginable pleasures and unimaginable horror… Now Frank - or what is left of Frank - waits in an empty room. All he wants is to live as he was before. All Julia can do is bring him her unfulfilled passions… and a little flesh and blood…


My Review

I feel like this is my first Barker book but I have absolutely seen the movie. My concentration has been all over the place & I needed a book in between. I seen the movie years ago but remember it quite vividly because it was pretty graphic and I was pretty young.

The book is very close to the movie, I always thought Kirsty was the daughter but reading this I wasn't so sure as it was a bit dodgy although Frank is an absolute creep.

If you haven't seen the movie prepared to be horrified as some of the scenes are absolutely boggin, if you have seen the movie you know of which I speak and sometimes, on paper it is actually worse, more graphic.

For a small read it has a lot of detail and gets going pretty quickly, some very shady characters, the cenobytes are creepy/horrifying and coming! 3.5/5 for me, I hadn't realised there was so many movies so I need to catch up on them too!

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