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Fair Warning By Michael Connoelly Book Review

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Michael Connoelly, Fair Warning

There is a reason Stephen King calls Michael Connelly ‘a master of the genre.’ Pacy and perfect, Fair Warning is another superb thriller that you will not be able to put down. The book resonates with our present truth. Jack McEvoy is a journalist who is accused of murder and he uses his own skills to uncover the truth. Michael Connelly was a police reporter for the Los Angeles Times and as he says himself he puts ‘the truth in my novels  and research then like a reporter in a story.’ You can tell 

Fair Warning is a must read for any lover of crime novels, and even for those who are not. Superb. 

Jack McEvoy is a reporter with a track record in finding killers. But he’s never been accused of being one himself.

Jack went on one date with Tina Portrero. The next thing he knows, the police are at his house telling Jack he’s a suspect in her murder.

Maybe it’s because he doesn’t like being accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Or maybe it’s because the method of her murder is so chilling that he can’t get it out of his head.

But as he uses his journalistic skills to open doors closed to the police, Jack walks a thin line between suspect and detective – between investigation and obsession – on the trail of a killer who knows his victims better than they know themselves…

Riveting, original and terrifying – this masterpiece from Michael Connelly is the best thriller you will read this summer.

Fair Warning By Michael Connoelly is available here.

The Operator by Gretchen Berg | Book Review

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The Operator, Gretchen Berg, book, book review, I read The Operator in awe. The relationship between the characters, the complexities of relationships, the jaw-dropping setting, this book is just perfect. Set in the 1950s in Wooster, Ohio, it follows switchboard operator Vivian Dalton who eavesdrops on the residents of the town. This comes back to bite her when she hears some gossip about her own life. 

This pieces of gossip sends Vivian on a path of discovery and the consequences come thick and fast. I loved so much about this book: the setting is done so well. Gretchen really knows her stuff. She writes so well from different people’s perspectives. This book is full of depth and luscious descriptions. It keeps you guessing. When you pick it up it is impossible to put it back down. 

It’s 1952. The switchboard operators in Wooster, Ohio, love nothing more than to eavesdrop on their neighbours’ conversations, and gossip about what they learn. Vivian Dalton is no different (despite her teenage daughter’s disapproval), and always longs to hear something scandalous. But on the night of December 15th, she wishes she hadn’t. The secret that’s shared by a stranger on the line threatens to rip the rug of Vivian’s life from under her.

Vivian may be mortified, but she’s not going to take this lying down. She wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be. But one secret tends to lead to another . . .

This moving, heart-felt and ultimately uplifting novel brilliantly weaves together an irresistible portrayal of a town buzzing with scandal, and an unforgettable story of marriage, motherhood and the unbreakable ties of family.

The Operator is available here.

 

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club By Josie Lloyd

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The Cancer Ladies running club, Josie Lloyd, cancer, running,

I was tremendously excited about reviewing this book because it is written by Josie Lloyd. I have read a number of books from Josie and I love them all and – although we have never met- I love her. After feeling sad that she has had such a tough time I dived into the book.

The first thing I saw when I opened my advanced copy were some reviews and I loved the one from Joanne Rose, divisional marketing directing: ‘This isn’t a (whisper it) “cancer book”. This is a book for book lovers, everywhere.’ Oh how right she was indeed. The book is uplifting, happy, sad and raw. The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club lets us know that even when bad things happen and times are tough, we can rebuild ourselves and triumph over adversity.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is a great book to read right now. Yes, it has its sadness, but now more than ever we need to know that beauty can come from sadness, and that we will win in the end.

Sometimes we need our friends to help us find our feet…

When Keira first receives her breast cancer diagnosis, she never expects to end up joining a running group with three women she’s only just met. Totally blind-sided, all she can think about is how she doesn’t want to tell her family or step back from work. Nor does she want to be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.

And yet it’s running – hot, sweaty, lycra-clad running in the company of brilliant, funny women all going through treatment – that unexpectedly gives Keira the hope she so urgently needs.

For Keira will not be defined by the C-word. And now, with the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim everything: her family, her identity, her life.

One step at a time.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is available here.

 

Stay Up with Hugo Best Book Review

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staying up with Hugo Best, Erin Somers, book review, book reviews

Some books are entertainment and some are a hard read. Stay Up with Hugo Best is a bit of both. It can be an uncomfortable,  read, but it is an important one. I feel like this is a real book which picks up on so much nuance. It is a rich tapestry of the complexities of the gender war.The relationship between men and women is complex, and the relationship between powerful men and younger women is complex and ripe for abuse.

Metoo has created a new world but it is not necessarily a better one. Abuse and inappropriate behaviour still happens. People make bad choices all of the time.Sometimes the people making the bad choices are woman. 

Stay Up with Hugo Best is a brave book and Erin Somers has taken her own path in writing it. It is a brilliant exploration of the entertainment industry and the powerful men within it. This book will resonate with many. A great read. 

The novel is an exploration of the power and influence in the entertainment industry in the #MeToo age and a meditation on desire, both realized and unrealized. Through these themes Somers has created in Stay Up with Hugo Best a wonderfully witty, wise and deliciously melancholy narrative.

Stay Up with Hugo Best charts the long weekend a late night talk show host and a young staffer spend together after the show’s cancellation. The weekend is tense, and uncomfortable and the characters so magnificently honest, as the two sardonic souls find themselves connecting.

When Somers finished a creative writing program in her late 20s, she did not know how to proceed. She was uselessly spinning her wheels. This seemed to her something a lot of her peers were going through too—the structures by which one builds a life seemed to have crumbled. ‘I thought this was an interesting time of life to explore, and an interesting predicament: how to succeed as a young woman in a creative field still dominated unfortunately by men. What compromises would I be willing to make if given the opportunity.’ From these initial reflections came her inspiration to write Stay Up with Hugo Best.

Stay Up With Hugo Best is available here.

 

The Folio Society’s Top 10 Books for Social Distancing

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As the UK continues in this unprecedented period of social distancing, more and more people are looking for productive ways to spend their time at home. On the top of many people’s lists, no doubt, is reading new books that they may not have gotten around to. Reading has many benefits and has been proven to help reduce stress and boost wellbeing.

 

To help book-loving Brits find their next read, Tom Walker, Publishing Director at The Folio Society, who, for over 70 years, has been publishing beautifully illustrated editions of the world’s greatest fiction books as well as thoroughly picture-researched non-fiction books, has pulled together his top 10 picks of books to read whilst in self-isolation.

 

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Being stuck at home and only allowed out to go to the shops seems a good time to read about feminism, and this is arguably the first feminist novel. Wildly surprising in its modern sensibility, Brontë rages against a society that held women shackled to men and the home.

 

The Little Prince

I can’t help thinking of how the Little prince would respond to our world right now. An enigmatic, compassionate but sad creature of the stars, I sometimes imagine the weight of his judgement on us all for the job we’re doing of keeping our little planet safe.

 

The World Turned Upside Down

The English Civil War of the 1640s shook the nation to its core, and in the process out scattered a legion of radical ideas and philosophies which have formed the national identity ever since. One wonders how our current upheaval will reshape us.

 

Dr Zhivago

What better time to re-engage with this great Russian epic? The recent translation by Boris Pasternak’s nephew returns the lyricism and colour to this beautiful novel of love, war and the Russian soul.

 

Moby-Dick

What an opportunity, if you never have, to read this bulking leviathan of a novel. From the first pages in Nantucket, where Ishmael befriends trusty Queequeg, Melville loops his crazed tale of ambition and revenge, culminating in scenes of terror on the high seas.

 

His Dark Materials

Pullman might be the purest storyteller of our times, and His Dark Materials is his masterpiece: a truly addictive adventure story which leads us into other worlds.
Handmaid’s Tale

Turning to Margaret Atwood in times of trouble is always a good decision. Prophetic or not she is wise and compassionate, and laces those qualities with a killer wit.

 

Maigret

If all else fails, pick up a Maigret. With plots as light as a feather and a stripped-down style, Simenon’s thrillers are beautifully evocative of the underground tensions of a mid-century Paris.

 

Persuasion

It’s always a good time to re-read Austen, to get lost in that luscious prose and arch wit. Persuasion is her last-completed, and perhaps her most mature novel, and a joy to revisit.

 

I am Legend

In the current circumstances this is not a book for the faint-hearted: Matheson’s vision of a post pandemic future doesn’t contain many people, and even fewer who are not zombie-vampires, but there is a glimmer of hope at its end…

 

Mirror & The Light

My eleventh choice is not yet available as a Folio Society edition, but I do hope that it will be one day. This is my current quarantine reading. A nine-hundred-page masterwork of astonishing delicacy and intelligence which draws one back through the eyes of Cromwell to a Tudor London infested with plague and political instability.

 

 

The Dilemma By B. A. Paris Book Review

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B. A. Paris

The Dilemma is a book that stays with you. The characters are so rich and the premise of the novel is so breathtaking. I would label The Dilemma is a psychological thriller albeit one in the domestic setting of family. After all, is that not where the most complex things are? I dare you to put this novel down. I raced through it, my heart in my mouth. It is beautiful, sad and vivid. Perfect.

It’s Livia’s 40th birthday and she’s having the party of a lifetime to make up for the wedding she never had. Everyone she loves will be there except her daughter Marnie, who’s studying abroad. But although Livia loves Marnie, she’s secretly glad she won’t be at the party. She needs to tell Adam something about their daughter but she’s waiting until the party is over so they can have this last happy time together.

Adam wants everything to be perfect for Livia so he’s secretly arranged for Marnie to come home and surprise her on her birthday. During the day, he hears some terrible news. He needs to tell Livia, because how can the party go on? But she’s so happy, so excited – and the guests are about to arrive.

The Dilemma – how far would you go to give someone you love a last few hours of happiness?

One day that will change a family forever, The Dilemma is the breath-taking, heart-breaking new novel from the million-copy-selling, Sunday Times bestseller, B A Paris

The Dilemma is available here.

Need Some Uplit? Books To Bring Joy

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I think it is fair to say we could all do with some cheering up at the moment. So here are some books to bring some joy. THE PATH TO THE SEA by Liz Fenwick (5th March) – A beautifully evocative tale of the secrets held by the Cornish coast for three sisters, full of mystery and feel-good romance, by ‘Queen of the contemporary Cornish novel’ Liz Fenwick.

FAMILY FOR BEGINNERS by Sarah Morgan (2nd April)- A compelling, escapist family drama about Flora and her attempt at fitting in with Jack’s family whilst living in the shadow of his perfect immortalised wife, from international bestseller and Sunday Times bestselling author, Sarah Morgan.

WHAT HAPPENS NOW by Sophia Money-Coutts (16th April) – the saucy laugh-out-loud poolside read by mistress of the romp-com Sophia Money-Coutts, about swiping right, weeing on a stick, and dating the aristocracy, not necessarily in that order.

WE JUST CLICKED by Anna Bell (16th April in eBook and Audio) – A fabulously funny, feel-good novel that will make you laugh until you cry, for anyone who’s ever presented a perfectly-filtered life online to hide the unglamorous reality, perfect for fans of Sophia Kinsella and Laura Jane Williams.

THE SUMMER VILLA by Melissa Hill (14th May) – An enthralling feel-good romance set in a rambling stone villa on the Amalfi Coast – a story of friendships rekindled and of secrets buried in the past re-surfacing under the Italian sun, by international best-selling author Melissa Hill.

THE EXTRAORDINARY HOPE OF DAWN BRIGHTSIDE by Jessica Ryn (28th May) – Based on debut novelist Jessica Ryn’s experience as a homelessness resettlement worker, The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside is a quirky, hopeful commercial piece of fiction with book club appeal, focusing on Dawn Elisabeth Brightside and her fight for saving St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless, her own personal light in the darkness.

Book of The Week: The Variety Girls By Tracy Baines

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The Variety Girls , Tracy Baines

Our Book of The Week is this stunning novel from Tracy Baines. You can read our review here. Get your copy now.

This heart warming saga is set on the brink of the 2nd World War, and circumstances have dictated that Jessie Delaney, her mum, Grace, and young brother Eddie, up sticks and move in with Jessie’s aunt and uncle. To call these relatives the sober-sides, the  ‘sucked a lemon’ brigade is to understate the case. Life is toxic, and miserable, but our Jessie is aspirational, she determines to escape onto the stage in her father’s footsteps.

Can she pull it off, especially as it means leaving her mum and brother, and what about Harry the boyfriend?

If she does leave, how can she rescue her mother and brother? Will she be the successful singer she craves to be? Will she still see Harry? Where will she live? Will she make friends?

So many questions, and to find the answers, and enter this razzmatazz world, you will have to read this well-researched song and dance of a novel in great gulps as I did, all the while so wanting Jessie to pull it off, just as the author most certainly has: an evocative, busy, entertaining read, which has well balanced touches of humour, vying with angst, and of course, more than a dollop of tension. Bravo, bravo.

But be warned, you’ll end up buying sparkly knickers, and dancing to the big band sound around the kitchen – oh yes you will.

The Variety Girls by Tracy Baines. pb, ebook and audio. Available from Amazon.co.uk WH Smith, and ASDA