Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan #BookReview

Lydia Smith lives a quiet life, spent in the company of her colleagues and customers at the bookstore where she works. But when Joey Molina, a young and mysterious regular, hangs himself in the bookstore and leaves Lydia secret messages hidden in the pages of his books, her world starts to unravel.

Why did Joey do it?

What did he know?

And what does it have to do with Lydia?

Well how could I not go for this novel? Fiction about books and bookstores is like dangling a carrot in front of a rabbit so I readily gave into the temptation of buying this novel when I saw it was on sale at my local bookstore (which is sadly now closed for good), especially when I read the back flap. Thrown in the mix is a past murder mystery and a recent mystifying suicide, and the promise of hidden messages that need to be solved. This sounds like a perfect recipe to me!

Lydia is a bookseller at the Bright Ideas Bookstore. She keeps her past very much to herself, nobody knows that she was a final girl when she was only 10 years old, the only survivor of a mass murder.  She feels a special affection for Joey, one of the store’s misfits – they are often non-customers but she enjoys their presence – so it is shocking that she finds him dead on the first floor. What is also shocking is the photo she finds poking out of his pocket, of her and two of her friends when she was a teenager, before the terrible events that happened to her. How did he get this photo? What were those terrible events? Why did he commit suicide?

Much to her surprise she is handed his meager possessions, mostly books, and while she’s looking through them she notices something off about them. It seems Joey used his books to leave her message and she is eager find out what he meant to tell her, if she can find out how to decipher the clues.

I enjoyed the way the author managed to hide messages in the books and while I could only imagine how it would work I could read the message the way she found it in the books, so I still had part of the fun.

Of course there’s also the photo, the link to her past. I enjoyed the gradual reveal of Lydia’s memories and finding out more about that fatal day until finally the horrific scene is played out. It still didn’t explain the current events though. It took until the last part of the novel to discover how Joey’s tied into this and I have to say that I’m impressed with the twists and turns, which ultimately gave him the reason to take his own life.

The only remarks I could make about this story is that I didn’t understand why she wasn’t talking to her father, if it was to create mystery and suspicion towards him at the start it didn’t have the intended effect on me. Her relationship with David also didn’t hold any value to me and I don’t know why he was added, she could have been single just as well. Was it only to demonstrate how hard she found it to trust someone? It certainly felt hollow to me and David never became an interesting character. Other than those minor notes I think this is a very enjoyable debut novel. It starts off as a bit quirky but it develops into a far darker and complex story then I expected so I was pleasantly surprised it was so engrossing. I wouldn’t mind at all reading another novel by this author.

I bought a paperback of this novel. This is my honest opinion.

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We Know You Know (previously Stone Mothers) by Erin Kelly #BookReview

‘I heard the swish of falling paper. I grazed my knuckles retrieving a beige folder, its grubby white ribbon loose. Looping doctor’s handwriting. Addresses. Dates. Names. Photographs! I had found the patients whose notes would bring the past back to life.’

A lifetime ago, a patient escaped Nazareth mental asylum. They covered their tracks carefully. Or so they thought.

Thirty years ago, Marianne Smy committed a crime then fled from her home to leave the past behind. Or so she thought.

Now, Marianne has been forced to return. Nazareth asylum has been converted to luxury flats, but its terrible hold on her is still strong. A successful academic, a loving mother and a loyal wife, she fears her secret being revealed and her world shattering.

She is right to be scared.

It’s a good year in psychological thriller-land! Believe it or not but this is my first read by Erin Kelly. I do have a Kindle ecopy of He Said She Said but I (still) haven’t read that one yet, probably because of all the hype surrounding it at the time. After reading We Know You Know however I am pretty confident that I will enjoy it very much indeed.

I had no idea that this novel was published before under the title Stone Mothers (it actually refers to this early on in the novel, explaining that the Victorians had such faith in their architecture that they actually thought the design of the building could nurse sick patients back to health) so be aware of that. I don’t really have a preference either way, but I do wonder why they decided to change such a unique book title for something more generic. Maybe it sounded too cold and negative?

Anyway, We Know You Know was a very enjoyable read and a well-written novel that kept the mystery very much in the air. It all starts with Marianne who is not at all pleased when she sees the country getaway her husband bought as a surprise so she could be closer to her sister and her mother who’s suffering dementia. There was a reason for her visceral reaction which is slowly revealed in the part of the story told from the perspective of Helen Greenlaw.

Up until the start of her narrative all I knew was that Marianne and Jesse and MP Helen Greenlaw have a history, that Helen’s the enemy and that they share a secret among the three of them. Unfortunately their bond is compromised and their secret is threatening to come out. I was so ready to hate Helen but the funny thing is, I never did. I was completely on board and felt for her. It’s impossible not to with everything she had to fight for and against. There’s a whole part of the novel about Helen’s history and it sucked me even deeper into the story, showing a different angle in the end of the unfolding events that has bound the three of them for decades. I had an idea what bound them together but even if I had this inkling I really enjoyed how the story gave so much background and was set up leading to it. The last part was told by Marianne’s daughter Honor, which was a surprise on its own since she’s more of a side character, but it gave the story an ending I hadn’t seen coming.

We Know You Know is a solid page turner that I enjoyed reading and had a few interesting and strong female characters.

I bought a paperback copy of this novel online (when it was only 2£ on ‘the ‘zon’). This is my honest opinion.

The Other Guest by Heidi Perks #BookReview

Laila and her husband arrive for a week’s holiday in Greece in desperate need of a reset.

As Laila sits by the pool she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the other family staying in their resort.

Em has no idea who Laila is, or that she has been watching her and her teenage sons and husband so intently.

Five days later their worlds will be blown apart by a horrifying event.

Laila thinks she knows the truth of what happened. But in telling Em what she’s seen, she stands to lose everything she holds dear.

And what if she’s got it wrong?

I was very excited (maybe a bit too excited) to read The Other Guest so it’s a bit surprising that I found this an okay read, nothing wrong with it really, but there just wasn’t enough in it to get me really excited about it. I did enjoy the holiday setting in a lush 5* resort on a Greek island and Leila’s people watching. It felt oddly relatable although I don’t think – I hope not – I’m that much into it as Leila.

Aside from being absorbed by the dynamics of a family of 4 (mum, dad and two teenage boys) and a couple of newly-weds who don’t seem to act very much in love, Leila also has her own relationship struggles, a relationship that feels strained from the start. It didn’t help of course that James decided to spend their money on this getaway while they need money for another round of IVF. Leila’s desire to get pregnant is something that weighs on them and defines this couple in the story.

One morning she finds out there’s been a tragic accident. When the police start to question everyone she asks herself if she should come forward with some information she gathered. But then they’d probably ask her how she knows this and that could be a problem… Bottomline is that everyone who needs to speak up is keeping their lips sealed. It was quite frustrating at times. On top of that Leila’s husband is acting a bit weird too, he seems to want to check out and get away as fast as possible. I felt there were a few dodgy persons in this limited cast of characters but there was nothing that I could effectively use to make any progress in eliminating them. The author clearly tried to steer me in one direction and I did have a lot of questions but even so if it’s too obvious I’m having none of it so I kind of rejected the suggestion on that basis.

All in all the story stayed a bit too long on the same level for me to be fully gripped and challenged. The last part of the novel was therefore also the most enjoyable part. I actually loved the reveal of another twist more than finding out the whodunit. A big part of the novel is building up to the reveal of course and it just fell a little flat when I found out the truth.

Overall nothing bad can be said about this one, it had all the ingredients that I love but it just didn’t come into its own. I hope I wasn’t too severe, I didn’t mean to be, but I believe her other novels are stronger. This author is capable of writing very twisty and unexpected scenes so I hope to discover all of that and more in her next novel.

I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

The Trophy Child by Paula Daly #BookReview

A doting mother or a pushy parent?

Karen Bloom expects perfection. Her son, Ewan, has been something of a disappointment and she won’t be making the same mistake again with her beloved, talented child, Bronte.

Bronte’s every waking hour will be spent at music lessons and dance classes, doing extra schoolwork and whatever it takes to excel.

But as Karen pushes Bronte to the brink, the rest of the family crumbles. Karen’s husband, Noel, is losing himself in work, and his teenage daughter from his first marriage, Verity, is becoming ever more volatile. The family is dangerously near breaking point.

Karen would know when to stop . . . wouldn’t she?

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This was my first Paula Daly novel and it won’t be my last. The Trophy Child is a domestic mystery novel about the blended family of Karen Bloom, her husband Noel and their three children. I was surprised when the first chapter of the novel introduced Verity – Noel’s daughter – as the first of the family, taking a drug test at school. She was a model student and daughter but then they found drugs on her and she attacked Karen! I wanted to know all there was to know about the how and why of it all but the author had a few other puzzling events in store first.

Anyway since the attack ‘poor’ Karen put her focus solely on her youngest, her daughter Bronte. The girl has a million and one after school activities and she has to be the best at all of them. Then one day the family’s perfectly organized world shatters and there’s a detective knocking at their door investigating a missing child and an unrelated crime that also involved the family soon after. At first I was expecting only family drama but this was way better than I hoped for!

Karen was also SUCH a character, I loooved to hate her and she was the perfect villain of the novel. I didn’t feel sorry for her one bit. There were other characters who didn’t really like her either but maybe they kept it better hidden than me, well at least one of them did and I wanted to know who. There are a few suspects but I was completely dumbfounded at the end when the different puzzle pieces came together. Not as fast-paced in the beginning as I’m used to perhaps but if you want unpredictable you have it here in spades.

The Trophy Child is a cleverly written novel with fabulous twists and turns. For the life of me I couldn’t figure this one out so for that alone it deserves to be recommended highly.

I bought a second hand copy of this novel. This review is my honest opinion.

The It Girl by Ruth Ware #BookReview

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford.

Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Now, a decade later, Hannah and Will are expecting their first child, and the man convicted of killing April, former Oxford porter John Neville, has died in prison. Relieved to have finally put the past behind her, Hannah’s world is rocked when a young journalist comes knocking and presents new evidence that Neville may have been innocent. As Hannah reconnects with old friends and delves deeper into the mystery of April’s death, she realizes that the friends she thought she knew all have something to hide…including a murder.

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This was my fourth Ruth Ware novel (I have already reviewed The Lying Game, One by One and The Turn of the Key) and The It Girl is a wonderful addition, one that made me think and rethink about Neville’s involvement and other possible suspects.

I remember being slightly disappointed in one of her novels because the killer was too obvious for me but I promise you that The It girl kept me guessing and guessing some more. I thought I was a super sleuth but this novel certainly knocked me around.

The It Girl was a wonderful mystery to read. It provides an airtight case against Neville, one of the porters at Oxford University. Not only was he a seriously creepy guy, Hannah also saw him coming down the stairs and found April murdered minutes later. He always cried out his innocence though till the day he died in prison and it’s only when Hannah receives a tidbit of new information about April from a reporter that she wonders what was going on with April at the time. Did she know her at all? Why didn’t she tell Hannah, her roommate and best friend? She wants to get to the bottom of it so she visits her old college friends and it helps her to put the pieces together. Oh did I tell you that Will was April’s boyfriend and is now a soon-to-be father of Hannah’s child? I don’t know why I thought that would worth mentioning but I certainly found this an interesting turn of events.

Without divulging too much I can only say that I had a suspect and when this suspect was crossed out I found myself another one and it turned out in the end that I was wrong again. I love it when an author can wrongfoot me and she did so good! She put in several red herrings and the tension ramps up in the final chapters. I think I knew a little sooner than Hannah that she was in some kind of trouble but other than that I was as surprised as she was. There are lots of people who could have a reason to kill her but the real reason and finding out the background story preceding her murder was also an eye-opener for me.

The It Girl is the sort of novel that you just have to know who did it! It kept me turning pages at high speed. If you love playing detective and you enjoy books with multiple suspects then this is definitely worth putting on your readlist!

I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publisher Simon & Schuster via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill by C.S. Robertson #BookReview

Death is not the end. For Grace McGill, it’s only the beginning.

When people die alone and undiscovered, it’s her job to clean up what’s left behind – whether it’s clutter, bodily remains or dark secrets.

When an old man lies undetected in his flat for months, it seems an unremarkable life and an unnoticed death. But Grace knows that everyone has a story and that all deaths mean something more.

I’m sure everyone’s heard at least one story about someone who was found dead in their home for quite some time, months even. Their absence was not remarked upon by family, friends, not even their neighbours. How sad is that? Well the last person that takes note of them is the woman who cleans up after they are gone, it’s Grace Mc Gill, death cleaner.

Grace has a 10-step plan each time she needs to carry out a deep clean and it’s very thorough. Grace takes the reader (once or twice) through what happens after bodies start to decompose and how she needs to clean their final resting place. It’s a unique approach, it fascinated me and Grace is quite unique (and fascinating) as well. A little quirky right from the beginning maybe, because she lives alone with her cat George, thus leading a similar life to the people she cleans up after, and because she makes dioramas of the rooms the people who died were found in, right till the smallest detail. She is also at the beck and call of her father who’s an ugly drunk most of the time. They don’t seem to be able to stand each other so it was a real mystery to me why she didn’t just ignore his calls. There’s a lot more to be discovered about Grace and her family history but that would be spoiling things too soon.

At one house she finds newspapers of the same day but for different years and Grace packs them up with a few other mementos of the deceased to give to his next of kin, only to start wondering about the significance of the date of the papers once home. She also finds the strangest little thing next to his pillow, a little dried daisy. It won’t be the only time she’ll find this little flower either, but what does it mean and who left it there?

I found the investigation about Thomas Agnew’s past and the secret he took with him to his grave a little slow going in the first half of the novel, nobody wants to talk, everybody’s angry at her for asking questions and Grace walks around in the footsteps of another person without much result at first (I know I’m impatient!) but the significance of the daisy sure made up for it. This side of the story was so cleverly put together and I had not seen this coming at all.

Grace cares about the lonely people, the ones lying in their homes all alone, their absence unnoticed. Grace is a remarkable character, determined to solve a 56 year old secret that leads her to Bute and to age-old conspiracies. She’s a person I won’t easily forget, especially with the ending the author had in store for her, it was utterly fitting even though I felt a bit sadness about it as well.

The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill might be a little bit of a macabre read, but don’t let that put you off because it’s worth it! If you don’t mind your reads more on the darker side then make sure to put this one on the list, it’s so unique!

I received a free ecopy of this novel from the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion.

The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer by Joël Dicker #BookReview

In the summer of 1994, the quiet seaside town of Orphea reels from the discovery of three murders.

Confounding their superiors, two young police officers, Jesse Rosenberg and Derek Scott crack the case and identify the killer, earning themselves handsome promotions and the lasting respect of their colleagues.

But twenty years later, just as he is on the point of taking early retirement, Rosenberg is approached by Stephanie Mailer, a journalist who believes he made a mistake back in 1994 and that the real murderer is still at liberty, perhaps ready to strike again. Before she can give any more details however, Stephanie Mailer mysteriously disappears without trace, and Rosenberg and Scott are forced to confront the awful possibility that her suspicions might have been accurate.

What happened to Stephanie Mailer?

What did she know?

And what really happened in Orphea all those years ago?

First of all I just want to say how great the cover is of the proof copy I received (courtesy of MacLehose Press and distributed at the Capital Crime festival 2019). I swear it’s even more gorgeous than the published novel and people even asked me if I was reading true crime (if you want to see it head over to my IG page).

Now The Disappearance of Stephanie Mailer is a massive novel of 635 pages. This usually scares me so I’m not in a habit of picking a book this size but since I received a free copy and it’s really difficult (well, virtually impossible) not to see it standing in your library, I decided to gather my courage and just dive in. Before you continue I might want to say that even though I’m trying hard not to, there may or may not be spoilers ahead, so continue at your own risk :-).

In the first few pages we find ourselves witness to the first opening night of the Orphea Theater Festival of 1994 and while most people are at this event, four people will not live to see another day as they are brutally murdered. After these dreadful events we jump to 2014 where Stephanie Mailer talks to Detective Jesse Rosenberg and she tells him that he didn’t in fact solve that case in 1994, he made a mistake. Before she can talk to him again, she disappears… but the last words she spoke to him were quite memorable:

She raised her hand and placed it at the level of my eyes.
“What do you see captain?”
“Your hand”
“I was showing you my fingers.”
“But I see your hand”, I said, not understanding.
“That’s the problem right there” she said. “You saw what you wanted to see, not what you were being shown. That’s what you missed twenty years ago.”

This little statement played on my mind and I just think I’m really good at this thing or the author really underestimates his readers because 420 pages later the detective came to the same findings as I had after page 16 and the novel can finally take off.

The two cases and timelines are obviously connected, solve one and you’ll solve the other but there’s a lot to untangle and the author makes the detectives really run around. In the end I felt the denouement of the plot was clever, I never could have foreseen how things fit together and there was much more at play than I had expected but the execution was a bit slow and winding. The plot was speckled with red herrings and twists but I knew where to focus my attention to, it only wasn’t getting me anywhere and it frustrated me at the beginning that they weren’t looking where they should.

Apart from that, the other problem I encountered was that the author hammered the term ‘The Darkest Night’ into my reader’s brain so much, it started to annoy me, especially since it wasn’t clear what it meant, apart from the fact that it became some urban legend referring to THAT night in 1994. Yes, The Darkest Night is also the name of a play but after all these pages I STILL DON’T KNOW what the play is about, even when they practice the first scene of the play over and over again. The director of the play – a former police officer – is also an utterly weird guy and it didn’t feel very believable considering his previous profession. Bottomline is that the play is a big part of the story and in the end it marvelously brings all the side characters, the famous theater critic, the CEO with his mistress, the father with his daughter, back to Orphea and I was surprised when the who, how and why of the 1994 killings was revealed. Unsurprising, the final 150 pages or so were the best part of the story for me and I couldn’t put it away then, needing to know the answers and feeling I was getting closer and closer to the truth. A truth that is a real shocker after all! 

I received a free copy of this novel from the publisher for review. This is my honest opinion.