Two young women desperate to escape their mothers find their lives intertwined with a strange mansion in Timmins, Ontario that harbours dark secrets. This gripping horror / psychological thriller is told through two compelling narrators and has multiple layers of mystery that keep you guessing until the very end.
I’m currently ploughing through Sherry Thomas’ Lady Sherlock series. It’s a revelation. Beautifully written, clever as all hell and presents a richly drawn 19th century England full of people from all over the British empire.
Olivia and Aiden rescue a group of stranded refugees from a remote planet, only for their new passengers to start dying in suspicious circumstances. Gripping murder-mystery, space opera based on Othello.
Detective Elouise ‘Lou’ Norton works the homicide beat in South LA. Sometimes investigations pull her down into The Jungle, a neighbourhood once named for the surrounding vegetation, but now known for the drugs and gangs that give it a wild air. Other times her work daws her into the affluent neighbourhoods nestled in the surrounding hills. It is in these hills that she’s called to investigate a house fire.
Leena has been looking forward to marrying the father of her child since he proposed on bended knee during a vacation in Myrtle Beach. Now the big day has arrived, Leena looks beautiful in her wedding dress, the church is packed with her loved ones, and happily-ever-after is barely a few “I dos” away. Except Leena’s fiancé never makes it to the church. It turns out he’s fallen in love with another woman. A beautiful, poised, accomplished woman called Adira. And instead of running away, shamefaced, Leena’s cheating fiancé moves Adira into town and quickly marries her. It’s a combustible situation, especially in a small, Southern town where people make a point of knowing (and sharing) their neighbours’ business. Leena, hurt and humiliated, cannot let the betrayal go. But when she goes looking for dirt on Adira she uncovers secrets better left hidden and soon understands that it doesn’t pay to anger the new Mrs Collins. Quanie Miller’s Southern Paranormal novel is a fantastically fun read. The narrative tugs you into the close-knit town of …
Frankie Sullivan is one of the most ruthless Geezers in London’s deadly underworld. When the women he employs to traffic diamonds refuse an order he arranges their murder and shifts his nefarious attentions to their daughters. In a world where money talks and even arrows are crooked, fifteen-year-old Jade Flynn and three other girls are dumped in the St. Nicholas care home for children and forced to participate in Frankie’s illegal ‘special community projects.’ It takes a tragedy to lend them the courage to run. For 10 years they stay hidden. But now The Geezer has found them and he is royally pissed. Still, he might let them live if they do one last job… The Good The drama launches like a bullet from a gun and rockets along for all 435 pages. Jade and her fellow musketeers spend most of those pages battling for their lives and I admit I had to put the book down a number of times while I mustered the strength to endure their latest disaster. There is a real …
It’s not easy to write a story in multiple voices and keep each one compelling and distinctive. Dorothy Koomson deserves plaudits for pulling off that feat alone. We meet Libby first. A post-graduate beauty therapist who could do more with her life but is happy as she is thank you very much. At least she’s happy until she meets Jack, trips over his stunning good looks, falls for his charms and moves into his lavish Brighton home. For about two seconds everything is perfect. The tone in Libby’s opening is lyrical and quixotic. Fanciful with a whisper of something dark, like a shadow beneath the surface of a calm lake. You keep reading trying to pinpoint what has you uneasy. You’re not sure but Jack has too many secrets and once Libby begins to prod at them, to ask questions about his deceased first wife, you begin to wish she’d just pack her bags and get the hell out of there. And then you meet Eve, the dead wife. Turns out she kept a diary. …
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