Book Review: The Book Of Life (The All Souls Trilogy #3) by Deborah Harkness

“To every question I have ever had, or ever will have, you are the answer.”

Published in 2014 and the third book in Deborah Harkness‘s All Souls Trilogy, The Book Of Life sees historian and witch Diana Bishop and vampire scientist Matthew Clairmont return to the present to face new crises and old enemies. At Matthew’s ancestral home at Sept-Tours, they reunite with their family and friends.

But the real threat to their future has yet to be revealed, and when it is, the search for Ashmole 782 and its missing pages takes on even more urgency as the couple will at last learn what the witches discovered so many centuries ago.

Book Review: Bamburgh (DCI Ryan Mysteries #19) by LJ Ross

Published in 2022 and the 19th book in L.J. Ross‘ DCI Ryan Mysteries series, Bamburgh sees the death of a cantankerous old woman who dies at her home in the sleepy, picturesque village of Bamburgh. At first, DCI Ryan doesn’t think much of it — except, that is, for the small matter of it having been his wife who found her body. Then another body turns up amongst the sand dunes at the base of the mighty castle fortress, and he decides it can’t be a coincidence.

Meanwhile, after a recent revelation about her sister, DC Melanie Yates’ quest to avenge her death is becoming an obsession, much to the concern of those around her. With a new DCS to contend with and hundreds of cold case files to sift through, the chances of uncovering a dormant killer seem unlikely. But as Melanie delves deeper into the secrets of the past to uncover the truth, she soon realises it lies much closer to home…

Book Review: All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle

“That’s the funny thing about life. Extraordinary things can happen to ordinary people like you and me, but only if we open ourselves up enough to let them.”

Published in 2020, All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle follows widower Hubert Bird who is not alone in being alone. He just needs to realise it. In weekly phone calls to his daughter in Australia, Hubert paints a picture of the perfect retirement, packed with fun, friendship and fulfilment. But Hubert is lying.

The truth is day after day drags by without him seeing a single soul. Until, that is, he receives some news, news that will force him back out into a world he has long since turned his back on. His daughter is coming to visit. Now, Hubert faces a seemingly impossible task: to make his real life resemble his fake life before the truth comes out.

Book Review: Unseen (Will Trent #7) by Karin Slaughter

“If only Lena hadn’t found it. If only she could take a razor and slice the images out of her brain. They haunted her. They flickered into her vision like an old movie every time she blinked. They filled her with a constant, unrelenting sorrow.”

The seventh instalment in Karin Slaughter‘s Will Trent series of detective thrillers, 2013’s Unseen sees Special Agent Will Trent return with a secret, something he doesn’t want the woman he loves, Dr Sara Linton, to find out. He’s gone undercover in Macon, Georgia, and has put his life at risk to solve a case involving someone close to Sara – her stepson, Jared, who has been gunned down in his own home. Sara holds Lena, Jared’s wife and also a detective, responsible, so Will knows that she will never forgive him if she finds out the truth. As Will tries to solve his case, Sara is forced to confront her past and, without even knowing it, they become involved in the same crime. Soon, both of their lives are in danger.

April 2023 Wrap Up

I feel like April was 50% holiday with all the term breaks, strikes and bank holidays! Which is probably why I managed to read so much (sneaking in a few extra audiobooks!).

In April, I read 25 books. Here are my monthly stats:

Book Review: Fly Away (Firefly Lane #2) by Kristin Hannah

“Sometimes one person can hold you up in life, keep you standing, and without that hand to hold, you can find yourself free-falling no matter how strong you used to be, no matter how hard you try to remain steady.”

Published in 2013 and the follow-up to Firefly Lane, Fly Away by Kristin Hannah follows Tully Hart who has always been larger than life, a woman fueled by big dreams and driven by memories of a painful past. She thinks she can overcome anything until her best friend, Kate Ryan, dies. Tully tries to fulfil her deathbed promise to Kate – to be there for Kate’s children – but Tully knows nothing about family or taking care of people.

Sixteen-year-old Marah Ryan is devastated by her mother’s death. Her father, Johnny, strives to hold the family together, but even with his best efforts, Marah becomes unreachable in her grief. Nothing and no one seems to matter to her. Then a single, tragic choice and a middle-of-the-night phone call will bring everyone together again, setting them on a poignant, powerful journey of redemption. Each has lost her way, and they will need each one another to transform their lives.

Book Review: The Island by Victoria Hislop

“Like any collection of family photographs, it was a random selection that told only fragments of a story. The real tale would be revealed by the pictures that were missing or never even taken at all, not the ones that had been so carefully framed or packed away neatly in an envelope.”

Published in 2005, The Island by Victoria Hislop follows Alexis Fielding who, on the brink of a life-changing decision, longs to find out about her mother’s past. But Sofia has never spoken of it. All she admits to is growing up in a small Cretan village before moving to London. When Alexis decides to visit Crete, however, Sofia gives her daughter a letter to take to an old friend, and promises that through her she will learn more.

Arriving in Plaka, Alexis is astonished to see that it lies a stone’s throw from the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga – Greece’s former leper colony. Then she finds Fotini, and at last hears the story that Sofia has buried all her life: the tale of her great-grandmother Eleni and her daughters and a family rent by tragedy, war and passion. She discovers how intimately she is connected with the island, and how secrecy holds them all in its powerful grip…

Book Review: The House Of Fortune (The Miniaturist #2) by Jessie Burton

“You cannot have two stories. You can end with only one.”

The follow-up to The Miniaturist and published in 2022, The House Of Fortune by Jessie Burton follows Thea Brandt who, about to turn eighteen, and is ready to welcome adulthood with open arms. At the theatre, Walter, the love of her life, awaits her, but at home in the house on the Herengracht, winter has set in – her father Otto and Aunt Nella argue endlessly, and the Brandt family are selling their furniture in order to eat. On Thea’s birthday, also the day that her mother Marin died, the secrets from the past begin to overwhelm the present.

Nella is desperate to save the family and maintain appearances, to find Thea a husband who will guarantee her future, and when they receive an invitation to Amsterdam’s most exclusive ball, she is overjoyed – perhaps this will set their fortunes straight. And indeed, the ball does set things spinning: new figures enter their life, promising new futures. But their fates are still unclear, and when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she wonders if the miniaturist has returned for her . . .

Book Review: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

“We are all living, at most, half of a life, she thought. There was the life you lived, which consisted of the choices you made. And then, there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn’t chosen.”

Published in 2022, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin follows Sam Masur in his junior year at Harvard, who exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn’t heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom.

These friends, intimates since childhood, create their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.

Book Review: The Lying Game by Ruth Ware

“IT ISN’T A GAME WHEN SOMEBODY DIES”

Published in 2017, The Lying Game by Ruth Ware follows Isa who receives a text message in the small hours of the morning: I need you.

Isa drops everything, takes her baby daughter and heads straight to Salten. She spent the most significant days of her life at boarding school on the marshes there, days which still cast their shadow over her.

Isa and her three best friends used to play the Lying Game, competing to convince people of outrageous stories. Now, after seventeen years of hiding the truth, something terrible has been found on the beach. The friends’ darkest secret is about to come to light…

Audiobook Review: Good Samaritans (Detective Sergeant Pace #1) by Will Carver

“One crossed wire
Three dead bodies
Six bottles of bleach”

Published in 2018 and the first book in the Detective Sergeant Pace series, Good Samaritans by Will Carver follows Seth Beauman who can’t sleep. He stays up late, calling strangers from his phonebook, hoping to make a connection, while his wife, Maeve, sleeps upstairs. A crossed wire finds a suicidal Hadley Serf on the phone to Seth, thinking she is talking to The Samaritans.

But a seemingly harmless, late-night hobby turns into something more for Seth and for Hadley, and soon their late-night talks are turning into day-time meet-ups. And then this dysfunctional love story turns into something altogether darker when Seth brings Hadley home…

Book Review: The Fall by Louise Jensen

“She promised she wouldn’t tell. They made sure she couldn’t…”

Released today, The Fall by Louise Jensen follows Kate Granger who, at her surprise 40th birthday party, feels like the luckiest woman in the world. But just hours later, her fifteen-year-old daughter, Caily, is found unconscious underneath a bridge when she should have been at school.

Now, Caily lies comatose in her hospital bed, and the police don’t believe it was an accident. As the investigation progresses, it soon becomes clear that not everyone in the family was where they claimed to be at the time of her fall. Caily should be safe in hospital but not everyone wants her to wake up. Someone is desperate to protect the truth and it isn’t just Caily’s life that is in danger. Because some secrets are worth killing for…

Book Review: The Grace Year by Kim Liggett

“No one speaks of the grace year.”

Published in 2019, The Grace Year by Kim Liggett follows Tierney James who lives in an isolated village where girls are banished at sixteen to the northern forest to brave the wilderness – and each other – for a year. They must rid themselves of their dangerous magic before returning purified and ready to marry – if they’re lucky.

It is forbidden to speak of the grace year, but even so every girl knows that the coming year will change them – if they survive it…

Book Review: Murder Before Evensong (Canon Clement #1) by Richard Coles

Published in 2022 and the first book in the Canon Clement series, Murder Before Evensong by Richard Coles follows Canon Daniel Clement, Rector of Champton, who lives at the Rectory alongside his widowed mother – opinionated, fearless, ever-so-slightly annoying Audrey – and his two dachshunds, Cosmo and Hilda.

When Daniel announces a plan to install a lavatory in church, the parish is suddenly (and unexpectedly) divided: as lines are drawn, long-buried secrets come dangerously close to destroying the apparent calm of the village. And then Anthony Bowness is found dead at the back of the church, stabbed in the neck with a pair of secateurs.

As the police move in and the bodies start piling up, Daniel is the only one who can try and keep his fractured community together… and catch a killer.

Book Review: In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead

“Six friends.
One college reunion.
One unsolved murder.”

Published in 2021, In My Dreams I Hold A Knife by Ashley Winstead follows Jessica Miller who, ten years after graduation, has planned her triumphant return to southern, elite Duquette University. Everyone is going to see the girl she wants them to see — confident, beautiful, indifferent – not the girl she was when she left campus, back when Heather’s murder fractured everything, including the tight bond linking the six friends she’d been closest to since freshman year.

Ten years ago, everything fell apart, including the dreams she worked for her whole life — and her relationship with the one person she wasn’t supposed to love. But not everyone is ready to move on. Not everyone left Duquette ten years ago, and not everyone can let Heather’s murder go unsolved.

Book Review: The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

“It’s time to solve the murder of the century…”

Published in 2022, The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett follows Steven Smith who, forty years ago, found a copy of a famous children’s book, its margins full of strange markings and annotations. He took it to his remedial English teacher, Miss Isles, who became convinced it was the key to solving a puzzle, that a message in secret code ran through all Edith Twyford’s novels. Then Miss Isles disappeared on a class field trip, and Steven’s memory won’t allow him to remember what happened.

Now, out of prison, Steven decides to investigate the mystery that has haunted him for decades. Was Miss Isles murdered? Was she deluded? Or was she right about the code?

Book Review: Busted (Will Trent #6.5) by Karin Slaughter

Book 6.5 in Karin Slaughter‘s Will Trent series, Busted follows FBI Special Agent Will Trent who finds himself in trouble on his way to Macon for an undercover assignment when he unwittingly becomes involved in a violent robbery at a gas station.

Multi-million copy, international bestselling thriller writer Karin Slaughter is known for putting the reader right at the heart of the crime. Busted is a compelling story that will grip you from the start.

Book Review: Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward

Set to be published on 20th April, Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward is set in a windswept cottage overlooking the sea, where Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of his childhood companions and the killer that stalked their small New England town. Of the body they found, the horror of that discovery echoed down the decades. And of Sky, Wilder’s one-time friend, who stole his unfinished memoir and turned it into a lurid bestselling novel, Looking Glass Sound.

This book will be Wilder’s revenge on Sky, a man who betrayed his trust and died without ever telling him why. But as he writes, Wilder begins to find notes written in Sky’s signature green ink and events in his manuscript start to chime eerily with the present. Is Sky haunting him? Did Wilder have more to do with Sky’s death than he admits? And who is the woman drowning in the cove, whom no one else can see?

Audiobook Review: The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose

“Would you defend your husband if he was accused of killing his mistress?”

Published in 2020, The Perfect Marriage by Jeneva Rose follows successful and powerful defence attorney Sarah Morgan who, at 33 years old, is a named partner at her firm and life is going exactly how she planned.

The same cannot be said for her husband, Adam. He is a struggling writer who has had little success in his career. He begins to tire of his and Sarah’s relationship as she is constantly working.

Out in the secluded woods, at Adam and Sarah’s second home, Adam engages in a passionate affair with Kelly Summers. But the next morning, everything changes. Adam is arrested for Kelly’s murder. She had been found stabbed to death in Adam and Sarah’s second home.

Sarah soon finds herself playing the defender for her own husband, a man accused of murdering his mistress. But is Adam guilty or is he innocent?

Audiobook Review: I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll

“Every Wednesday, like clockwork, the terror returns.”

Published in 2019, I Will Make You Pay by Teresa Driscoll is set on what seems like an ordinary Wednesday, until the phone rings. A mysterious caller with a chilling threat. Journalist Alice Henderson hangs up, ready to dismiss it as a hoax against the newspaper. But the next Wednesday, the stalker makes another move—and it becomes clear that this is all about Alice.

Someone wants her to suffer, but for what? Her articles have made her a popular local champion—could it be her past rather than her work that’s put her life in danger? Alice is determined not to give in to fear, but with the police investigation at a dead end, her boyfriend insists on hiring private investigator Matthew Hill.

With every passing Wednesday, the warnings escalate, until it’s not only Alice but also her family in the stalker’s sights. As her tormentor closes in, can Alice uncover what she’s being punished for before the terrifying threats become an unthinkable reality?