Review of 'The Hunting Party' by Lucy Foley

Crime thrillers are one of my go-to comfort books. They always have a clear beginning, middle and end (as long as they're written well), and almost all of the time everything is wrapped up neatly at the end. They're always a great way for me to get back into reading if I'm ever having a bit of a slump. I read this book back in December (I promise, I *really* am trying to catch up on reviews), and it was a perfect Wintery read for cold evenings. 

The Hunting Party is a thriller set in the Scottish Highlands around the New Year. A group of old school friends are meeting up to see in midnight together, but everything goes very wrong. The book is written in two timelines: 'now', which is once someone has been murdered, and 'then', which is the days leading up to it.

Told from the perspectives of the different friends, as the book progresses you don't know who has been killed, or who did it. There's the moody ex-con groundskeeper, the sleep-deprived new parents, the rich city boy, the couple that are oh-so in love, and all the other members of the group that suspicion lies upon.

This was one of the best thrillers I read last year. I had no idea who had even been killed until getting an inkling a few pages before, let alone who had done it. This dual mystery is one that I can't remember reading in another book, or at least can't remember it having been done this well. The book was incredibly atmospheric - it really felt like I was up in the freezing cold highlands away from civilisation and I would recommend reading it in winter. I was totally gripped and loved finding out more about each character from the viewpoints of other characters in the book. It felt almost like a modern day book version of Cluedo!

I gave this five stars and would recommend this for fans of Shari Lapena's books.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram

Review of 'The Girl in the Ice' by Robert Bryndza

As hard as I try to stray into more high brow fiction, or push myself out of my comfort zone I always come back over and over again to thrillers. They're quick reads, easy to get through and something that really help to motivate me to read when I'm in a little bit of a rut because I just NEED to know what happens.

Erika Foster is *pinches* this close to being kicked off the force due to her trauma around her partner's death and the way it has affected her work (nice, huh?). Solving the murder of the rich socialite girl who was pushed into a lake in Erika's area could be the key to getting everything back on track. However, when Erika discovers links between the victim and other attacks on prostitutes nearby everything turns nasty. The victim's rich, powerful family are determined to use their influence to keep the media posting positive things about their daughter and to avoid scrutiny against them that they feel ought to be placed elsewhere. 

As Erika gets closer to discovering the killer, the killer is getting closer to making her one of his next victims. 

This was a really intense once you got a good chunk of the way into the book as it had a bit of a slow start. However, once the pace picked up I did really enjoy it. My main gripe was that although I didn't guess exactly who the killer was, it wasn't a hard reach. I would have much rather the story linked up more with her past as the book hinted at throughout. There was a bit of the standard 'female detective underestimated and gaslit by her male colleagues gets more determined than ever to sort out her case' trope running the whole way through, but to be honest it's not my least favourite crime thriller trope to read.

If you enjoyed watching The Capture last year then I think you'd really enjoy this book! I gave this 4 stars.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram

Review of 'Th1rt3en' by Steve Cavanagh

I'm always a 'you have to read a series in order' kind of person ... unless it's crime fiction. Then I don't think it matters at all because they all have kind of a similar plot and the lives of the investigators fall into a secondary plot behind the main 'whodunnit' one. 

Th1rt3en was my favourite thriller of 2019. It's told from two perspectives. The first is Eddie Flynn's: a con-man turned lawyer trying to prove his client's innocence. The second is the killer who really has committed the crime the trial is based around. The problem is that he's on the jury. The trial is a high profile one: Hollywood's biggest couple are at the centre of it, with the husband accused of brutally murdering his wife. It's down to Flynn to convince the public that the conspiracy theories they've created and want to hold onto might not be true.

The book really keeps you guessing as to which juror the murderer is, how exactly he got there and whether Flynn will realise that his case is being sabotaged from the inside out. It delves into Flynn's own history of alcoholism, crime and personal struggles with certain people in the justice system. The plot came together so well at the end and I found myself totally absorbed the whole way through the book. The twists were well-written, well-paced and believable. I now can't wait to read Steve Cavanagh's other books!

I've given this book 5 stars and would recommend it if you're a fan of shows like The Mentalist or White Collar. 

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'Someone we Know' by Shari Lapena*

*This was a gifted book to discuss on Instagram (no obligation to write a full review)

Clearly I had a bit of a thriller rampage last summer (which is absolutely where I'm up to on catching up with book reviews *clenches teeth*). Shari Lapena's fast becoming one of my favourite thriller authors, and I've been eyeing up reading her other books for a couple of months now. She seems to be really great at making you think you're clever and that you know who the culprit is, and then switching things up and making you realise that you weren't as clever as you thought. BUT, the culprit is still really believable and the signs were there throughout the book. I love it, and have been totally duped by her on both of her books I've read.

This book is set in suburban New York where Olivia Cole has just found out that her teenage son has been breaking into people's homes and hacking into their computers. Unfortunately for their family, he's broken into the home of a woman who's gone missing, and as the police become more and more convinced she's no longer alive, the family begin to worry about their son's fingerprints all over the house. The reader enters the lives of a whole group of neighbours from their quiet street, including the husband of the missing woman, as we become more embroiled in this story of revenge and betrayal and secrets.

This wasn't my favourite book of Lapena's, but I did really enjoy it. I loved the fact that none of the characters were wholly good, and you could suspect everyone. It had a very Pretty Little Liars gossip-y small town feel, and worked really well in showing how all of the neighbours' lives intertwined. I'd recommend this for fans of fast-paced thrillers who want a quick read as it's slightly on the short side (just under 300pgs).

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'Keep You Close' by Karen Cleveland*

*This book was gifted to me to discuss on Instagram*

I'm a big crime thriller fan, and this book was one of my favourite ones I read last year. It reminded me a LOT of TV shows like Homeland, and was a really fast-paced, FBI-laced drama.

Keep You Close's Steph Maddox is an internal investigations officer at the FBI, tackling those inside the bureau who are accused of wrongdoing. Her whole world gets titled on its axis when a colleague warns her that the bureau are looking into her son on some alleged terrorist charges. She knows her son wouldn't be involved in an online terror group, or at least thinks she does until she finds a gun in his room. The book follows her own attempts to find who could be framing her son whilst trying to wrap her head around the fact that there's a chance it *might* be him.

I loved almost all of this book, and would gave given it 5 stars right up until the ending. It's one of those stories where the writer tries to make the culprit someone you would never guess, and in doing so ruins the entire plot (I'm looking at you Pretty Little Liars). The book was left very open ended: most of the strands of the plot weren't tied up and the resolution was left as a sort of suggestion that could be undermined. It was pretty clear that there's a sequel in the works and a lot of the answers are being left for that, but having read it without the sequel available it was a bit disappointing.

If you are a fan of US crime dramas/thrillers or shows like Homeland I would really recommend this still as it keeps you guessing throughout and the writing and pacing is genuinely very good. It's just the open ending that let it down a bit IMO.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'Brighton Rock' by Graham Greene

I never thought I'd be saying I enjoyed a Graham Greene book. After being forced to read a truly bleak passage from one of his books during my a-level English studies I was convinced I'd never read anything from this dreary author again if I could help it.

And then I gave him another go, and it turns out I must have had to read a really rubbish part of his writing because I was hooked from the very first line of Brighton Rock. As it turns out, I'm a fan and I now want to read all his other works.

The book takes place in Brighton, but imagine less of the fun vibe, and more of a rainy murderous one. Charles 'Fred' Hale is a journalist come to Brighton to hand out newspaper cards as part of a competition. Having previously written an article that resulted in the leader of a local mob's death however, Hale begins to realise he's unsafe. 

On the other side of the tracks we have Pinkie, the new teenage leader of the gang. Desperate to prove that he's not just a kid, and to keep the mob in control, he becomes ever more dangerous as the book progresses.

And completing our circle of three, we have Ida Arnold, who met Fred on the day he was killed, and who's the only one determined to track down his killer, or even to find out what happened to him at all. 

This murder thriller had me gripped and felt like the ultimate Bugsy Malone style mob fiction. Greene managed to make the whole book so cleverly vivid that I feel like I can still imagine some of the scenes and the characters, without it having been too wordy. Set in the 1930s, I found this really hard to place time-wise as I was reading, as it almost seem to exist outside of time.

There were a couple of bits where the narrative slowed down a little too much for me, and I could never really connect with Hale, so I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'The Rumour' by Lesley Kara

I've not read a good thriller in a LONG time, or at least I hadn't before this. I find thrillers either make me all 'oh my GOSH I'll never turn a light off again' or 'wow this person has some very creepy ideas, goes into a LOT of graphic detail and there's not really much plot'. This one (thankfully) fell into the former category. Even though I read this a few months ago now, the writing was so vivid that I can STILL remember specific scenes from the book.

Joanna, our main character, lives in a little town by the sea, a single parent to her son. Still on good terms with his dad (and let's face it, still a little in love with him, though they've never really been a couple), she has a fab support network with her mum helping out too.

Life is peaceful, if not a little boring, until Joanna hears that notorious child killer Sally McGowen is living under a new identity in their home town. Desperate to make some friends at her kid's school (and for him to stop being bullied because of the colour of his skin), Joanna spreads the rumour to a book club. Soon things escalate, and it's all everyone's talking about. 

Joanna begins to suspect almost everyone she knows, and when strange things start happening at school, she finds herself more convinced than ever that Sally's among them. Michael (her baby daddy, for want of a better word), is an investigative journalist, and her son begins to be targeted by someone trying to scare them into stopping looking into things. The whole family are swept up in something they never asked to be a part of, and if Sally killed a child once, what's to stop her doing it again?

I LOVED this book, but if you're going to read it I would recommend ignoring the endorsement quotes on it. There are so many things they spoilered for me in the book by saying things like 'keeps you guessing until the final page' which showed there was a twist on the last page. Just WHY.

It contains a couple of graphic violence scenes, so here's a little trigger warning for that.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube 

Review of 'The Couple Next Door' by Shari Lapena

We're moving away from classics for the moment and on to one of the very few thrillers I read in 2018. I went through a big crime thriller phase a couple of years ago, but I feel as though that's ebbed off a little into the realm of an occasional thriller that never leads me to a full blown obsession. Perhaps 2019 will hold more, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway.

Anne and Marco head to their neighbour's house for dinner one evening. With their babysitter cancelling at the last moment, they have no choice but to leave their six month old daughter back in her crib next door, as their neighbours have made it very clear that it's an 'adults only' affair. The parents head back alternatively every half an hour to make sure Cora's still safely sleeping, and keep a baby monitor on them. But, when they head home just after midnight (with a pretty upset Anne due to the flirting between Marco and the woman next door), they notice the front door is ajar, and all of their worst nightmares come true: their baby is gone.

As the police bring in the cadavar dogs, no one is exempt from suspicion, and no one knows whether Cora is safe or not. With wealthy parents behind Anne, the couple put up a £3 million reward for the safe return of their daughter. The issue is, that either the baby-snatcher was a very lucky opportunist, or he's someone close to the couple who knew their whereabouts. Were the grandparents looking for an opportunity to finally show Anne that lower class Marco isn't to be trusted? Were the neighbours so angry about the new (loud) baby next door that they'd do something unforgiveable? Could Anne and Marco fake their grief and snatch her themselves?

I can 100% understand why this book was as hyped up as it is. I loved every minute of it. The whole premise reminded me a little of the Maddie McCann story, and it was interesting to see how everyone really does come under suspicion, and how invasive the media are.

The book had me suspecting all of the main characters at some point, and a lot of them more than once! The twists in it were epic, but so believable, and I came out of it trusting no one and utterly shocked. I've heard mixed reviews of The Stranger in the House, Lapena's second novel, but even if it's half as good it'll be worth reading!

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'The Chalk Pit' by Elly Griffiths

And we're here: the last book review of 2018. What a year it's been eh? I've challenged myself to read more than ever and I have absolutely LOVED it. I'll be doing a big post of my Goodreads roundup (the good, the bad and the ugly) over on my main blog www.nourishmeblog.co.uk, but I've now read 58 books in the year(!), and I've got a whole lot of reviews coming your way asap.

After finding boiled bones in an underground cave in Norwich, Dr Ruth Galloway is called in to investigate. Discovering that they might not be as ancient as originally thought, the local police are on the case, which may not be anywhere near as simple as you'd hope. Local homeless people are going missing, and after one turns up murdered on the door of the police station, the force must take action. 

With rumours that homeless people are going 'underground', both Ruth and DI Harry Nelson start to formulate their own theories on what's going on. But will they reach the right conclusion before yet another person is hurt?

In all honesty, this wasn't a great read for me. Maybe it's because I'm not a massive crime thriller fan, but I found that the whole book dragged a lot. I found myself having to force myself to pick the book up to read and it was really a challenge to finish the whole thing. I also struggled to keep up with the characters, and who was who, which I don't find myself doing very often, and I definitely felt it could be a lot clearer. 

All in all I couldn't recommend this, and I'm not sure if I'll try another read from the same author, although I've heard good things from other book bloggers! 

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of '13 Minutes' by Sarah Pinborough

I warned you all that these reviews would be coming in fast (mostly because I've actually counted up how behind I am and wow I have two days to not be). This book was kindly given to me by my friend Aimee over at Aimee Raindrop Writes because she knew how much I wanted to get my hands on it!

I've not read masses of YA fiction this year (something that'll be firmly on the agenda for 2019), and this was one I thoroughly enjoyed. Sarah Pinborough's an author that I'm firmly interested in getting to read more of, and I'll be trying to pick up a few of her adult thrillers too.

Everything in Becca's world is going swimmingly. That is, until her ex-best-friend Natasha is pulled from a river, having been dead for 13 minutes. No one knows how Natasha ended up there, especially as she's the most popular girl in the school. But, open waking in her hospital bed, she asks for Becca. Soon Becca's embroiled in a search for the truth of how Natasha ended up in the river, and there are some twists no one was expecting.

I read a book around this time last year with a fairly similar storyline, and I was so gutted as it meant that I guessed a few of the important twists and turns in the book. BUT, there were some things I really didn't see coming, and it was a thriller I couldn't put down. 

I'd recommend this if you're a fan of YA thriller fiction, as it is a great read that I loved getting through.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'Fierce' by Gin Phillips*

It's rare that I sit and read a book in one sitting. If I don't like a book, it's hard to force myself to read it all, and if I like it, I want to treasure the story and make it last a little longer. Fierce is a book that's designed to be read in one go, as the story takes you through an intense tale of one afternoon. I gave this a good go, but after reading two-thirds of the way through I put it down for the day because it just wasn't gripping enough for me to get through the whole thing (and if I'm honest, I can't really think of a book that would be, so there's no shade being thrown here).

Fierce tells the story of Joan's and her four year old son Lincoln's disastrous trip to the zoo one Sunday afternoon. It's their favourite place to spend time together, until they hear shots fired. Two gunmen are making their way around the zoo and Joan has no idea where's safe. She calls her husband, and keeps in touch with him over the phone, but as it starts to get darker she fears that the phone light will attract the armed men, and abandons it in some bushes. 

Joan will do anything to protect her son, even if it means making questionable choices to leave others behind. But as Lincoln gets more tired and upset and loud, Joan realises that they need to do something drastic, because they can only hide for so long ...

This was quite a gripping read in some places, but I just felt as though it was missing that big twist that shocks you and changes the force of the novel. There were quite a few parts where I felt the narrative dragged, and there wasn't enough action to rectify it. It was definitely readable, and I'm glad to have pushed myself out of my comfort zone by trying to read it in one sitting, but I'm not sure if it's something I'd recommend.

*This book was gifted to me, but as always my words and opinions are my own*

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'The Honeymoon' by Tina Seksis

It's been a LONG ol' time since I picked up a good thriller to read, but after being recommended this by my good friend Aimee (check out her blog here), I couldn't resist. 

The Honeymoon kick starts in the Maldives, where Jemma and her husband are honeymooning. That is, until he goes missing five days in. Unable to remember much from the night he disappeared after drinking one too many cocktails, Jemma has a whole host of dark thoughts swirling around. She knows they weren't getting along, but she couldn't have done something to him ... could she?

The holiday narrative is interrupted with chapters from the past, showing us how Jemma and her hubby got to a stage where they're in the Maldives honeymooning, but everything is a bit tense. 

I really enjoyed this one. I loved the fact that the author used this paradisaical location to subvert the norm of thrillers happening in dark and dank and dangerous places. Jemma was a character that you never could quite trust, and she made a whole lot of mistakes. It moved away from a damsel in distress idea without painting Jemma as some kind of black widow with no heart, which is worringly a fine line in most fiction. 

The big twists in this novel were epic, and definitely made it an absolute page turner. I felt like I was hunting the twist down right up until the very end, and I would definitely recommend this if you're a fan of a good thriller that isn't *too* heavy.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'Between the Lies' by Cathy Macphail

It's been a bit of a 'long time no see' situation on here recently hasn't it? I've got a whole stack of books I've read all sitting waiting for me to write about, so hopefully this month will be a little less of a ghost town.

When I first picked up Between the Lies by Cathy Macphail I completely didn't realise that I'd actually read a book by the same author almost a decade ago. Did anyone else read Roxy's Baby as a teen?? Cathy's back with a brand new release in 2018 and it's fab.

I always get so put off by books with massive text, because it makes me think that they're for younger teens and that there's not that much plot. But, despite the font size, this was such a dark YA thriller filled with so many twists in the plot. I read most of it in one sitting because I was absolutely hooked.

Abbie, the main character, has no friends at school, and at home her dad's always off working on some campaign or another. She feels completely alone. And then Judith, one of the most popular girls in her year, goes missing. Who's the one person she texts? Abbie. The girls confided in one another in the school toilets a few days before Judith went missing, but no one else knows that, and can't understand why Abbie's the one being contacted. 

As Abbie launches her own campaign to bring Judith home, it begins to be clear that there's more to the story that meets the eye. What really is going on between Abbie and Judith? And what will happen when Judith returns and everyone forgets about Abbie again?

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube

Review of 'One of Us is Lying' by Karen M. McManus

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2018 has got off to an incredible start! I'm excited for all the new reads I'm going to be starting, and I'm setting my new Goodreads target! I'm a little behind on catching up with my reviews, so the next couple will be ones I've read in 2017, and I can't wait to share them with you.

One of Us is Lying is one of my favourite YA reads of 2017. It's a YA thriller loosely based on the Breakfast Club. Five teens enter detention, and four teens leave. Simon has a deadly nut allergy and is poisoned from his water glass. The obvious culprit would be Nate, the one with the criminal background, drug addicted father, and general lack of desire to be at school. But what about Yale-hopeful Bronwyn? Or prom Queen Addy? Or athlete Cooper? Simon runs a gossip site, and all four of them have a big secret that they don't want coming out - but who would kill for it?

This novel had me up late into the night reading 'just one more' page to find out everybody's secrets. I realised who the culprit was a little before it was revealed in the book, but it still made for a great read. I would definitely recommend this if you're into thrillers. 

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube 

Review of 'The Secret' by Katerina Diamond

I'm a wimp when it comes to scary things, but thrillers I can *just* about cope with. The Secret totally pushed me out of my thriller comfort zone, but in a good way. It was shocking and gory and kinda reminded me of the thrill of watching CSI as a kid.

The Secret is set in Devon - somewhere that I'd always thought of as safe, but now will be looking at through a slightly different lens. DS Imogen Grey is determined to put her traumatic past behind her, but a new case threatens to make it resurface. Her old work partner Sam Brown is back to help out on a case. The one problem with this? Two years ago he spilled the beans about her pregnancy to some guys who attacked her, cutting her stomach up so that she loses the baby. 

With this incident fresh in her mind, Imogen finds herself becoming more suspicious of Sam. His girlfriend is an undercover cop who's gone missing, and as Imogen searched for the truth, she uncovers more secrets that Sam's left behind.

This was an absolute page turner that had me almost peeking out from behind my fingers as things got more and more gruesome throughout the book. There were some real twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and as soon as I finished the book I went out to buy Katerina's earlier book 'The Teacher'. It's SO rare that I like a book enough to do this, but I was totally wowed by 'The Secret'.

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube 

Review of 'Silent Child' by Sarah A. Denzil

Is it me or are crime thrillers getting hella dark at the moment? Maybe I just haven't read enough in the past, but each one I come across feels a little traumatic at the moment. This book has had me feeling pretty fucked up for weeks now. The content was so twisted and thrilling and I had a couple of 'oh no NO NO NO' gut wrenching moments when I had to put the book down because it was just too tense.

I won't lie, it took me a little while to get into this one. I found it so hard to relate to the main character, but once I was in I was hooked. There were so many WTF moments and the plot was so good that overlooking her character was something I'm glad I did.

Silent Child is all about a child who comes back from the dead. When Sarah's village floods, her son Aiden is swept away in the water: the only thing he leaves behind is his little red coat. Fast forward ten years and Sarah and Rob, Aiden's father, are no longer together. She's created a new life with her new husband Jake, and has a new child on the way.

Everything's going pretty well, until Aiden reappears. Staggering out of the local woods, Aiden is traumatised and cannot speak. Emma is forced to face the fact that her child is back, but she doesn't know who he is anymore.

Trying to find out what has happened over the last ten years leads Emma to some very disturbing findings. What did happen to Aiden? Who took him? And who exactly can she trust? 

This book is definitely not for the faint-hearted. It's so graphic and dark that it really is not suitable for younger readers either. But, if you're a fan of dark thrillers, then this is something that you should give a go!

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube 

Review of 'Alice and the Fly' by James Rice

I haven't read a good thriller in a long time, so when Aimee from Aimee Raindrop Writes offered to lend me this I jumped at the chance. Alice and the Fly is told from the perspective of an individual with an intense case of schizophrenia, or at least that's what psychiatrists have deemed it. I've never read a novel with such a good insight into what it's like to live with a debilitating mental illness. Not having struggled with schizophrenia myself, I feel as though I now understand more about it, and just how life-consuming it can be.

Greg is a bit of an oddball at school. Everyone calls him 'Psycho' because of what happened in the past, and he doesn't have any friends. His English teacher, Miss Hayes, attempts to tap into Greg, to see what is troubling him so that she can help him. She asks him to start a journal, and jot his thoughts down into it. This is what we get to read. Interspersed with diary entries are transcripts from police reports about an incident Greg is involved in. 

It soon becomes clear that Greg is struggling. He has so many thoughts inside him that he wants to express, but can't seem to get the words out. Instead he remains silent, and is mistaken for being cold and distant. 

The one thing which really drives Greg out of this stupor of quietude is his fear of spiders. It is a full on phobia. Greg has every possible gap in his room taped down so that no spiders can get in. His room is his safe space; there's no chance of Them getting in. But everywhere else is a mine field.

Alice and the Fly was a real page turner for me. I needed to find out why this troubled boy's family and associates were being investigated by the police. I wanted to see how Greg's psychiatric issues came about, how they were handled, and how they progressed as he became more and more obsessed by the idea of Them coming near him.

If you're into thrillers, then this is one that is so easy to whip through, and it definitely had some moments in which I was on the edge of my seat!

Follow me on Bloglovin | Twitter | Instagram | Youtube | Facebook

Review of 'Room' by Emma Donoghue

People have been recommending Room to me for years. As in, I remember people telling me to read it when I was still in school, which is over five years ago now! But, I put it off and put it off and now I finally realise what I've been missing out on. Room is so well written, terrifying, thoughtful and endearing. I honestly could not put it down. It's also the first book I've read from the perspective of a child that actually nails what it's like to be a child. We see everything from Jacks perspective, and there are often times when he's confused or scared, and adult conversations go completely over the top of his head. But, he knows what he wants and what he needs. He isn't a perfect kid: he throws tantrums and annoys people, but that makes him seem even more real.

Room begins with five-year-old Jack and his Ma living in a room. Jack believes they have everything they need there: they've got Bed, Rug, Plant, Bath, Wardrobe and all his homemade toys. But, what Jack doesn't realise is that there's a whole world outside of Room ...

Jack's convinced that this is all there is to life, him and his Ma in room. And Old Nick, a man who enters in the night, makes the bed creak and brings them something they ask for as a Sunday Treat. Jack always wants to ask for something fun, but Ma says they need things like vitamins. Jack's Ma makes him keep fit by doing exercises each day and not just sitting in front of the TV.

Now that Jack's five, his Ma begins to backtrack on all the lies she's told him to make things easier. She tells him that there's life outside of Room, and that people on the TV are real, not just make believe. Jack struggles to get his head around it, and thinks she might be losing her mind ... hospitals and skyscrapers and helicopters and the sea can't be real, can they?

Soon Ma begins to hatch a plan to get them out of Room, but Jack's not sure he wants to go anywhere. He's happy to stay with his Ma in Room forever. 

This was such an incredible read, and I would highly recommend it if you enjoy thrillers!

Review of 'I Am Death' by Chris Carter

I'm a big fan of crime dramas on TV. NCIS, CSI, the Mentalist, Dexter: you name it, I've probably at least dabbled in watching it. However, I've never branched out into reading crime novels. Agatha Christie is not a novelist whose work I've even attempted, and I've avoided all other great crime novelists bar Raymond Chandler. 

I Am Death follows Detective Robert Hunter and his partner's attempts to catch the work of one of the most horrific serial killers they've had the misfortune to engage with yet. The killer subverts all serial killer norms: he approaches the police directly (covering his tracks of course), taunts them, and changes his MO every single time he kills. Each murder is carried out on an unsuspecting female, who he has no persona relation to. The only similarity between each killing is that they maximise the amount of pain that the victim feels. And that the message 'I Am Death' is found with each body.

The Monster also keeps captive a young boy. This boy is named Squirm, and is forced to watch all of the killings: he is punished if he looks away. Squirm is mistreated in every way possible, and dehumanised to the point of being completely stripped of his name; it is replaced with Squirm. 

The investigation hot up with each new taunt, especially when the killer visits Detective Hunter's home, sliding a threatening letter under his door. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'The Thirty-Nine Steps' by John Buchan

June marked the two year birthday of my one true love, aka MR Kindle. So, I decided to tie up some loose ends on it. When I first got my kindle I was a little eager beaver, wanting to download a tonne of the free classics you can get on a kindle because the concept of free books was totally new to me. This was one of them, and as you can (presumably) tell, it sat on my digital bookshelf until now. Whoops. 

Since graduating last year, I've been on an anti-classics rampage. No longer governed by my professors, I've been free to read whatever I want, whenever I want, and it's been glorious. However, recently I noticed that I felt as though there was something missing in my literary life: I'm done with being wayward, and want to get back to my roots of reading anything and everything, and delving into history through classics.

So, with a little spring in my step, I finally embarked upon reading The Thirty-Nine Steps ... and was met with a dark, almost Gothic novel. Did you ever read The Secret Seven or The Famous Five as a child? Well imagine them, but with a little more death and dark mystery, and you have The Thirty-Nine Steps. Even the title has an almost Blyton-esque air doesn't it?

Buchan himself described the novel as a 'shocker' - something which shocks the reader, but liminally remains believable. When I was reading the novel, I was faced with the query - why has this gone down in history as a classic? It's a good book, but the storyline is nothing too special. However, what I failed to recognise at this point is that the book was extraordinary at the time of publication. Modern filmmakers and writers often feature plots that are based around a man on the run, a thriller of movement - this was one of the very first of the type to be published.

Richard Hannay, the novel's protagonist and narrator, is instantly intrigued when a man appears on his doorstep declaring to be 'already dead'. Soon, Hannay is informed that the man has faked his own death, and needs somewhere to hide out from the people that are hunting him. So Hannay, ever resourceful, helps the 'dead man' Scudder to find a real dead body and arrange it so that no one will be able to tell that Scudder is alive and free. Their plan all goes well until Hannay returns to his apartment one night to discover that Scudder has in fact now really been murdered. Feeling implicated in his new found friend's death, Hannay feels as though there is nothing for it but to continue Scudder's work.

It's 1914, and Europe is on the brink of war. Scudder is not merely some unimportant man living amidst the masses in London, but a spy, trying to save England from invasion. Now that he's gone, it's up to Hannay to pick up where he left off. The only problem? Now he's on the run, and the only thing he has to help him is the little coded black book Scudder left behind.

If you're a fan of murder mysteries, then this is definitely something I would add onto your to-read list of Summer 2016!