Review: Dead Man's Gift: Last Night (Part 2) by Simon Kernick (5/5)

Thursday 29 May 2014 0 comments

A THRILLER IN THREE PARTS

The SECOND direct to digital short-story in a race-against-time three-part adventure from the bestselling author of Relentless,Siege and Ultimatum, Simon Kernick.

MP Tim Horton is waiting to hear from his son's kidnappers. Knowing he's being watched, and too scared to go to the police, he contacts the only man who may be able to help him, his brother-in-law: an ex-soldier called Scope who has a reputation for sorting things out and getting things done.

Review: Christmas at Carrington's by Alexandra Brown (4/5)

Friday 23 May 2014 1 comments

A deliciously indulgent read and the follow up to Cupcakes at Carrington’s. Set in Carrington’s Department Store this is perfect for fans of Jenny Colgan.

Carrington’s Department store is thrown into a spin when the staff learn that a hot new reality TV show is to be filmed in-store, featuring the formidable retail guru, Kelly Cooper. Georgie Hart, in charge of Luxury Handbags, is reluctant, but quickly realises that the show could give Carrington’s a new lease of life. With Christmas around the corner, she’s also hoping that the season will deliver her the perfect Christmas present, in the form of Tom, the store’s dishy boss.

When the film crew arrive, things start to go wrong. One of Tom’s old flames, Zara, is working on the show and then, to top things off, Tom and Zara are sent off to Paris and New York for a spot of extra filming. When Georgie settles down in front of the box to watch the first show, worse it to come – Georgie is shown in a far from flattering light and she is horrified to learn what Tom has been up to.

Georgie fears this is turning out to be the worst Christmas ever, but Santa might have a got a little surprise in store for her stocking this year – but she’ll just have to wait until Christmas to find out!

Review: Dead Man's Gift (1: Yesterday) by Simon Kernick



A THRILLER IN THREE PARTS

The FIRST direct to digital short-story in a race-against-time three-part adventure from the bestselling author of Relentless, Siege and Ultimatum, Simon Kernick.

MP Tim Horton arrives home to find his seven year old son has been abducted by a ruthless gang of kidnappers. All they have left behind is the brutally murdered body of the Horton’s nanny.

The gang’s demands are simple: Tim must sacrifice his own life in order to save his son’s.

It’s the ultimate dead man’s gift …




From The Archive: All Of Me by Claire Richards (5/5)

Read and reviewed February 2013

Claire Richards, young, fit and with a figure to die for, reached the dizzying heights of fame in the hit band Steps when she was only twenty. When she left, and Steps split shortly after, the world was shocked by the news. Now, writing with incredible honesty, Claire tells her story, from her teenage music career to her big break with Steps. She reveals that while in the band she faced harsh pressure to stay thin, and starved herself for years. Feeling broken by the experience, she finally left and sank into a pit of depression, gaining huge amounts of weight and losing all self-esteem. Believing her career was over, she also had to cope with a painful split from her Steps dancer husband. Thankfully finding love with her now husband, Reece, got her back on track. He didn't care about her size; he just wanted Claire. And, after seeing her weight go up and down for years, Claire has refused to diet any more. Happily married, with two kids, she's finally comfortable in her own skin on stage and screen. In this book, with humour, grace and sincerity, she shares her journey to her happy ending.

Review: The Directive by Matthew Quirk (3.5/5)

Wednesday 21 May 2014 0 comments
The blistering follow up to THE 500 has Mike Ford attempting a high stakes heist of the Federal Reserve
What if the only way to go straight is to break the law?
Michael Ford has finally escaped his chequered past to lead the respectable life he's always dreamed of, preparing to settle down with his fiancée Annie. But the quiet is shattered when his brother, Jack, comes back into his life.
Jack is a world-class con man who has finally overplayed his hand. He's in way over his head in a conspiracy to steal a billion-dollar secret from the heart of the financial system. And in an effort to help his brother, Mike soon finds himself trapped by the dangerous men in charge - and responsible for pulling off the heist himself.
With Annie's safety on the line, Mike tries to figure out who's behind the job - and realises the only way to keep the honest life is to return to his criminal past. But will he get in too deep to save Annie's life?

Review: Thirteen Weddings by Paige Toon (4/5)

Last year, Bronte left Sydney for a wedding in England, where she met newly single Alex. After a night of passion they parted ways, and Bronte returned to Australia.
Now working on a picture desk for a magazine in London, Bronte is about to meet her new colleague, who turns out to be all too familiar. Although awkward at first, as Alex is now engaged to the girl he was on a break from when they met, they soon become friends.
But as the two get closer, and the wedding day looms, it is clear that Alex and Bronte have unfinished business…
A charming bittersweet novel from the author of The Longest Holiday.




Review: The Killing Club by Paul Finch (5/5) | Hall of Fame Review |

DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is used to bloodbaths. But nothing can prepare him for this.

Heck’s most dangerous case to date is open again. Two years ago, countless victims were found dead - massacred at the hands of Britain’s most terrifying gang.

When brutal murders start happening across the country, it’s clear the gang is at work again. Their victims are killed in cold blood, in broad daylight, and by any means necessary. And Heck knows it won’t be long before they come for him.

Brace yourself as you turn the pages of a living nightmare. Welcome to The Killing Club.






Review: The Bones Beneath by Mark Billingham (5/5)

Tuesday 20 May 2014 0 comments
The Deal
Tom Thorne is back in charge - but there's a terrifying price to pay. Stuart Nicklin, the most dangerous psychopath he has ever put behind bars, promises to reveal the whereabouts of a body he buried twenty-five years before. But only if Thorne agrees to escort him.

The Danger
Unable to refuse, Thorne gathers a team and travels to a remote Welsh island, at the mercy of the weather and cut off from the mainland. Thorne is determined to get the job done and return home before Nicklin can outwit them.

The Deaths
But Nicklin knows this island well and has had time to plan ahead. Soon, new bodies are added to the old, and Thorne finds himself facing the toughest decision he has ever had to make...

Tom Thorne returns in this utterly gripping, brilliantly plotted thriller. The Bones Beneath is Mark Billingham's most ambitious and accomplished work to date.

Review: The Last Refuge by Craig Robertson (5/5)

Monday 19 May 2014 0 comments

You can run from your past but you can never hide from yourself…

When John Callum arrives on the wild and desolate Faroe Islands, he vows to sever all ties with his previous life. He desperately wants to make a new start, and is surprised by how quickly he is welcomed into the close-knit community.

But still, the terrifying, debilitating nightmares just won't stop. Then the solitude is shattered by an almost unheard of crime on the islands: murder.

A specialist team of detectives arrives from Denmark to help the local police, who seem completely ill-equipped for an investigation of this scale.But as tensions rise, and the community closes rank to protect its own, John has to watch his back.

But far more disquieting than that, John's nightmares have taken an even more disturbing turn, and he can't be certain about the one thing he needs to know above all else. Whether he is the killer…

Blog Tour Review: Deception by Jonathan Kellerman (4/5)

Saturday 17 May 2014 0 comments
About


Okay so one of my all time favourite authors is Jonathan Kellerman and I am very excited to be a part of the bookbridgr Boxset tour where I will be reviewing Deception.


From The Archive: About A Girl by Lindsey Kelk (5/5)

Tuesday 13 May 2014 0 comments

Read and reviewed June 2013

 

I’d lost my job. I’d lost the love of my life. My mum wasn’t talking to me. My best friend was epically pissed off. And my flatmate probably had a hit out on me by now. I never meant for things to get so out of hand…

Tess Brookes has always been a Girl with a Plan. But when her carefully constructed Plan goes belly up, she’s forced to reconsider.

After accidently answering her flatmate Vanessa’s phone, she decides that since being Tess isn’t going so well, why shouldn’t she try out being Vanessa? With nothing left to lose, she accepts Vanessa’s photography assignment to Hawaii – she used to be an amateur snapper, how hard can it be? Right?

But Tess is soon in big trouble – she isn’t a photographer, she isn’t Vanessa, and the gorgeous journalist on the shoot with her, who is making it very clear he’d like to get into her pants, is an egotistical monster.

Far from home and in someone else’s shoes, Tess must decide whether to fight on through, or ‘fess up and run…

Review: A Song From Dead Lips by William Shaw (5/5)

Monday 12 May 2014 0 comments
London, October 1968. As Beatles fans encamp outside Abbey Road Studios up the road, the Marylebone CID is as much an old boys' club as it ever was: comfortably sexist, racially prejudiced and crawling with corruption.

Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen is the pariah of the office, having just run out on a fellow officer held at knifepoint, when it's shaken up by the arrival of WPC Helen Tozer: awkward chatterbox, farmgirl, and the first woman to enter the murder unit - apart from the secretary.

When a young woman is found naked and strangled in well-to-do St John's Wood, her identity is a mystery. The neighbours offer nothing but xenophobic suspicions, witnesses are staying silent; only Tozer's savvy gives Breen a lead.

Following it, resourceless, deep into the rural backwaters, Breen sees one dead body lead to another - a trail of bloodshed taking them dangerously close to a killer with everything to lose.

The first in a trilogy featuring DS Breen and WPC Tozer, set against a clashing backdrop of sixties idealism and a corrupted CID on the brink of exposure.

From The Archive: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes (5/5)

Thursday 8 May 2014 0 comments
Read and Reviewed August 2013


 
Lou Clark knows lots of things. She knows how many footsteps there are between the bus stop and home. She knows she likes working in The Buttered Bun tea shop and she knows she might not love her boyfriend Patrick. 

What Lou doesn't know is she's about to lose her job or that knowing what's coming is what keeps her sane.

 Will Traynor knows his motorcycle accident took away his desire to live. He knows everything feels very small and rather joyless now and he knows exactly how he's going to put a stop to that. 

What Will doesn't know is that Lou is about to burst into his world in a riot of colour. And neither of them knows they're going to change the other for all time.


Review: Sacrifice by Paul Finch (5/5)

Wednesday 7 May 2014 0 comments

A vicious serial killer is holding the country to ransom, publicly - and gruesomely - murdering his victims.

When a man is burnt alive on a bonfire, it seems like a tragic Guy Fawkes Night accident. But with the discovery of a young couple on Valentine’s Day – each with an arrow through the heart – something more sinister becomes clear. A ‘calendar killer’ is on the loose.

Detective Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is up against it. With a rising body count and the public’s eyes on him, Heck must find the killer before he executes more victims.

Because this killer has a plan. And nothing will stop him completing it.

A heart-stopping and grisly thriller that will enthral fans of Stuart MacBride and Katia Lief.

Review: The Murder Bag by Tony Parsons (4/5)

The gripping first novel in an explosive new crime series by Tony Parsons, bestselling author of Man and Boy. If you like crime-novels by Ian Rankin and Peter James, you will love this.

Twenty years ago seven rich, privileged students became friends at their exclusive private school, Potter’s Field. Now they have started dying in the most violent way imaginable.

Detective Max Wolfe has recently arrived in the Homicide division of London’s West End Central, 27 Savile Row.

Soon he is following the bloody trail from the backstreets and bright lights of the city, to the darkest corners of the internet and all the way to the corridors of power.

As the bodies pile up, Max finds the killer’s reach getting closer to everything - and everyone - he loves.

Soon he is fighting not only for justice, but for his own life ...


Review: Hour of Darkness by Quintin Jardine (4/5)

Quintin Jardine's new Bob Skinner novel sees the Edinburgh cop faced with a case that calls every part of his life into question.

The body of a murdered woman is found washed up on Cramond Island near the mouth of the River Forth. Days later detectives are called to a flat in Edinburgh; the kitchen is covered in blood, and the occupier is missing.

When the name of the woman from Cramond Island is revealed, it stirs unwelcome memories for those who knew her, Chief Constable Bob Skinner most of all.

Now based in Glasgow, he has no reason to become involved in the case. Yet he does, unwittingly setting in motion a course that leads him to the toughest choice of his life, putting him in the midst of a personal nightmare, both life-threatening and career changing.

From The Archive: The Street by Kay Brellend (5/5)

Tuesday 6 May 2014 0 comments
Read and Reviewed April 2013

'Campbell Road was home to the most notorious criminals: thieves, prostitutes, fraudsters -- every sort of rogue and vagabond drifted through this slum.' Life was tough ! but so were they Alice Keiver is a sensitive girl, growing up in one of the roughest parts of North London. As the daughter of an alcoholic mother, and niece of an abusive uncle, she dreams that one day she and her baby sister will escape their rotten surroundings. Alice's father, Jack Keiver, works day and night to provide for his family. But his hopes for a better life are dashed each time he returns home to find the money-jar raided and his feisty wife Tilly collapsed drunk in the corner. In the room below, Alice's downtrodden Aunt Fran spends most of her days nursing the injuries inflicted on her by her cruel husband Jimmy -- but this time he's pushed the family too far and they're not going to let him get away with it. Revenge is going to be sweet.


Review: The Keeper by John Lescroart (4/5)

Monday 5 May 2014 0 comments
On the evening before Thanksgiving, Hal Chase, a guard in the San Francisco County Jail, drives to the airport to pick up his step-brother for the weekend. When they return, Hal's wife, Katie, has disappeared without a clue.

By the time Dismas Hardy hears about this, Katie has been missing for five days. The case strikes close to home because Katie had been seeing Hardy's wife, a marriage counselor. By this time, the original Missing Persons case has become a suspected homicide, and Hal is the prime suspect. And the lawyer he wants for his defense is none other than Hardy himself.

Hardy calls on his friend, former homicide detective Abe Glitsky, to look into the case. At first it seems like the police might have it right; the Chases' marriage was fraught with problems; Hal's alibi is suspect; the life insurance policy on Katie was huge. But Glitsky's mission is to identify other possible suspects, and there proves to be no shortage of them: Patti Orosco rich, beautiful, dangerous, and Hal's former lover; the still unknown person who had a recent affair with Katie; even Hal's own step-mother Ruth, resentful of Katie's gatekeeping against her grandchildren. And as Glitsky probes further, he learns of an incident at the San Francisco jail, where Hal works only one of many questionable inmate deaths that have taken place there. Then, when Katie's body is found not three blocks from the Chase home, Homicide arrests Hal and he finds himself an inmate in the very jail where he used to work, a place full of secrets he knows all too well.

Against this backdrop of conspiracy and corruption, ambiguous motives and suspicious alibis, an obsessed Glitsky closes in on the elusive truth. As other deaths begin to pile up he realizes, perhaps too late, that the next victim might be himself.

The Blogger Get To Know Me Tag

Sunday 4 May 2014 0 comments
I was tagged by The Love of a Good Book and the tag was created by She Loves to Read


Tell us five random facts about yourself:

1. I'm a Tube nerd
2. I love London
3. I'm addicted to Pepsi Max
4. I've been friends with my best friend since I was 7 (17 years nearly!)
5. I'm addicted to American TV shows

When is your birthday?

18th May so it's nearly here!

What is your favourite colour?

Red.

What is your favourite memory?

The first time I visited Cyprus in 2006. It was my very first time abroad and I absolutely fell in love with the island. I always joke that I left my heart there but I think it's true as I've had 8 years of holiday blues! Apart from when I went back in 2010 and 2012!

Describe a day in your life……

If I'm off work I'll probably get up around lunchtime and laze around watching TV or reading.
If I'm in work I'll probably get up around lunchtime, go to work and then come home and laze around watching TV or reading!

Name five of your favourite songs…
Of all time is too hard but right now..


Christina Perri - Human
Eminem - Headlights
Celine Dion - I'm Alive (reminds me of Cyprus!)
Calvin Harris - Summer
Paloma Faith - Only Love Can Hurt Like This

If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Salt and Pepper Chicken!

Summer or winter?

In summer I tell myself I can't wait for winter and then when I'm shivering with cold in winter I can't wait for summer. But I do prefer summer!

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live and why?

Cyprus. It's hot, the people are friendly, the food is amazing, it's got amazing historical places to visit. I first went in 2006 and fell in love. I would love to go back but haven't got anybody to go with! I keep telling myself I should just go alone but the best things about holidays are being with people. I would love to live over there but it's not really the best place for work!

Name five of your favourite films?

Back to the Future
Ghost
The Godfather
Home Alone
The Santa Clause

If you won the lottery what would you buy?

An apartment at the Shard in London and a permanent room at my favourite hotel in Paphos, Cyprus and divide my time between the two. Also I'd love my own bookshop!

Favourite day of the week…

One where I'm off. I work weekends so don't get to share in the excitement of people who live for the weekend however I prefer my two days off in the week! I like Tuesdays!

What three things would you take to a desert island?

Kindle
Loads of Pepsi Max
iPad (for music/games)

Sweet or savoury?

Sweet!

Early bird or a night owl?

Definitely a night owl. I hate getting up early. I always say I'm going to get up early but 9 times out of 10 find myself still awake at 3am and still asleep at 1pm!

Name five of your favourite books:

Jackie Collins - Chances
Jackie Collins - Lucky
Kimberley Chambers - The Trap
Martina Cole - Goodnight Lady
Mario Puzo - The Godfather

Favourite Drink?

Pepsi Max! Addicted to the stuff.

Favourite animal?

Alsatians.

Review: Deep Shelter by Oliver Harris (5/5)

Friday 2 May 2014 0 comments


London is steaming under a summer of filthy heat and sudden storms - and Detective Nick Belsey, of Hampstead CID, is trying to stay out of trouble.

But then somebody sets him a riddle. How does a man walk into a dead-end alley and never come out? How does he disappear?

And then reappear - to snatch a girl, to dump a body beneath a London skyscraper, to send Belsey a package of human hair.

The answer lies underground, where the secrets degenerating beneath the city's sickly glitter are about to see the light of day.




Blog Archive

Copyright © 2014 Book Addict Shaun
Template by These Paper Hearts