Review: Burning Angels by Bear Grylls

Title: Burning Angels
Author: Bear Grylls
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 2nd June 2016
Pages: 416
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

A prehistoric corpse entombed within an Arctic glacier, crying tears of blood.

A jungle island overrun by rabid primates - escapees from a research laboratory's Hot Zone.

A massive seaplane hidden beneath a mountain, packed with a Nazi cargo of mind-blowing evil.

A penniless orphan kidnapped from an African slum, holding the key to the world's survival.

Four terrifying journeys. One impossible path. Only one man to attempt it.

Will Jaeger. The Hunter.

Review: The Rule of Fear by Luke Delaney

Title: The Rule of Fear
Author: Luke Delaney
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: 30th June 2016
Pages: 432
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Sergeant Jack King is back on active duty after months off following a violent encounter. On the Met’s promotional fast-track scheme, King is headed straight for the top, but policing the streets is where his heart truly lies.

Tasked with cleaning up the notorious Grove Wood estate, King is determined to rise to the challenge. But it’s not just drug dealers and petty thugs his team have to worry about. Someone on the estate is preying on children, and they need to find the culprit, fast.

Soon King finds himself over his head: the local residents won’t play ball, his superiors want results yesterday, and he’s refusing to admit that he’s suffering from PTSD. As the pressures combine, the line between right and wrong starts to blur and King finds himself in a downward spiral. Only he can save himself – but is it already too late?

Review: This Time Round by Ray Quinn

Title: This Time Round
Author: Ray Quinn
Publisher: Percy Publishing
Publication Date: 4th March 2015
Pages: 188
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

They say it's all about timing. We,, the time has come for me to stand back and take a look at my life so far - where I've been, what I've achieved, and where I want to go in the future.

I've been blessed with a full and coloruful career so far, covering TV, theatre, dancing, singing and skating. Now 26, I intend to focus on my greatest passion - music. If I've learned anything so far, it's that life doesn't wait for anyone; you have to take control of your own destiny.

This is the story of how I grew up in Liverpool, with my acting and dancing days, and how I coped with the overwhelming demands of the X Factor and Dancing on Ice. Much of that story was ignored by the media: a lot that people don't know.

'This Time Round' is something of a cautionary tale. Maybe reading about my own highs and lows will enlighten some of you who want to become part of the entertainment industry - all those who dare to dream.

Review: Where the Devil Can't Go by Anya Lipska

Title: Where the Devil Can't Go
Author: Anya Lipska
Publisher: The Friday Project
Publication Date: 7th February 2013
Format: Paperback
Pages: 423
ISBN: 9780007504589
Source: Library
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

A naked girl has washed up on the banks of the River Thames. The only clue to her identity is a heart-shaped tattoo encircling two foreign names. Who is she – and why did she die?

Life’s already complicated enough for Janusz Kiszka, unofficial 'fixer' for East London’s Polish community: his priest has asked him to track down a young waitress who has gone missing; a builder on the Olympics site owes him a pile of money; and he’s falling for married Kasia, Soho’s most strait-laced stripper. But when Janusz finds himself accused of murder by an ambitious young detective, Natalie Kershaw, and pursued by drug dealing gang members, he is forced to take an unscheduled trip back to Poland to find the real killer.

In the mist-wreathed streets of his hometown of Gdansk, Janusz must confront painful memories from the Soviet past if he is to uncover the conspiracy – and with it, a decades-old betrayal.

Review: Yours Truly by Kirsty Greenwood

Title: Yours Truly
Author: Kirsty Greenwood
Publisher: Pan
Publication Date: 21st November 2013
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9781447247272
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Newly engaged Natalie Butterworth is an easy-going girl. She'll do anything for a quiet life and if telling a few teensy white lies keeps her friends and family happy, then so what? It's not like they'll ever discover what she's really thinking...

Until one night, thanks to a pub hypnotist, Natalie's most private thoughts begin to bubble up and pop out of her mouth. Things get very messy indeed, especially when some sticky home truths offend her fiancé.

Natalie must track down the hypnotist before her wedding is officially cancelled. So along with bad influence bestie Meg, Natalie finds herself in the Yorkshire Parish of Little Trooley - a small village bursting with big secrets, nosy old folk and intriguing Wellington-wearing men.

When the girls get stuck in the village with no means of escape and no way to break the hypnotist's spell, Natalie is forced to face the truths she has been avoiding her whole life...

Review: The Hunters by Chris Kuzneski

Title: The Hunters
Author: Chris Kuzneski
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 3rd January 2013
Pages: 528
ISBN: 9780755386499
Source: Library
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

The Hunters: Financed by a billionaire philanthropist, this elite team - an ex-soldier, an historian, a computer whiz, a weapons expert, and a thief - is tasked with finding the world's most legendary treasures.

The mission: Fearing a German victory in WWI, the Romanian government signed a deal with Russia to guarantee the safety of the country's treasures. In 1916, two trains full of gold and the most precious possessions of the Romanian state - paintings, jewellery, and ancient artefacts - were sent to the underground vaults of the Kremlin. But in the turmoil of war, the treasure was scattered - and lost. Almost a century later, the haul is valued at over 3.5 billion dollars. Despite hundreds of attempts to find it, its location has remained a mystery... Until now.

Can the Hunters find the treasure and succeed where all others have failed?

Review: The Dead Room by Chris Mooney

Title: The Dead Room (Darby McCormick, #3)
Author: Chris Mooney
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 6th August 2009
Pages: 464
ISBN: 9780141039879
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

A mother and her son have been executed in their home and fingerprint matches show their attacker died twenty years ago.

But how can dead serial killers return to haunt the present?

The answers lie in the darkest shadows of The Dead Room.

When CSI Darby McCormick is called to the crime scene, it's one of the most gruesome she's ever seen. But the forensic evidence is even more disturbing: someone watched the murder unfold from woodland behind the house - and the killer died in a shoot-out two decades earlier.

The deeper Darby digs, the more horrors come to light. Her prime suspect is revealed as a serial killer on an enormous scale, with a past that's even more shocking than his crimes, thanks to a long-held secret that could rock Boston's law enforcement to its core.

Review: The Alchemist's Secret by Scott Mariani

Title: The Alchemist's Secret (Ben Hope, #1)
Author: Scott Mariani
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: 3rd March 2008
Pages: 496
ISBN: 9781847563408
Source: Library
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

When Ben is recruited to locate an ancient manuscript which could save a dying child, he embarks on the deadliest quest of his life.

The document is alleged to contain the formula for the elixir of life, discovered by the brilliant alchemist Fulcanelli decades before. But it soon becomes apparent that others are hunting this most precious of treasures - for far more evil ends.

When the secrets of alchemy hidden within the pages remain impenetrable, Ben teams up with beautiful American scientist Dr Roberta Ryder to crack the code.

It seems that everyone - from the Nazis during WW2 and powerful Catholic organisation Gladius Domini - wants to unearth the secrets of immortality.

The trail leads Ben and Roberta from Paris to the ancient Cathar strongholds of the Languedoc, where an astonishing secret has lain hidden for centuries...

Irish Fiction Week Review: The Granny by Brendan O'Carroll

Title: The Granny (Agnes Browne, #3)
Author: The Granny
Publisher: O'Brien Press
Publication Date: 7th October 1996
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781847173249
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5
Purchase: Amazon

The final book in the Agnes Browne trilogy.

At forty-seven years of age Agnes, now thirteen years happily widowed, enters the 1980s with a fruit stall in Moore Street, a French lover and six children, five of them in their twenties.

Becoming a grandmother is a terrible shock to her system, especially as Agnes suffers every one of her daughter-in-law's labour pains! And as the family expands so do the problems -one son's inevitable brush with the law, the heartbreak of emigration. But Agnes Browne is nothing if not a fighter, and she squares her shoulders, offers up a quick one to her departed pal, Marion, and sets about getting things back on an even keel - or as even as things ever get in the Brown household!

Review: The Midas Code by Boyd Morrison

Title: The Midas Code (Tyler Locke, #2)
Author: Boyd Morrison
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 4th August 2011
Pages: 512
ISBN: 9780751544305
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Can an ancient manuscript reveal the whereabouts of King Midas' famous treasure?

Top army engineer Tyler Locke is given a mysterious ancient manuscript. Written in Greek, it initially seems indecipherable.

But with the help of classics scholar Stacy Benedict, Locke comes to understand that this manuscript could provide the clues to the greatest riches known to mankind - the legendary treasure of King Midas.

However, there are others who are also hot on the trail - and it rapidly becomes a race against time to crack a code that is both fiendishly difficult and potentially deadly....

Review: Crossbones Yard by Kate Rhodes

Title: Crossbones Yard (Alice Quentin, #1)
Author: Kate Rhodes
Publisher: Mulholland Books
Publication Date: 28th February 2013
Source: Library
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781444738766
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Ray and Marie Benson killed 13 women before they were caught, tried and imprisoned. Five of their victims were never found.

Six years later, psychologist Alice Quentin discovers a woman's body on the waste ground at Crossbones Yard. The wounds are horrifyingly similar to the Bensons' signature style. But who would want to copy their crimes?

When Alice is called in to consult, her first instinct is to say no. She wants to focus on treating her patients, not analysing the mind of a murderer.

But the body at Crossbones Yard is just the start, and the killer may already be closer than Alice knows.

Review: The Noah's Ark Quest by Boyd Morrison

Title: The Noah's Ark Quest (Tyler Locke, #1)
Author: Boyd Morrison
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 19th August 2010
Pages: 576
ISBN: 9780751544152
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Do the remains of Noah's Ark really exist?

Before he dies, the father of ambitious young architect Dilara Kenner leaves her tantalising clues about the location of the legendary historical artefact - Noah's Ark.

The most fabled relic of all time, the search for Noah's Ark has obsessed many over the years. And when Dilara starts her quest - aided by former army engineer Tyler Locke - she rapidly becomes transfixed by the thought of discovering it.

But there are sinister forces gathering who have deadly reasons for wanting to be the first ones to get to the relic.

From a helicopter crash in the Atlantic, to a sinister sect in Arizona's Mojave desert, to the remote slopes of Mount Ararat, this thrilling page-turner blends nonstop action with fascinating historical fact.