Review: Past Crimes by Glen Erik Hamilton

Title: Past Crimes
Author: Glen Erik Hamilton
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication Date: 5th March 2015
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780571314584
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

If my grandfather's letter had stopped at the comma, I would have tossed it in the trash... only the last three words mattered. If you can. That passed for please, in the old man's way of talking... If you can scared me a little.

Meet Van Shaw - soldier, ex-con - as he returns to his native Seattle after a decade's self-imposed exile. Answering voices from his past, he finds a whole heap of trouble, and himself the prime suspect in the brutal attack on his grandfather. Drawn back into the violent, high-stakes life he tried to leave behind, he has to try and see right from wrong amid the secrets and resentments of those he was once closest to.

Review: Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent

Title: Unravelling Oliver
Author: Liz Nugent
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 9th April 2015
Pages: 240
ISBN: 9780241965641
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma.

In the aftermath, as everyone tries to make sense of his astonishing act of savagery, Oliver tells his story. So do those whose paths he has crossed over five decades. What unfolds is a story of shame, envy, breath-taking deception and masterful manipulation.

Only Oliver knows the lengths to which he has had to go to get the life to which he felt entitled. But even he is in for a shock when the past catches up with him.

Review: From Liverpool With Love by Lyn Andrews

Title: From Liverpool With Love
Author: Lyn Andrews
Publisher: Headline
Publication Date: 4th December 2014
Pages: 400
Source: bookbridgr
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

A heartwarming Liverpool saga from the bestselling author of THE HOUSE ON LONELY STREET and LIVERPOOL ANGELS for readers of Dilly Court and Katie Flynn

In 1920s Liverpool, Jane, her little brother Alfie and their mother Ellen have faced the horrors of the workhouse together. But when Ellen dies, two very different paths open up for the siblings.

Jane is sent to work in the Empire Laundry and builds a new life for herself with the neighbours who take her in. She finds solace there and the promise of a happy future when she falls for Joe, their eldest son.

But Alfie absconds from the workhouse and embarks on a life of crime. When their paths cross once more, Alfie turns on his sister. His plans will jeopardise every happiness she hoped for...

My Week in Books #14

Goodreads Target

Review: Next to Die by Neil White

Title: Next to Die
Author: Neil White
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 26th September 2013
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9780751549447
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

Joe Parker is Manchester's most ingenious criminal defence lawyer.

Sam Parker is Manchester's most tenacious homicide detective.

Both bear the burden of the unsolved murder of their sister fifteen years earlier. And both have a stake in a new series of murders that has shaken their city to its core.

Ronnie Bagley is locked up and facing trial for the murder of his girlfriend and baby and there's only one lawyer he wants to defend him: Joe Parker. As Joe takes to the courtroom to represent Ronnie, little does he know that Bagley is smarter than anyone has given him credit for, and soon Joe will find himself pitched against his own brother, Sam, in a race to outwit the most terrifying serial killer the city has ever seen.

It isn't long before Joe and Sam's shared past comes crashing into the present in a pulse-pounding race to find out who is NEXT TO DIE...

Review: Prey by James Carol

Title: Prey (Jefferson Winter, #3)
Author: James Carol
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9780571322312
Source: Publisher
Rating: 3.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Has Jefferson Winter finally met his match?

Six years ago a young married couple were found brutally stabbed to death in their home in Upstate New York. Local police arrested a suspect who later committed suicide. But what if the police got it wrong?

Ex-FBI profiler Jefferson Winter is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a mysterious female psychopath as she sets him a challenge: find out what really happened six years ago.

The clock is ticking and, as Winter is about to find out, the endgame is everything...

Review: Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

Title: Eeny Meeny (D.I. Helen Grace, #1)
Author: M.J. Arlidge
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: 8th May 2014
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781405914871
Source: Won
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Amazon

The girl emerged from the woods, barely alive. Her story was beyond belief. But it was true. Every dreadful word of it.

Days later, another desperate escapee is found - and a pattern is emerging. Pairs of victims are being abducted, imprisoned then faced with a terrible choice: kill or be killed.

Would you rather lose your life or lose your mind?

Detective Inspector Helen Grace has faced down her own demons on her rise to the top. As she leads the investigation to hunt down this unseen monster, she learns that it may be the survivors - living calling cards - who hold the key to the case.

And unless she succeeds, more innocents will die . . .