My Week in Books #9 (Month #2)

Goodreads Target

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: 14th Deadly Sin by James Patterson

Title: 14th Deadly Sin (Women's Murder Club, #14)
Author: James Patterson and Maxine Paetro
Publisher: Century
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Pages: 384
ISBN: 9781780892870
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

A new terror is sweeping the streets of San Francisco. And the killers look a lot like cops...

As Detective Lindsay Boxer investigates whether the perpetrators are brilliant imposters or police officers gone rogue, she receives a chilling warning to back off.

On the other side of the city, an innocent woman is murdered in broad daylight in front of dozens of witnesses. But there are no clues and no apparent motive.

With killers in disguise, a maniac murderer on the loose, and danger getting ever closer to Lindsay's door, could this be one case too many for the Women's Murder Club?

Review: Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

Title: Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery
Author: Jenny Colgan
Publisher: Sphere
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Source: Review Copy
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780751558852
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

Summer has arrived in the Cornish town of Mount Polbearne and Polly Waterford couldn't be happier. Because Polly is in love: she's in love with the beautiful seaside town she calls home, she's in love with running the bakery on Beach Street, and she's in love with her boyfriend, Huckle.

And yet there's something unsettling about the gentle summer breeze that's floating through town. Selina, recently widowed, hopes that moving to Mount Polbearne will ease her grief, but Polly has a secret that could destroy her friend's fragile recovery. Responsibilities that Huckle thought he'd left behind are back and Polly finds it hard to cope with his increasingly long periods of absence.

Polly sifts flour, kneads dough and bakes bread, but nothing can calm the storm she knows is coming: is Polly about to lose everything she loves?

Review: The Killing Season by Mason Cross

Title: The Killing Season (Carter Blake, #1)
Author: Mason Cross
Publisher: Orion
Publication Date: 9th April 2015
Pages: 400
ISBN: 9781409145691
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

When Caleb Wardell, the infamous 'Chicago Sniper', escapes from death row two weeks before his execution, the FBI calls on the services of Carter Blake, a man with certain specialised talents whose skills lie in finding those who don't want to be found. A man to whom Wardell is no stranger.

Along with Elaine Banner, an ambitious special agent juggling life as a single mother with her increasingly high-flying career, Blake must track Wardell down as he cuts a swathe across America, apparently killing at random.

But Blake and Banner soon find themselves sidelined from the case. And as they try desperately to second guess a man who kills purely for the thrill of it, they uncover a hornets' nest of lies and corruption. Now Blake must break the rules and go head to head with the FBI if he is to stop Wardell and expose a deadly conspiracy that will rock the country.

Guest Post: Kyrgyzstan: Creating a Sense of Place by Tom Callaghan

Title: A Killing Winter
Author: Tom Callaghan
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Pages: 400
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

‘The Kyrgyz winter reminds us that the past is never dead, simply waiting to ambush us around the next corner’.

When Inspector Akyl Borubaev of Bishkek Murder Squad arrives at the brutal murder scene of a young woman, all evidence hints at a sadistic serial killer on the hunt for more prey.

But when the young woman’s father turns out to be a leading government minister, the pressure is on Borubaev to solve the case not only quickly but also quietly, by any means possible. Until more bodies are found…

Still in mourning after his wife’s recent death, Borubaev descends into Bishkek’s brutal underworld, a place where no-one and nothing is as it seems, where everyone is playing for the highest stakes, and where violence is the only solution.

Review: A Killing Winter by Tom Callaghan

Title: A Killing Winter
Author: Tom Callaghan
Publisher: Quercus
Publication Date: 26th February 2015
Pages: 400
Source: Review Copy
Rating: 4.5/5
Purchase: Amazon

‘The Kyrgyz winter reminds us that the past is never dead, simply waiting to ambush us around the next corner’.

When Inspector Akyl Borubaev of Bishkek Murder Squad arrives at the brutal murder scene of a young woman, all evidence hints at a sadistic serial killer on the hunt for more prey.

But when the young woman’s father turns out to be a leading government minister, the pressure is on Borubaev to solve the case not only quickly but also quietly, by any means possible. Until more bodies are found…

Still in mourning after his wife’s recent death, Borubaev descends into Bishkek’s brutal underworld, a place where no-one and nothing is as it seems, where everyone is playing for the highest stakes, and where violence is the only solution.