Prime Justice (Justice series 14) by M.A. Comley #BookReview

About this book…

A killer, an abductor, and a villain intent on revenge – just a normal week in the life of DI Lorne Warner.

When a wealthy woman is found murdered in a country lane, close to her home, it’s up to Lorne to find the evidence to track down the rural killer.

When another resident in the same vicinity is abducted, the evidence points Lorne to believe both cases are connected.

However, Lorne’s focus on the puzzling case is in jeopardy, when a criminal awaiting trial threatens her career in the force.

Can Lorne restore the tranquility in the once sleepy community? And will she still be a serving police officer in the Met by the end of the investigation?

My review…

I really don’t know how Mel Comley does it! She consistently comes up with new and gripping storylines and I feel like Lorne Warner is now a dear friend that I am following through the ups and downs of her life, instead of a fictional character.

There is a pretty shocking crime at the beginning of this book which becomes more horrific when we realise that Nadine Walker-Scott knows her attacker. But when another local resident is also abducted, Lorne comes to realise there is a seriel offender on the loose. Can she solve the crime before the body count increases?

There is also a nod to previous books with the brief appearance of Sally Parker as there’s some bad news for Lorne regarding a previous case. Yes, that lovely lady Claire Knight won’t go down without a fight and is back to cause some trouble, even from behind bars. I do love a good baddie but have to admit that after reading Prime Justice, Lorne and Claire probably have a lot more in common than Lorne would like to admit. A case involving Charlie and her boyfriend makes Lorne VERY protective so heaven help anyone who messes with her family! Remind you of anyone?

Once I sat down to read this there was no way I was moving till it was finished. It held my attention 100% from start to finish with plenty of shocking twists along the way. A great addition to this popular series.

I received my review copy of Prime Justice from the author.

Prime Justice (Justice series Book 14) is available to purchase from Amazon UK.

Meeting the author…

I was lucky enough to meet Mel for the first time last weekend and she was exactly what I was expecting, a lovely, generous and funny lady and I was probably a little bit overwhelmed to be honest so went very quiet and shy! I have looked for a photo of us together but the only one I could find looked like we were having an angry argument over a book! I was able to tell her about the Amazon review that started me on my Justice journey (the same review also started my own reviewing journey as I wanted to inspire the same enthusiasm in people for books I loved.)

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Right Behind You by Lisa Gardner #BookReview

About this book…

Thirteen-year-old Sharlah Nash knows that the first time her brother killed eight years ago, he did it to save their lives.

Now retired FBI profiler Pierce Quincy and his wife Rainie Conner have offered Sharlah a new life of safety. She desperately wants to believe this is her shot at happily ever after.

Then two people are murdered in their local convenience store and Sharlah’s brother is identified as the killer.

Telly Ray Nash is on the hunt for Sharlah and as the death count rises it becomes clear that nothing and no one, including Pierce and Rainie, will stop him getting to her.

Now, Sharlah has one chance to take control.

She can run for her life… or turn and face the danger right behind her.

My review…

My favourite time of the year! A new Lisa Gardner book to read! And this one is a little bit special as it has the return of my favourite characters from previous books Pierce Quincy and Rainie Connor. I do love DD Warren and Tessa Leoni but I have always had a soft spot for Quincy and it was wonderful to be able to reconnect with him and Rainie as they head into a new direction in their life together.

Right from the first chapter here, I was hooked. The brilliant way Lisa Gardner draws her readers in never fails to amaze me. When we first meet Telly and his sister Sharlar they have a close relationship, he takes care of her when their parents aren’t able to. But one night of violence tears their family apart and now they live with separate foster carers. I loved seeing Quincy and Rainie in a different setting to normal as foster parents to Sharlar, the relationship dynamics have changed and their cosy home life seems at odds with their careers as profilers. When a double shooting leads a little bit too close to their door, Quincy has to make some very difficult parenting decisions which, if you have read the previous books, you will know have proven catastrophic in the past.

Saying that, you don’t have to have read any of the previous books as this does works incredibly well as a standalone novel. It’s just as engrossing as all of her previous books, with plot twists and red herrings galore and if the clues were there then I totally missed them! This is a very clever thriller, with fascinating characters (a tracker who is also a cheese maker!) following a case that is never quite as straightforward as it would appear.

And now having finished Right Behind You, all I want to do now is go back to the start where we first met Quincy (7 books ago) and read them all again! Now that’s the sign of a PERFECT series!

Right Behind You (FBI Profiler Book 7) is published by Headline on 31st January 2017 and is available to purchase from Amazon UK.

Meet the author…

Lisa Gardner is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author. Her FBI Profiler novels include SAY GOODBYE, GONE and THE KILLING HOUR. Her Detective D.D. Warren series includes THE NEIGHBOUR, which won the International Thriller Writers’ Award in 2010, CATCH ME, CRASH & BURN and FIND HER. Lisa lives with her family in New England.

The Beautiful Dead by Belinda Bauer #BookReview #WeekendBlogShare

About this book…

There’s no safety in numbers . . .

Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.

The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.

When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.

One is public murder.

And the other one is her . . .

My review…

I have been a HUGE fan of Belinda Bauer for years so there’s always a frisson of excitement when she has a new book out and upon seeing the amazing cover I was keen to get reading what lay within!

Eve Singer lives her life in front of the camera covering crimes for iWitness news with her cameraman Joe. But covering the gory and graphic death of a young office worker is about to bring her into the life of one of the most remarkably creepy and freakishly scary serial killers I’ve come across in a long time! In fact he is pretty much the star of this book with his chapters delving deeper into his warped mind and plans for his “exhibitions”. Eve was his sidekick in a way as she becomes deeper and more personally involved in his crimes.

The first few pages of this book are absolutely terrifying! Belinda Bauer has a way of getting the crimes in her books under your skin very early on. I quite liked Eve! And her relationship with her dad who suffers from Alzheimer’s was a joy to watch and provided some very funny but rather poignant moments along the way.

I have to say that this wasn’t exactly what I was expecting after the wonderful The Shut Eye which is my favourite book by this author. There was a different feel to the writing, a darkness with genius touches of black humour that reminded me more of her earlier books. I found I needed to concentrate more so I didn’t miss a word and therefore it took me a few days to read which isn’t like me. It wasn’t as unputdownable as I had expected but it still gripped me and the ending was just perfect-an explosive and heart racing finale. And I have to say I adored Mr Elias-what a wonderful character creation he was and some of his comments made me laugh out loud but then in the next instant feel a wave of sympathy for him.

This is a great “countdown to Christmas” book for those who fancy something a little different to the saccharine sweet Christmas books around and are feeling a bit “bah humbug” about the whole festive season!

The Beautiful Dead was published by Transworld on 17th November 2016 and is available to buy here at Amazon UK

Meet the author…

Belinda Bauer grew up in England and South Africa. She has worked as a journalist and screenwriter and her script The Locker Room earned her the Carl Foreman/Bafta Award for Young British Screenwriters.

With her first novel, Blacklands, Belinda won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year. Her second and third novels, Darkside and Finders Keepers, were highly acclaimed, and she was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award 2012 for her entire body of work. Rubbernecker is Belinda’s latest novel.

Belinda is a repeat guest on Front Row and regularly appears at Harrogate Crime Festival. She lives in Wales.

Tragic Deception by Mel Comley and Linda Prather #BookReview #FridayReads

About this book…

“Seek liberty, Foxy, and you’ll find me.”

Sergeant Alexandra Fox came to America to find the man who had brutally murdered her sister. A man the press called The Escape Artist. Could a British Sergeant fit in with the NYPD? Not if Commander Patterson had anything to do with it.

Suspended with only two friends in America– Chief Brown, a long time family friend, and retired Sergeant Matt “Nobby” Adams, Alex has seven days to find three kidnapped babies, or look for a new job.

Her investigation leads her into a world of deception, that turns tragic before it even begins, and a helping hand from the one person she hated the most–The Escape Artist.

My review…

Before I give out my review please check out my review of Clever Deception by Mel Comley and Linda Prather which is the prequel novella and starts off the Deception series. I would definitely recommend that you read this first to get the most out of Tragic Deception.

And if you’ve read that review you will know that I gave it a fantastic 5 stars which means that I’m going to have to give this one 6 stars because it’s even better! While the novella set the tone for the series and introduced us to Alex and to The Escape Artist, we now become acquainted with Alex in her new role in the NYPD where she’s been working (her way through partners!!) for the past year. It hasn’t been plain sailing but she’s now been given a chance to shine when she has to solve the case of three missing babies. Now this is one of the twistiest cases that Alex has had to get her teeth into (it fooled me for most of the book as I really didn’t work out where it was going) and she really has her work cut out but thankfully she has a great team alongside her. One of the new characters we are introduced to criminal psychologist Blake Morgan and I think there is PLENTY more drama to come there!

I am so impressed with the way Mel and Linda have teamed up to write this new series. Moving the action to the U.S. has worked far better than I expected to and it felt like a natural progression for Alex. I absolutely loved the new cast of characters we meet here, they meshed together with a mix of personalities that all complimented each other perfectly. Nobby, in particular, was an endearing father figure that I took to straight away. And The Escape Artist is still there hovering in the background, never far from Alex’s thoughts and possibly closer than even she has anticipated! As before, as soon as I got to the end I wanted MORE! This series has definitely become a firm favourite now and I can’t wait for the next “Deception” instalment. It really does inspire a whole range of emotions in me, most of them involving a sharp rise in my blood pressure!

Thank you to both Mel Comley and Linda Prather for my review copy of this book in return for my unbiased review.

Tragic Deception (Deception Series Book 1) is published on 1st October 2016 and is available to buy here from Amazon UK.

About the authors…

Linda S Prather and M A Comley are both USA Today and New York Times bestselling authors who have collaborated to bring you the Deception series

The Day I Lost You by Fionnuala Kearney

About this book…

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY I DISCOVERED I NEVER REALLY KNEW YOU

When Jess’s daughter, Anna, is reported lost in an avalanche, everything changes.

Jess’s first instinct is to protect Rose, Anna’s five-year-old daughter. But then she starts to uncover Anna’s other life – unearthing a secret that alters their whole world irrevocably . . .

THE DAY I LOST YOU WAS THE DAY YOU TORE OUR FAMILY APART

My review…

This was my status update that I wrote on Good read as soon as I finished The Day I Lost You. I’ve kept it in as Kaisha Holloway at The Writing Garner thought it summed up a lot of how I felt.

“Ok so review will follow tomorrow for this one as I need some time to gather my thoughts so that I can do it justice (which I know already I won’t be able to!!) And also because I’ve sobbed so much my eyes are sore and I’ve had to remove my glasses and I can’t read a thing without them…..till tomorrow!!”

So that was how I felt the moment I put down The Day I Lost You which is DEFINITELY in my top 10 books of 2016. It is utterly heartbreaking and totally compelling and I couldn’t bear to put it down until I had devoured every single word written. In fact even when I had finished it I couldn’t part with it-it is still sitting beside me awaiting the bookcase. I loved this book so much I want to shrink it and wear it in a locket around my neck! Yes, I know I sound emotional but right from the very first few pages this book touched me very deeply. The author has such a way with words that it’s like she’s is slowly hypnotising you with her story, she’s such a natural storyteller. The images she created for me were so vivid, the themes of loss, grief, family and friendship running through it were totally on point and she handled the tragic circumstances perfectly. I am pretty much unable to convey in words the emotions that ran through me as I read.

I think it helped (or hindered!!) me that I felt a very strong connection to Jess. Her reactions to situations were very similar to the way I react to things so her journey made perfect sense to me. Her way of seeing the world in black and white with no shades in between meant that her actions were very much inevitable from the start. And I also loved her reaction to ginger, as it is something that I have in common with her and made me smile, a lighter moment to relieve some of the building tension.

I cried intermittently throughout and sobbed for the last few pages. No apologies, no excuses about menopausal emotions from a grandmother-I embraced the feelings that it gave me. This book surprised me constantly throughout, it didn’t follow the path I was expecting and I loved it even more for that.

Highly recommended by me but please have tissues ready! You have been warned!

Thanks to Book Connectors and the author for organising my paperback review copy.

The Day I Lost You: A heartfelt, emotion-packed, twist-filled read is available in e-book now from Amazon UK and is released in paperback on 22nd September 2016

About the author…

Fionnuala Kearney lives in Ascot with her husband. They have two grown-up daughters (both with deliberately simple monosyllabic names). One of seven children, Fionnuala likes to write about the nuances and subtle layers of human relationships, peeling them away to see what’s really going on beneath. This her second novel, her first was the Top Ten Irish Times bestselling You, Me and Other People.

The Holiday Swap by Zara Stoneley

About this book…

Two women, two very different lives – one perfect solution to escape festive heartbreak!

Tucked away in the idyllic English countryside, Daisy Fischer’s cosy little cottage has always been her safe haven. But when her completely dependable boyfriend issues her an ultimatum, Daisy realises there’s a whole world out there she’s missing out on.

Florence Cortes’s life couldn’t be better – gorgeous apartment right on the beach, fabulous job and dreamy boyfriend, or so she thought. Suddenly, Flo’s life isn’t so perfect after all.

When the girls house swap for the holidays, it’s not long before Daisy is being distracted by sun, sea and sexy Javier while Flo finds herself snowbound for Christmas with only handsome neighbour Hugo and a house full of animals to keep her company.

Love actually does seem to be all around this Christmas, but in the places Flo and Daisy least expect to find it…

My review…

Get ready to raise a glass of Cava as Tippermere is back but with a little Spanish twist! I love the Tippermere series (I have to admit that my own Cheshire village comes very close to all the fun and drama but maybe doesn’t have quite as many gorgeous single men!) but here we get twice the fabulous settings as the cosy Cheshire village is romantically twinned with bustling Barcelona for a Christmas treat! And although Tippermere is the location for one of the swaps this is a standalone book so you don’t need to have read any others (but you should anyway!!)

What I adore about Zara Stoneleys books is that you get a real sense of her locations as she writes about what she knows. All the way through I could practically taste all the wonderful tapas dishes and feel the warmth of the Spanish sunshine then, when I turned the page, I was immediately back in the Cheshire countryside, in the snow, hacking down country lanes. And then she fills her authentic settings with the most wonderful characters who are gorgeous and funny and feel like they are your friends. I adored both Daisy and Flo, who decide to swap their lives for a few weeks. Daisy isn’t sure that she wants to accept her boyfriend Jimmy’s proposal and Flo is expecting a proposal but she gets rather a different kind of shock instead! So it just makes sense to try living in one another’s shoes, it always brings things into perspective…doesn’t it?! One of the things that made this book work for me was that I loved both girls stories equally. Often when there is a dual point of view I can find myself racing through one person’s chapter just to get to the other storyline but here I felt at home with Flo and with Daisy and enjoyed both of their journeys of self discovery. If you don’t feel happy and relaxed and full of Christmas cheer by the end then your name must be Scrooge!
This book has been promoted as addictive reading for fans of the film The Holiday and I have to back that up 100%! I don’t feel it’s really Christmas until I’ve snuggled down under a cosy blanket with a fully loaded hot chocolate and a plate of homemade mince pies to watch The Holiday. It’s a Christmas tradition that I undertake with one of my daughters every year as its her favourite film! This year I have to say that I have already preordered the paperback of The Holiday Swap to pop in her Christmas stocking as I know she will love it as much as I do! The cover alone makes me smile so I can’t wait to see her face on Christmas morning (although it may backfire on me when she’s too busy reading to help peel all the veg!)

I always recommend this author to fans of Jilly Cooper especially ones who love Jilly’s quick witted humour and puns but struggle with the huge cast of characters and animals. This book had me smiling from cover to cover and I loved the pages of little tips at the end too. Christmas in Cheshire is going to be fabulous this year!

The Holiday Swap: The perfect laugh-out-loud romance for fans of the Christmas movie The Holiday is published by Carina and available to buy here at Amazon UK

About the author…

 

Bestselling author Zara Stoneley lives in Cheshire surrounded by horses, dogs, cats and amazing countryside. When she’s not visiting wine bars, artisan markets or admiring the scenery in her sexy high heels or green wellies, she can be found in flip flops on the beach in Barcelona, or more likely sampling the tapas!

Zara writes hot romance and bonkbusters. Her latest novels, ‘Stable Mates’, ‘Country Affairs’ and ‘Country Rivals’, are fun romps through the Cheshire countryside and combine some of her greatest loves – horses, dogs, hot men and strong women (and not forgetting champagne and fast cars)!

She writes for Harper Collins and Accent Press.

Where you can find her-

Website: http://www.zarastoneley.com
Twitter: @ZaraStoneley
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZaraStoneley

Hide and Seek by M.J. Arlidge

About this book…

AFTER Little Boy Blue FIND OUT WHAT AWAITS DI HELEN GRACE IN THE SIXTH THRILLER BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR M. J. ARLIDGE: Hide and Seek

My review…

I can’t believe we are already at Helen Grace #6! This has proved to be a brilliant series so far, with each new instalment just getting better and better. If you haven’t heard of this author or series then you really must give it a go, I rarely hear a bad review of it. But please make sure you follow it from Eeny Meeny, the first, and that you have definitely read Little Boy Blue before this one as there will be some major spoilers and you need to know exactly why DI Helen has fallen from Grace!

So this book is rather different as Helen is in prison but you can’t take stop a detective detecting so when a fellow prisoner is found dead in rather gruesome circumstances, Helen is in the right place at the right time to dig deeper. Although out of her usual environment this still works very well and gives a different twist to Helen’s personality as she has to live and interact daily with people that she’s usually trying to put away! The women’s prison has such a mix of characters, some evil, some desperate and others who are just accepting of their fate. I did feel emotionally connected to them all and was dreading the thought that there may be a serial killer stalking the inmates. And on the outside there is Charlie’s Brooks, Helen’s biggest supporter and working desperately hard against all the odds to get her boss released. I just love Charlie’s determination and strength of character as much as I do Helen’s but here she really comes across far more intense as there’s nothing she won’t do and nobody she won’t cross in her quest to prove Helen’s innocence.

I do adore this series, it seems to run seamlessly from book to book with the themes and characters that continue through them. This one has a different feel but it’s still as thrilling and edge-of-your-seat entertaining with a plot that still sends you off in totally the wrong direction! And that last chapter…..talk about chilling!!! I do love how M.J Arlidge always leaves us wanting more RIGHT NOW!

Huge thanks to Penguin Michael Joseph for my ARC.

Hide and Seek: DI Helen Grace 6 (Detective Inspector Helen Grace) is released on 8th September 2016 and is available to buy here from Amazon UK.

And see my review of Little Boy Blue here!

About the author…

M. J. Arlidge has worked in television for the last fifteen years, specializing in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Torn,The Little House and Silent Witness. Arlidge is also piloting original crime series for both UK and US networks. In 2015 his audio exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number one bestseller.

His début thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK’s bestselling crime debut of 2014. It was followed by the bestselling Pop Goes the Weasel, The Doll’s House, Liar Liar and Little Boy Blue. Hide and Seek is the sixth DI Helen Grace thriller and will be followed by Follow My Leader in 2017.

@MJArlidge

 

What Goes Around by Julie Corbin

About this book…

Two women, two secrets, one murder…

What Goes Around is the story of two women – Ellen and Leila. Ellen is the ex-wife and Leila is the new woman, living in Ellen’s house, sleeping with Ellen’s husband. Each woman has her own secrets to keep. Leila’s brother is back in her life and is determined to rake up their past while Ellen is out for revenge. She wants her home back and she wants Leila to pay for breaking up her marriage. Her plan will make her do things she never thought herself capable of – but it will also put her in danger. Because Ellen has no idea what sort of a woman Leila is and when she finally finds out, it could already be too late…

One of the women will end up dead. But which one?

My review…

I’ve been a fan of Julie Corbin since her first novel. Her Scottish settings and her way of using her characters to live out your worst nightmares have always appealed to me and I look forward to when she has a new book out.

What Goes Around is a fabulous title for a psychological revenge thriller (it’s an annoyingly frequent saying of mine apparently!) and right from the start I realised that this book was very different from Julie Corbin’s previous books. Although the same general seed is sown (ordinary people thrown into difficult and ultimately dangerous situations) the way this one evolves is much darker than I had been expecting! It’s also much more concentrated as its told in alternating points of view by Ellen and Leila forming a tale of two women and a questionable quest for revenge. Ellen is suffering from OCD since splitting from her husband. Leila is the therapist that Ellen books an appointment with to help her. So far so good but unfortunately Ellen is there under an assumed name as Leila is the woman her husband left her for! Now at that information, you’re probably wondering how that would work? Surely the new woman would know what the ex wife looks like? But Leila isn’t like other women, certainly none I have met anyway! And because of that I disliked her from the start. How can a woman be so self absorbed that she hasn’t got a clue about the woman she has replaced? But Leila has a past that is hinted at throughout so that when I found out more, it was actually quite horrifying and I started to question my initial judgment of her. Whereas Ellen had my sympathy from the off, dumped for a younger, more adventurous woman and losing her home as well as her husband. So I was rather shocked at the actions she took to extract her revenge.

And that’s what worked so well here for me as a reader. My sympathies and opinions switched around so many times I was dizzy by the end! There were no real shocks here but the plot definitely didn’t play out as I was expecting so to manage to conjure up a few surprises is certainly something to be applauded. I feel I should warn that there are some difficult and sometimes rather upsetting scenes here which some people may find unpleasant reading but I found it to be relevant to discovering what makes characters act the way they do. The storyline also explores the “nature versus nurture” theory which has always been a particular fascination of mine.

A gripping but rather unsettling read which probably isn’t my favourite Julie Corbin novel but it’s one that will haunt me more than usual.

What Goes Around: A chilling psychological thriller is available to buy here from Amazon UK

About the author..

Julie Corbin is Scottish and grew up just outside Edinburgh. She has lived in East Sussex for the last twenty-five years and raised her three sons in a village close to the Ashdown Forest. She is trained as a nurse and combines running the medical department in a boarding school with writing novels, short stories and currently a radio play.

 

The Devil’s Work by Mark Edwards

I was lucky enough to attend a workshop for The Devil’s Work when attended the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival in July this year. It was such good fun and I was able to get a little bit more of an insight into the way Mark Edwards wrote it and also about his journey to becoming the writer he is today. I was thrilled to be able to get my copy signed by the author himself. Here is all you need to know about Marks latest book which comes out on 13th September and my review.

About this book…

It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake.

What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie’s predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.

As her life begins to fall apart at work and at home, Sophie must race to uncover the truth about her new job…before it kills her.

My review…

I am always excited to find out there is a new Mark Edwards book on the way and The Devils Work certainly lived up to my expectations! In fact I think it’s his best so far and has overtaken Follow You Home which was my previous favourite. I read it in two sittings as it was a fabulously unputdownable read and I just loved it!

Sophie has returned to the workplace after raising her 4 year old daughter, Daisy, to school age. She is ecstatic to be head hunted by Jackdaw Books to run their publicity department, her dream job since school. But there is something not quite right from the start and her dream job threatens to become her worst nightmare! In fact if this book was a film, I would have missed huge sections as I would have been watching behind a cushion! I am a such a wimp when it comes to horror movies and at times here I felt like I was in one and wanted to shout at Sophie “Dont go in there!!!” and “Don’t listen to them!!!” and (slightly more bizarrely) “Watch out for the zombies!!!”

I really liked the way that Sophie’s story was interspersed with flashbacks to her days at uni. I loved the younger Sophie and her naivety and really felt for her trying to fit in. Her relationship with Jasmine and Liam is one that would worry any parent and I felt very protective of her! In the present day, Sophie seems to have hardened up, obviously something terrible happened back then but what? When things start happening to her she goes to pieces and becomes paranoid very quickly. Whoever is messing with Sophie certainly knows what buttons to press! And it definitely plays on every parents worse nightmare as one of the scenes with Daisy actually gave me goosebumps, it terrified me!

There are twists and turns galore here and more red herrings than you can shake a stick at! About half way through I was convinced I knew what was going on but oh dear, I shouldn’t have been so smug because nothing is ever as it seems here. And can I just say I loved the little reference to those “lovely neighbours” The Newtons hidden away in there!

This is a highly recommended creepy psychological thriller that you will want to read in one sitting. Gripping and terrifying from start to finish.

The Devil’s Work is out on 13th September and can be ordered here at Amazon UK

About the author…

Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people and is inspired by writers such as Stephen King, Ira Levin, Ruth Rendell and Linwood Barclay.

He is the author of three #1 bestsellers: Follow You Home (a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards 2015), The Magpies and Because She Loves Me, along with What You Wish For and six novels co-written with Louise Voss. All of his books are inspired by real-life experiences.

Originally from the south coast of England, Mark now lives in the West Midlands with his wife, their three children and a ginger cat.

Mark loves hearing from readers and can be contacted via his website, http://www.markedwardsauthor.com.

Clever Deception by Mel Comley and Linda Prather

About this book…

“Have you ever watched the light fade from someone’s eyes, Foxy? The pigment slowly, ever so slowly disappear?”

The press call him the Escape Artist, and he is certainly living up to his name.

Sergeant Alexandra Fox has never come up against such a devious mind in her entire career. Ten young women, seven of them wives of fellow officers, have been found tortured and murdered. Every tiny lead fizzles out, and he revels in taunting them by phone, torturing them mentally as he forces them to listen to the screams of his victims.

Alexandra, is determined to catch him before he kills again, unaware that she’s become the object of his obsession until he issues one last threat: “I thought I would give you one warning. A chance to back away and leave the investigation. Don’t make me punish you.”

My review…

OMG! What a blooming brilliant novella! I took it with me to read whilst at the play barn this morning (school hols plus rain equals desperate measures!) and I absolutely loved every second of it. Mel Comley and Linda Prather are great on their own as writers but together they are amazing. Its like my love of peanut butter and my love of chocolate-on their own they are pretty good but put them together and I am in heaven!!!

Alex Fox is just a wonderful new character creation and I felt every single emotion that she was going through here. Hunting a vile and devious serial killer known as the Escape Artist, Fox has to put everything she has into solving the clues he maliciously sends her to try to prevent more abductions and work out who he is and what motive keeps on driving him.

This is a novella so didn’t take much longer than an hour for me to read but now I just can’t wait for the first book in the new Deception series. Be aware there is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end here and hope you don’t start screaming “NO!!!!! I want more now!!” like I did! This is a really great start to this new series that will, I’m sure, be a huge hit with fans of both writers and adding some new ones as well!

Many thanks to the authors for my advanced review copy in return for my unbiased review.

Clever Deception: A Deception novella prequel to Tragic Deception is published on 14th September 2016 and will be available to buy from Amazon UK here.