A Hen Weekend Survival Guide

In A Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware

Who can I trust if I can't even trust myself.

In a dark dark wood tells the story of a hen do gone wrong. Told from the perspective of Nora we follow her story as she travels to a house deep in the woods in Northumberland for Clare, her childhood best friend's hen party weekend. Nora is surprised when she gets an invitation to Clare's hen do as they have not spoken to each other in 10 years. However Clare's maid of honour, Flo, is adamant that Clare really wants her to attend and it would mean a lot if she was to be there. Along with another childhood friend Nina, Nora agrees to attend despite her reservations as to the motive behind her invite.

The hen party is a small weekend away with only 6 people attending. Staying in Flo's aunt's glass house in the middle of the woods, the plan is for everybody to reconnect and enjoy one last fun care free weekend before the wedding. However things soon begin to go wrong. We already know from the opening pages that Nora has ended up in hospital but how? And Why? What has happened in the woods? Who is responsible? These are the questions we are about to answer.

This reminded me of an old dinner party murder mystery. The hen party is isolated out in the woods, everyone is a suspect and everyone is also a potential victim. There are motives for so many different outcomes as we read through the hen party weekend. The twist on the old dinner party murder mystery is that in this one we don't begin with a murder victim. We don't even know what has happened or who it has happened to. All of this unravels as we read through the events that unfold throughout the weekend. There are reasons for people wanting to kill each and every one of the people on the hen. There are people throughout who you could imagine becoming unhinged and hurting people. There is talk of locals who are angry with the glass house being built in the woods. There are footprints in the snow which don't seem to belong to anyone on the hen weekend. Is Nora the only person to get hurt? Does everyone survive the weekend? Who is responsible for Nora being hospitalised? Why exactly was she invited to the hen do after not speaking to the bride to be for a decade? There is a lot of mystery surrounding the events of the weekend and this one will keep you turning the pages to find out exactly what has happened. It turns out to be one of the first thoughts I had yet there is enough misdirection and good red herrings thrown in that I wasn't at all confident in my guess and had to keep reading as quickly as possible to find out. Once I got into the story I couldn't wait to find out all the answers!

This one is a fairly quick read. I read it in one sitting, racing to the end to find out what was going on. If you enjoy the old style murder mysteries and are prepared to suspend your disbelief for a few hours then I would definitely recommend this modern take on the old 'Whodunit'. A terrific debut thriller and i will definitely be reading Ruth Ware's next effort as well. I would rate this as a 4 out of 5, a thrilling mystery and a great quick read.

Voodoo, Murder & Louis Armstrong

The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin

New Orleans, 1919.

As Music Fills The City,

A Serial Killer Strikes…

The Axeman's Jazz is based on the real life mystery of the New Orleans based serial killer known as the axeman. Between 1918 and 1919 the axeman of New Orleans killed 6 people. To this day, the person responsible for the killings remains unknown. There are numerous suspects and historians have theorised several possible explanations for the unsolved case and yet it remains just that, an unsolved case.

The story is told from multiple different third person perspectives. The three main perspectives which are told throughout are those of Michael Talbot, Luca d'Andrea and Ida Davis & Louis Armstrong.

Detective Lieutenant Michael Talbot is in charge of the official investigation regarding the axeman killings. He is a hard working police officer who is disliked by the majority of his fellow officers due to his involvement in putting his corrupt mentor behind bars.

Luca d'Andrea is a former detective who has recently been released after serving 6 years in Angola. He had been an officer for many years but was imprisoned after his protégée Michael exposed his links to the New Orleans Mafia. He has been asked by the head of the New Orleans Mafia to investigate the axeman killings and to kill the person responsible before the police find them.

Ida Davis is a secretary at the Pinkerton Detective Agency with a penchant for Sherlock Holmes mysteries. With a hunch about the axeman killings Ida talks her friend Louis Armstrong into helping her with a real life investigation as they attempt to find out the truth behind the killings. And yes, it is that Louis Armstrong.

This is a brilliant book from start to finish. Every perspective is equally intriguing and the pacing keeps tension high throughout. I like the idea of all the perspectives being from different cultures, allowing them to find clues and explore areas that other characters can't enter due to the racial tensions of the time. It also adds to the tension and feeling of real danger when some characters do choose to cross over to the wrong side of town.

Things don't move quite as quickly as some other thrillers; there is plenty of time spent exploring post WW1 Louisiana, from the seedy brothels of Storyville to the remoteness of the shacks built in the bayou. The impact of the war and prohibition of both alcohol and prostitution are explored as are the racial tensions which arose from so many different cultures living in such close proximity and yet the story never feels like it is spinning it's wheels. Every description helps to set the scene and exploration of the history surrounding this time period helps to further the story, there is no filler for the sake of bulking things out.

This is a historical fiction. I want to highlight the fact that it is a work of fiction as it would appear from some reviews that this seems to have passed some people by. It is obvious that the author has done his research but the cold hard facts are not strictly stuck to. I have no issue with this, I read fiction primarily to be entertained. The facts which are contained in this novel are an interesting bonus but if I wanted to know simple truths I would be reading non fiction efforts about the time period instead. I have seen one review label this as a one star rating because the historical references are not 100% accurate. I found it baffling that somebody would take such issue with a work of fiction not being totally factual. Their main issue seemed to lie with the fact that the hurricane in 1919 hit New Orleans in September and not at the same time as the axeman killings were happening. Have we recalled all creative licenses from authors who base their works of fiction on real events? Talking of facts, the fact that famous jazz musician Louis Armstrong is playing detective in this one should have given it away that not everything contained in the pages of this book would be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Obviously as well as stretching the truth to create more excitement, this book also provides the authors take on who could have been responsible for the killings. Nobody was ever caught in real life so again the revelations in this book are a work of fiction based largely on fictional characters. I found the story compelling and I am extremely happy to hear that the author is working on a follow up novel which will contain some of the characters which have been introduced during this book. These are characters you will fall in love with and want to keep reading about. The dialogue is not authentic to the time or region yet I feel this is to the books benefit. An entire book filled with southern dialect of the time period would make for tougher reading and a lot of time would be spent by readers not from the region attempting to figure out what characters were trying to say. An accent is alluded to in the way some characters speak but dialogue is still kept accessible for all readers.

It feels like I have spent this whole review trying to address the issues that keep popping up in negative reviews and that i'm possibly trying to talk up a poor book. This is far from the case. In fact I would give this book a 5 out of 5 rating. Despite peoples issues with authentic dialogue and historical accuracy this book did everything I expected of it; It entertained me from beginning to end. I loved the descriptions of the setting, I enjoyed the factual tit bits that it offered (despite some inaccuracies there are also a lot of true aspects), I loved the characters and I was gripped by the story right through to the final sentences! After my disappointment with 'I Let You Go' I was extremely happy to find this one lived up to my high expectations.

Death, Grief, Guilt & The Beautiful Welsh Coast

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

A tragic accident.

It all happened so quickly.

She couldn't have prevented it.

Could she?

'I let you go' begins in the aftermath of a hit and run which leaves 5 year old Jacob dead in the road outside of his single mother's house. To begin with the story is told from two different perspectives; a third person perspective of detective inspector Ray Stevens who is in charge of the hit and run investigation and a first person perspective of Jenna Gray who in the aftermath of the accident has moved to a remote cottage on the Welsh coast, eager for a fresh start.

This is going to be one of the most frustrating reviews I have written, and is about one of the most frustrating books that I have ever read. It is going to be extremely difficult to talk about this one without giving away any spoilers due to the story being told in two parts with various big reveals throughout. Even the first few chapters are filled with potential spoilers for those guessing the twists which lay ahead so I will refrain from discussing any specific plot details. I apologise in advance for the vagueness that may lie ahead in this review, I just really don't wish to spoil anything if you decide to give this one a go.

I will be honest, I REALLY didn't like the first half of this book. If it wasn't for the fact that I was planning to write this review I probably would have given up at the predictable reveal which ends part one. Within the first couple of chapters I turned to my better half and described to her exactly where I thought the story was going. I was totally right, in fact I managed to guess the majority of the story from fairly early on and only one detail was missing from my description. Now as I have said previously, I don't really mind guessing the outcome of a story early on if it still manages to entertain me; Unfortunately, part one of this book did anything but entertain me.

I found the characters fairly clichéd. I especially disliked reading the perspective of the police who all seemed very boring two dimensional characters. Every twist could be seen coming from a mile away and I just found it a real slog to get through. I was massively disappointed. This book had been highly recommended and I was really looking forward to it. Perhaps if I hadn't been looking for a potential twist I might not have worked things out so quickly and this may have seemed more exciting and less predictable for me. I guess that is the danger of printing rave reviews over a book cover proclaiming that I was about to read a story with 'an astonishing twist'. When part one came to an end in exactly the way I was expecting I just rolled my eyes, put the book down for the night and contemplated whether or not to even bother reading the second part. I'm glad that I did.

Part two is far closer to the book I was hoping to read. The predictably clichéd characters from part one suddenly got that bit more interesting. The plot started to pick up and began to hold my interest. A new character is introduced and their perspective is a big part of why the second half of this book becomes so compelling. If this review was based off of just part two of this book it would be getting a wonderful write up. I'm aware that stories need to be set up in the beginnings of books, characters need to be introduced and things will usually be less frantic so that the home straight seems that bit more exciting. That said, if I had given up half way through as I was considering then I would never have got to the good stuff. 
In the interest of being fair I will state that my lack of enjoyment from the first half of this book could just be because I saw things coming from so early on. Perhaps my mind works in a similar way to the author and despite their best efforts to shield the truth from the reader I just saw through the red herrings easily and that is why I found it predictable and unenjoyable. There is every chance that you could pick this one up tomorrow and not spot what is coming and be blown away when the reveals happen. My recommendation would be to not think too much, don't try to figure things out, just keep reading and enjoy the reveals when they happen.

I think it would be fairer for me to rate both halves of this book separately. I would give the first part a 2 out of 5, possibly a 3 at a stretch. Having guessed the outcome (and being so sure that I was right) I couldn't buy into the red herrings and the reveals came as no big surprise. With so much being shielded in this first part the characters come across as very simple and fairly clichéd. However as I said there is a real possibility that without guessing the twist, they may seem more interesting to you. The plot may still take you by surprise. Unfortunately, I cannot go back in time and read part one again without trying to work out the twists to see if it makes a difference to the overall enjoyment of this part of the book. I hope if you decide to give this one a go you can put your amateur sleuth skills to bed early and read without trying to guess what is coming.

As for part two, I would rate it as a solid 4 out of 5. The pace picks up considerably, the characters, new and old, are far more interesting and the plot does hold some good twists towards the end. Overall this one was not as good as I had hoped, but even more frustratingly part two showed all the signs of being brilliant, it's a real shame that part one detracted so much from my overall enjoyment. Part two was good enough that I will be keeping a look out for any future novels from Clare Mackintosh as I really think there will be some great books to come. As début novels go this is still a very good starting point and I hope the next book will be as good throughout as the second half of this was. I think we all have those books that are hyped up for a long time and fail to meet our unrealistically lofty expectations, unfortunately this was one of mine.

Sealions, Penguins & Whales! Oh My!

Little Black Lies by Sharon Bolton

I’ve been wondering if I have what it takes to kill. Whether I can look a living creature in the eye and take the one irreversible action that ends a life. Asked and answered, I suppose. I have no difficulty in killing. I’m actually rather good at it. 

We were inseparable until the day she killed my sons. Little Black Lies is Sharon Bolton’s first standalone novel since ‘Blood Harvest’. Set in the Falkland Islands 12 years after the end of the war, this suspense filled tale is told by three different characters over the course of just 6 days. Part one is told by Catrin, a mother whose two young sons died in a tragic accident three years earlier whilst being cared for by her best friend Rachel. Part two tells the story from the perspective of Callum, a former British soldier who now lives on the Island and finally part three is told by Rachel.

In the early chapters of this book Catrin lets us in on her plans for revenge. Three years after the tragic deaths of her sons she is still haunted by them, believing she sees them in her home, hears their voices and feels them still wanting to play games with her. Since their deaths she has lost everything. Her husband has divorced her and started a new family after she lost the baby she was carrying at the time of her sons deaths. She has lost her best friend, holding her personally responsible for her sons deaths and to make things worse she has had to watch as Rachel is able to carry on her life, continuing to raise her own three sons.

Catrin wants revenge. She wants Rachel to pay and is hatching a plan to coincide with the impending eclipse that will make sure she gets exactly what Catrin believes she deserves.

I honestly cannot say enough good things about this one. Right from the beginning I was totally hooked. The setting of the Falkland Islands was a very welcome change to the norm. The Falklands are not somewhere I have ever travelled or particularly know very much about. However having read this I would definitely be interested to visit. Sharon Bolton has painted a beautifully realistic image of the Islands and I had no problem in imaging the places described. I’ve seen a couple of people complaining that there is too much description of the setting. I can’t agree with these criticisms as I really believe that the setting adds to a lot of the tension in the story. The isolation, the dangerous terrain, the close knit community where everybody seems to know everyone, along with the visitors to the islands so unused to the ways of the locals all add to the story in one way or another and definitely add to the atmosphere the author is trying to create.

 I loved the characters despite their obvious shortcomings. There are a wide range of things explored with the various characters; revenge, post traumatic stress disorder, depression, forgiveness and human nature in extreme situations. I enjoyed the pacing, despite taking time to explore the landscape and a few mentions of the history surrounding the islands and the war fought there, I never felt like the story dragged. Even with the story being told from different perspectives the narrative never slows down to unnecessarily repeat events from various points of view. The different characters fill in the gaps throughout the beginning of the story, all telling their own tales before they all come together for a riveting ending. This book has so many twists and turns and they are all plausible outcomes throughout, none of them are thrown in without being a real possibility. This one really keeps you guessing what’s going to happen right through until the very end. In fact come the end of the book not every question has been fully answered and honestly I really like that. There are enough hints to lead you to some conclusions but not any concrete answers for some questions.

After Renee Knight’s ‘Disclaimer’ I truly believed it would be a long time before I could rate a thriller as a 5 out of 5 again. It was such a fantastic book that I didn’t imagine finding anything quite as good anytime soon. Fortunately I was wrong. This is 100% a 5 out of 5 book and I might even go as far as to say that I preferred it. I really can’t say enough good things about this one and would highly recommend you read it as your next thriller!

Trainspotting in the Suburbs

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
 

To everyone else in this carriage I must look normal; I'm doing exactly what they do: commuting to work, making appointments, ticking things off lists. Just goes to show. 

For a long time I had heard nothing but good reviews for this book. Touted as the thriller of the year I had fairly high expectations and on the whole I was not disappointed with the story of the girl on the train.

The story is presented to us from the perspectives of three different women. The main character and the first perspective we are introduced to is that of Rachel, a divorced alcoholic who watches other people's lives from the window of the train she takes to and from London Euston each and everyday. She has a favourite couple that she watches from the train, a couple she believes to have the perfect life. She has named this couple Jason and Jess and has imagined their whole lives just from brief glances of them as her train stops outside their back garden everyday.

The second perspective from which we are told this story is that of Megan. Megan is one half of Rachel's imaginary couple, Jason and Jess. We soon find out, however, that Megan's life is far from the imagined fairy tale that Rachel believes it to be.

The third and final perspective is that of Anna, the new wife of Rachel's ex husband Tom. All three women's perspectives are presented in a diary style format with the main part of the story being set between July and September 2013. There are several entries from outside of this time period and I quite often found myself flicking backwards and forwards to keep track of dates and times (Not something which is particularly necessary but my Sherlock Holmes instincts kicked in and I became convinced that the dates would become pertinent to unravelling the mysteries of this tale).

The plot revolves around the sudden and unexpected disappearance of Megan. With our flawed protagonist Rachel believing she may be able to help to unravel the mystery, we begin a journey with her as she attempts to fill in the gaps of her blackout drunk evening when Megan went missing. I will say that I guessed the ending fairly early on but this in no way detracted from my enjoyment of the story and there were many times throughout when I doubted whether or not I was even right.

The story starts slower than I was expecting but picks up pace fairly quickly and from that point onwards never slows down as we are treated to all the usual twists, turns, clues and red herrings that we have come to expect from the modern thriller. Rachel's struggles will have you cringing and trying to reason with her as you watch her make the same mistakes again and again. I found it hard to read her constant struggles and just wanted to help her sort her life out, desperately hoping that things come good for her in the end. There are many unlikable characters within this story and you will be frustrated with many of the decisions that characters make but you will be enthralled by their tales and ultimately race to the end, eager to figure out what has caused Megan to disappear.

I would rate this book 4 out of 5, not as good as Renee Knight's 'Disclaimer' but a fairly decent read nonetheless. I wasn't a huge fan of the diary style delivery of the story with its morning and evening entries but that would be my only gripe. When compared to the likes of Sharon Bolton's 'Little Black Lies' and Renee Knight's 'Disclaimer' it feels like i'm being generous with my rating; however I believe this is more due to just how good they are rather than 'The Girl on the Train' being a bad novel. It's hard to pinpoint anything particularly wrong with this book, I just found the other titles more enjoyable with more to sink your teeth into. I was looking for a fairly quick read with a mystery to unravel and this ticked all the boxes of what in was looking for in this type of book. Overall I would recommend this book to anyone who is a fan of thrillers or mystery novels and is looking for something quick. I will be interested to see the big screen adaptation of this one when it comes out towards the end of 2016. Done right, it definitely has the potential to become a great movie.

 

Your Darkest Secrets Published For The World To Read

Disclaimer by Renee Knight

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. 

The disclaimer has a neat, red line through it. A message she failed to notice when she opened the book. There is no mistaking the resemblance to her. She is a key character, a main player. 

Imagine if the next thriller you opened was all about you reads the tagline for this highly rated psychological thriller. A Sunday times bestseller, book of the month in a number of bookshops and being advertised everywhere I turned. To say that the tagline had me intrigued is something of an understatement. The simple idea of somebody revealing your deepest darkest secrets in a novel that the whole world could read is terrifying and sent chills running down my spine.

When I started reading this I really wasn’t sure what to think. Initially I naively believed that this was going to be a throwaway thriller which taunted you with a piece of information you didn’t know and strung you along for 300+ pages before a disappointing reveal. It took me about 40 or 50 pages before it really started to interest me fully. I started reading this on the same evening that I finished reading Colm Toibin’s Brooklyn and I think this may well have more to do with me struggling to get into the story than the writing itself. My head was still swimming with 1950s America and the memories of my own time spent in the Wexford area. However, I pushed through and kept reading and soon found myself enthralled in this emotional rollercoaster. I am so glad that I did.

It’s very hard to talk about the plot of this one without giving anything away that might spoil the ending so I will avoid talking too much about plot specifics here. The general idea is that one of the main characters, Catherine, has started to read a novel that she finds on her bedside table only to realise that the story is about her and a secret which she has kept for many years and was unaware of anyone else knowing. I really don’t want to go too much more into it than that as it really would become a minefield of potential spoilers.

This novel is beautifully paced. There are many twists and turns and a whole lot of misdirection as the secret contained in the novel remains a closely guarded secret. However, there is so much more going on here than simply discovering the secret in the novel. The characters are wonderfully crafted and believable all the way through. The pacing of this book and your determination to discover the secret lures you in and then this tale will take you on one hell of a journey, not letting you go until it is finished. Who is in the right? Who is the bad person? This book will toy with your expectations all the way through, you will sympathise with all characters at some points and hate them all as well. Once it has grabbed you, this book will mess with your head right through till its final pages. Unrelenting, dark and deeply emotional, this is a stunning debut novel and I will be certain to look out for more books by Renee Knight in the future.

Everywhere I turn I seem to keep reading comparisons between Disclaimer, Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train. I have only seen the big screen adaptation of Gone Girl but I have read The Girl on the Train and in my opinion Disclaimer is much better. The characters have a lot more depth, the plot keeps you guessing for longer and I enjoyed the way this one ended far more. A lot of thrillers seem to have a big reveal followed by a couple of pages which hint at what happens next. Disclaimer takes time after the big reveal to complete the story in full and doesn’t leave you feeling short changed but at the same time does not overstay its welcome.

I have to rate disclaimer as 5 out of 5. Disclaimer has set the bar very early on for me this year and all other thrillers will be judged by the standards this one has set. Intense, unpredictable and genuinely moving. Everything a good thriller should be.    

A Guide To Bad Parenting In Rural Scotland

The Ice Twins by S.K.Tremayne

I am Kirstie I am Lydia 

I lived I Died 

Or did I?

 These few lines emblazoned on the back cover of S.K. Tremayne's The Ice Twins managed to grab my attention many months ago and I was keen to get reading right away. However below the promising synopsis of a tale filled with every parents worst nightmares were a vast amount of negative reviews attacking almost every aspect of this book. I decided I did not have the time for a book which offered the promise of an unbearably suspenseful thriller but would ultimately let me down and for the next few months completely forgot about this book. In the end I am glad that I once again found this book in the sales section of Amazon*. I only wish I had taken a chance on it far earlier.

The first chapter introduces us to Sarah and Angus, a couple who we immediately get the sense aren't entirely happy together anymore. We quickly discover that Angus drinks heavily, has lost his job and that there are money worries. We also discover that Sarah and Angus have experienced great tragedy over the last year after they lost one of their identical twin girls, Lydia, who died in an accident 14 months previously. The next step in trying to pick up the broken pieces of their lives is to sell up their previous life in London and move to a remote island in Scotland which Angus has just inherited from his dead Grandmother. It seems a strange thing to do when the surviving twin, Kirstie, is already likely to be feeling isolated and alone but the author does go out of their way to explain just why this seems like a good idea to Sarah and Angus. This is an island which Angus used to visit when he was younger and has fond memories of, and Sarah, after researching the area, has discovered that if they can restore the property they are likely to be able to sell it on for over £1 million. A seemingly great opportunity to start again, away from the painful memories of the last year, with the potential to also solve their financial problems at the same time. Everything seems to be falling into place for the couple again, that is until the final paragraph of chapter one when their surviving daughter utters the nightmarish line "It was Kirstie that died. I'm Lydia."

Now I know many people seem to have given up on this book at this point, labelling it ridiculous and refuting the idea that a parent wouldn't be able to differentiate between their children, even if they were identical twins. In normal circumstances I am prone to agreement on this point. There is usually always a way for parents to know which twin is which, but this is a work of fiction and the author has gone out of their way to establish that these twins were totally identical in every physical way possible. There were no unique birthmarks or moles, nothing at all to separate them visually and Sarah and Angus hadn't followed advice given to them to have a small dot tattoo inked on one twin. They used different coloured clothing as the main way to tell Lydia and Kirstie apart, something which is only effective if the twins stick to wearing their own colour. The twins before Lydia's death had begun to pretend to be each other, wearing all white outfits to confuse people. 'The parents would surely know them by their personality' I hear you cry and ordinarily that would be the case but in the aftermath of a child’s twin sibling dying it is very unlikely that the surviving twin is going to act normally.

The author has worked hard to explain just why this unlikely scenario is true and I commend them for that. They have made the effort to try and explain what a lot of people are labelling a totally unbelievable scenario and because of that I made the effort to suspend my disbelief. I would implore you to do the same. You will be rewarded with a chilling tale, full twists and turns delivered at breakneck pace. Every time you think you have everything figured out, another bombshell will be dropped leading you to question everything that is going on. Is this simply the tale of a troubled young girl whose life has been turned upside down since the death of her sister? Is there something supernatural going on?  I won't say too much more as I wouldn't want to ruin the story for you but be prepared for some of the most unlikeable characters you have ever read about! I enjoyed this book and found myself thinking about it for a long time after finishing it. A lot of interesting ideas are raised and there is plenty to talk about once you have finished reading.

This book is not without its problems and I can imagine it dividing opinion into 'loved it' or 'hated it' camps with very little in between. For me personally I would probably rate this book as a solid 4 out of 5. The main characters are very unlikable but this wasn't a drawback in my opinion as I still wanted to find out what happened to them, even if it was not for the typical reason of wanting the hero to prevail. The remote setting of a Scottish island is beautifully described throughout to such an extent that you feel you have seen this island for yourself and experienced life away from the mainland, alone and back to basics. For all of the twists and turns it only noticeably tripped itself up once and it's not the end of the world in the grand scheme of the story being told. Just a slight annoyance as this was otherwise well written and kept me entertained throughout. It felt like the book was over fairly quickly but I think this was due in part to my inability to put it down. If you give this one a chance I hope you enjoy The Ice Twins as much as I did. 

*At the time of writing this review The Ice Twins can be found in Amazon UK's 3 for £10 paperback deal.