Katharine Johnson's Blog, page 2

Book review: Mother May I? by Joshilyn Jackson

Never Have I Ever was one of my favourite reads last year (perhaps ever) so I was so excited to read this one.

It’s every mother’s worst nightmare.

‘If you ever want to see your baby again, GO HOME.
Tell no one.
Do not call the police.
Do not call your husband.
Be at your house by 5:15 PM.
Or he’s gone for good…’

To get her son back alive, Bree must complete one small but critical task. It seems harmless enough, but this one action comes with a devastating price. And now Bree finds herself complicit in a terrible crime, caught up in a tangled web of secrets that threatens to destroy the perfect life she has built.

Mother May I? is a deftly plotted, nightmarish domestic drama about privilege, consent and revenge. Justly described as a “pulse-racing, heart-pounding thriller”, it lured me in from the first page and held me captive throughout, desperate to find out if she would be able to save her baby and at what price.

What I love most about Joshilyn Jackson’s writing is that a scene most authors would reserve for the climax is only the start and those stakes keep rising. The tension was almost unbearable. The pace is furious and the plot keeps twisting.

I also love the gladiatorial aspect of her novels with two strong female characters up against each other. All right, so the method of revenge is a little far-fetched, but when a story’s so brilliantly told, who cares?

Mother May I is published by Raven Books, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing, and is available here

Book review: The Street Party by Claire Seeber

Neighbourhood psychological dramas always pique my interest so this book appealed to me straight away. One glance at the premise – One night, three families. Who is lying? – was enough to convince me it would be right up my street (Sorry!)

The party was supposed to be the highlight of the summer. If only I’d known that night would destroy our lives…

All the neighbours were laughing, drinking out of plastic glasses and getting along. I almost felt happy. Almost forgot about the terrible argument earlier and the sinister messages I’d been receiving from a strange address all week, threatening to expose the lies behind my perfect life.

As we finished with the red and gold fireworks and welcomed everyone back to our house, I believed that everything would be okay.

But I didn’t know who I was inviting in.

This is a perfectly constructed, character-based domestic drama full of secrets, suspicion and spite. The three women have such different lives and connections, it’s clear that bringing them together is never going to end well. I felt like a fly on the wall witnessing the awful build-up of tension and questioning everyone’s motives as events unfolded – and was kept gripped to the end.

The London setting is ideal as it’s easy to imagine these families from different socio-economic backgrounds living nextdoor to each other and their stories colliding. I loved the way their lives became intertwined, exposing topical issues of racism, entitlement and consent.

I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.

The Street Party is an addictive read that I’d highly recommend to fans of psychological suspense and domestic drama. It’s published by Bookouture and available here

Thanks to the publisher for an advance reader copy via NetGalley which has in no way influenced my opinion.

Blog tour: Sleepless by Romy Hausmann

Today’s my stop on the Sleepless tour. I don’t take part in many blog tours because I’m a very picky reader but this is one I couldn’t resist. Romy Hausmann’s first book Dear Child was one of my favourite reads last year (you can read my review here) so when the Quercus offered me the chance to read an advance copy of Sleepless, I jumped at it.

It’s been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a horrific crime. After her release from prison she wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura van Hoven, free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja’s boss, kills her lover and begs Nadja for help, Nadja finds she is unable to refuse.

The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury the body. But their plan quickly falls apart. Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer. Dark secrets past and present collide in this haunting novel of guilt and retribution from the internationally bestselling author of Dear Child.

I could review this book in one word: wow!

Although it took me a little while to grasp who was who and how these characters connected, I was sucked in and intrigued from the start. The story’s beautifully written with vivid, powerful imagery and the translation from German to English is excellent. I shared the sense of bewilderment with the characters and loved the way the layers were gradually peeled back until the truth was revealed. It’s an ingenious plot, full of suspicion, fragmented memories, tricks and traps. As one of the characters says,

“Life itself is a game in which there are winners and losers.”

Nadja, the main character, has had an abusive childhood full of “dirt, shouting, blood and wasted chances” in a flat that wasn’t a home. An unwanted child without a father, she was neglected and resented by her mother whose dream of being a dancer came crashing down when she found herself pregnant, forcing her to turn to prostitution and leaving Nadja to act as parent to little brother Janek. Marta’s absence of maternal instinct meant the children were never allowed to call her Mum. At fifteen Nadja was found guilty of her mother’s murder and imprisoned for seven years but her disjointed memories and dissociative experiences suggest the situation was more complicated. At thirty-five, she’s been given a second chance and is working in a law firm where her boss is married to her friend Laura. When Laura asks for her help the story takes a bizarre, very dark turn and the tension piles on until the breath-taking end.

I had so much sympathy for Nadja despite the shocking revelations because she was trying so hard to get her life back on track, although she carries her guilt with her “like an incurable disease”. She works hard, attends therapy sessions and tries to make sense of her past, or as she puts it make it to “to the centre of the earth, the core of the story.”

The setting for the remote house was perfect – the Spreewald area of forest and labyrinthine waterways near Berlin that was, according to legend, created by accident by the devil.

Sleepless is a complex but compelling thriller which I highly recommend to anyone who loves dark stories featuring mind games – just don’t blame me if it keeps you awake all night!

It’s published today by Quercus and available here

Thanks to the publisher for an advance copy which has in no way influenced my opinion.

About the author

Romy Hausmann was born in the former GDR in 1981. At the age of 24 she became chief editor at a film production company in Munich. Since the birth of her son, Romy has been working as a freelancer in TV. She lives with her family in a remote house in the woods near Stuttgart.

To find out what other bloggers are saying about this book, check out the other blog stops below.

Book review: The Tuscan house by Angela Petch

On a cold, grey day in England, I treated myself to Angela Petch’s latest book which is set in Tuscany. The cover is stunning and I couldn’t wait to start reading.

Corbello, Italy, 1947. A woman and a little boy stagger into the ruins of an old house deep in the forest, wild roses overwhelming the crumbling terracotta walls. Since the war, nowhere has been safe. But they both freeze in shock when a voice calls out from the shadows…

For young mother Fosca Sentino, accepting refuge from reluctant British war hero Richard – in Tuscany to escape his tragic past – is the only way to keep her little family safe. She once risked everything to spy on Nazi commanders and pass secret information to the resistenza. But after a heartbreaking betrayal, Fosca’s best friend Simonetta disappeared without trace. The whole community was torn apart, and now Fosca and her son are outcasts.

Wary of this handsome stranger at first, Fosca slowly starts to feel safe as she watches him play with her son in the overgrown orchard. But her fragile peace is shattered the moment a silver brooch is found in the garden, and she recognises it as Simonetta’s…

Fosca has always suspected that another member of the resistenza betrayed her. With Richard by her side, she must find out if Simonetta is still alive, and clear her own name. But how did the brooch end up at the house? And with a traitor hiding in the village, willing to do anything to keep this secret buried, has Fosca put herself and her young son in terrible danger?

There are so many books set in Italy during this period but Angela Petch always seems to dig a bit deeper and come up with something a bit different.

I found it so interesting to read about Richard’s experience. He’s a poet and pacifist who wants to prove he’s no coward. So, he joins the Friends Ambulance Service (FAU), an organisation that provides opportunities for conscientious objectors to take part in active service without compromising their principles. Through his eyes we see how saving rather than taking lives was no soft option. But his beliefs are tested when he finds himself in a situation where he can’t not intervene.

When invited back to Corbello in 1947 for a ceremony to thank those who had worked for the town during the war, he decides the trip might be just what he needs: “something to exorcise the ghosts that haunted his days and nights.”

While there, he discovers a ramshackle, hornet-infested tobacco tower and decides to stay on and restore it to live in. What’s wrong with having a dream? Dreams are after all what sustained him through his wartime experiences.

This restoration project can be seen as a metaphor for rebuilding his life, but a complication soon arises – while digging a vegetable garden he finds a woman’s body.

The other main characters Simonetta and Fosca show us what it was like to work for the partisans and how essential women were to the resistance movement in Italy, so this also made fascinating reading. As the anonymous quote at the start of the book says: Without women, resistance would have failed.

The Tuscan House is a beautifully written, intrigue-filled drama that I’d highly recommend to anyone who loves Italy, wartime dramas or both.

It’s published by Bookouture and available here.

Book review: The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club by Josie Lloyd

I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this book. My own visit to Cancer World still looms in my memory and I had no wish to return, even in fictional form. Neither did I want to feel bad about not wanting to run a marathon. On the other hand, although this is fiction I knew the author was writing from experience and the book was being described as inspirational and positive, which definitely appealed.

Description

Sometimes we need our friends to help us find our feet…

When Keira first receives her breast cancer diagnosis, she never expects to end up joining a running group with three women she’s only just met. Totally blind-sided, all she can think about is how she doesn’t want to tell her family or step back from work. Nor does she want to be part of a group of fellow cancer patients. Cancer is not her club.

And yet it’s running – hot, sweaty, lycra-clad running in the company of brilliant, funny women all going through treatment – that unexpectedly gives Keira the hope she so urgently needs.

For Keira will not be defined by the C-word. And now, with the Cancer Ladies’ Running Club cheering her on, she is going to reclaim everything: her family, her identity, her life.

One step at a time.

Moving, uplifting and full of hope, this is a novel about love, family and the power of finding your tribe.

My review

I opened the book with some trepidation. Once I started reading, however, I found it hard to put down.

At 47, Keira’s happy with her family, friends, her shop, and the life choices she’s made. She feels great and fully expects to be marching up mountains when she’s ninety – so the diagnosis after a routine screening hits like a bombshell.

“It’s like I’m experiencing everything through a weird Instagram filter. Everything is different. there is a before this morning and an after.”

The author captures brilliantly the isolating nature of her diagnosis. As Keira tells people her news “the words fall between us like a guillotine” and she feels “like a helium balloon floating away from them.”

She’s angry with her body for betraying her and feels labelled and judged as though people see her as faulty, different, less capable than she was the previous day before she got this label. It’s exhausting dealing with other people’s reaction to her news.

She can’t stop researching about this new world she’s found herself in. “Cancer World. Kind of like Disneyland Paris, only with a lot less people volunteering to queue up for the rides.” A place where you have to master the art of waiting because “clearly the queues are very long.”

This is a frank, emotional but very engaging story not just about living with cancer, but about female friendship, and hope. There is warmth and humour, and the running club storyline is inspiring. Alongside this storyline is a cozy crime element as certain characters use Keira’s situation as an opportunity to further their own interests.

Would I buy this book for someone who’s been diagnosed? Honestly, I think it would be better for them to make their own decision to buy. Keira’s surgery and treatment are quite graphically detailed and may be different from theirs so they might find it unnecessarily upsetting. If it was me, I’d also want to know beforehand if it had a happy ending. (It does, mostly.)

On the other hand, I identified with a lot of Keira’s feelings and recognised some of the unhelpful responses she gets from other people – including the bizarre compulsion to regale tragic stories, as though it will somehow be reassuring for her to hear about other people dying. And then there’s the unqualified advice, out of date wisdom and criticism about her lifestyle, which feels a lot like blame.

So, if you’re supporting someone else with a diagnosis, especially if you’re struggling over what (not) to say, I would absolutely recommend it.

The Cancer Ladies’ Running Club is published today by HQ and available here.

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read an advance copy via NetGalley.

Book review: The Murderess by Ivan Jenson

This author was new to me but the premise had me intrigued, so I couldn’t wait to dive in.

30% of murders in the US go unsolved.
Becca Garner hopes her lover’s is one of them.
Because she found him.
He bequeathed her a million dollars.
She’s married.
And so is he.

It’s clear from the first page that Becca is no angel. As she puts it “Sleeping with my husband’s best friend was the wickedest thing I’d done up to this point.” Her Tinder date with a Sugar Grandpa isn’t a one-off and her behaviour can’t be blamed entirely on the drink and drugs. She’s lost count of how many men she’s slept with, and accepts she might be going mad.

“For me it was always the game.”

She is in her words “a washed-up, 39-year-old blonde”, loud and unashamed, “impulsive and manic”, the polar opposite of her calm, patient husband, Jerry. She despises the town where she lives, which is “full of young mothers and churches and zero nightlife” and embarrasses her teenage daughters by dirty-dancing in the grocery store. But what a character!

She’s easy to empathise with, partly because she’s so aware of her flaws and failings. Her daughters are always glued to their laptops, sharing jokes she can’t understand and posting glamorous, touched-up selfies on social media, and her husband is always working. She might appear superficial but as the story progresses we get hints that there’s a reason for the way she behaves.

What starts as a game takes the darkest turn when she finds the Sugar Grandpa dead in the hotel bath. How on earth is she going to get out of this situation?

You’ll have to read the book to find out. All I will say is that it’s exquisitely dark and and entertaining, and I was thoroughly caught up in it.

It’s a fresh, thrilling and unputdownable rollercoaster of a domestic suspense propelled by a fascinatingly flawed character.

I’d recommend it to fans of Gone Girl or The Woman in the Window.

The Murderess will be published by Dark Edge Press on 1 June and is available here.

My thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read an advance copy.

Book review: The Invitation by AM Castle

If you follow this blog, you’ll know I’m a fan of locked-room style murder mysteries – and the Cornish setting for this one made it a must-read.

Thirteen guests. One killer. No escape. On an island on the coast of Cornwall, cut off from the mainland by the tides for most of the day, thirteen old friends meet at Tregowan Castle for a weekend of revelry. By the next evening only twelve are still alive. amongst them is a killer – but who? As a storm traps them on the island and past betrayals and grievances are revealed, nerves fray and friendships begin to fracture.

But with no escape and no way of calling for help, it’s only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. And when everyone is keeping secrets, anybody could be the next victim.

I was intrigued from the start by these deliciously awful characters, the hints at secrets and grudges, and the promise of a reckoning.

Thirteen sounded like a lot of people to keep in my head but some of these characters have more minor roles and the unlucky number was perfect for a Halloween story. The author does such a fantastic job at creating distinctive, memorable personalities I never had to check back to see who was who.

Wealthy “gorgeous hummingbird” Rachel, plain-speaking, alcoholic Vicky, fixer and smoother-outer editor Gita and shy artist Jane are old university friends. Two decades on, Rachel has become Lady Tregowan, having married octogenarian Ross. She invites her old friends and their families to a Halloween party weekend at her new home, a castle on an island that’s easy to picture as St Michael’s Mount. But it seems this celebration might be more about settling old scores.

There’s also the question of what happened to Ross’s wife? And how do his two children feel about having a new stepmother who’s the same age as them?

There’s never a dull moment in this book. I loved the entangled relationships and shocking reveals. Very much in the style of The Guest List by Lucy Foley, AM Castle’s story is uniquely entertaining, full of peppery comments and bitchy observations that make it impossible to put down. Is Rachel just gloriously tactless when she remarks on Raff’s appearance or Jane’s past? Or does she have evil intentions? What is the “big reveal” she has planned?

The setting is superb, especially when combined with a violent storm that takes away any chance of escape. The castle is “Hogwarts gone mad” with tapestries and chandeliers, surrounded by treacherous rocks. Throughout, I was thinking this would make a fabulous television programme.

I didn’t guess the killer – I could have believed any of the characters had done it – but when everything was explained at the end it made perfect sense.

If you loved The Guest List by Lucy Foley, The Murder Game by Rachel Abbott, and And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, my guess is that you’ll love this too.

The Invitation is published by HQ Digital. The ebook is available now and the paperback comes out on May 27, available here.

Book review: The Chalet by Catherine Cooper

This has been a long awaited read! It was a Christmas present that due to lockdown, I’ve only just received. What a delicious scenario: a group of people staying in a French ski chalet when a body’s discovered from an incident twenty years ago that somehow links them all.

In the French Alps, two young man ski into a blizzard but only one returns. No one knows what really happened that day on the slopes – and the body isn’t found. Twenty years later, four people connected to the missing man find themselves in the same luxury ski resort. Each has a secret. Two may have blood on their hands. One is a killer-in-waiting. Someone knows what happened out in the snow. And someone will pay.

Despite reading this book in mild spring weather, I was transported to the beautiful but treacherous setting and fully immersed in the lives of the thoroughly unpleasant characters.

The story’s told in two timelines – pre-pandemic January 2020, and 1998 when the accident happened.

The multiple narrators include ski guide Cameron who in 1998, takes the two men on their ill-fated adventure down the couloir with his business partner, Andy. Cameron resents his plummy clients with their overblown confidence in their skiing capabilities. He can’t be bothered to learn their names, leaving the niceties to Andy. “I’m just here for the mountains; as far as I’m concerned, the clients are a necessary evil.”

In 2020, event manager Ria’s picked the resort’s most luxurious chalet for her and husband Hugo to stay in with another couple – Simon (overweight, red-faced, booming voice), his dutiful wife Cass (sweet but dull, and young enough to be his daughter), their baby Inigo and nanny, Sarah who’s secretive about her past. Hugo desperately hopes this trip will win Simon over to invest in his company, Redbush Holidays.

They’re looked after by super chalet girl Millie, and resort rep Matt.

Ria’s clearly unhappy in the marriage and despises her husband’s sycophantic behaviour around Simon, while Hugo’s embarrassed by Ria’s drunken and flirtatious behaviour and reluctance to get pregnant. Simon’s wife Cass is unhappy to discover that Simon has stayed in the chalet in the past with another girl.

And then the body’s discovered.

Viewpoints from the 1998 ski trip include Adam and Will, the brothers, and Louisa, Will’s girlfriend who’s from a less privileged background and feels an outsider.

There’s another, anonymous, narrator whose heartbreaking story kept me intrigued as we headed towards a catastrophic climax.

So yes, this late Christmas present was absolutely worth waiting for! It’s an exhilarating black run read that schusses and slaloms along with some audacious twists and tricks. I’d recommend it to fans of locked room mysteries in spectacular settings, especially One By One by Ruth Ware.

It’s published by HarperCollins and is available here

Book review: The Lies We Tell by Jane Corry

If your troubled teenage son asked for your help because he’d killed someone, how would you react? What would you do? These questions are sure to go through your mind when reading this book, especially if like me you have a son Freddie’s age!

Sarah and Tom’s marriage is already at breaking point, Freddie having both brought them together and driven them apart. How are they going to tackle this bombshell? And how much are they to blame for Freddie’s behaviour?

We’re taken back to how the couple met and the dark secrets they’re hiding from each other. Pedantic, prudish Tom who isn’t the kind to shirk his responsibilities often feels ganged up on by his wife and son. But Tom’s ashamed of something he did at school, the repercussions of which are threatening to turn his life upside down. Bohemian artist Sarah who grew up in a commune tries her hardest to be the woman her husband wants her to be – but she’s haunted by the death of her friend Emily, and daren’t risk Tom finding out that she’s spent time in prison.

So this is a marriage based on lies – and the trouble with lies, as Sarah puts it is:

“Once they came out in the open, they could not be buried again however much earth you tried to shovel on top.”

I absolutely loved the claustrophobic drama between the three main characters, especially in the tense and twisty first half where little teasers are skillfully woven in and the focus is on the couple and their ghastly friends Hugo and Olivia. Jane Corry does a wonderful job of getting inside these characters’ heads and portraying a marriage in crisis, based on resentment, suspicion and guilt.

The story’s told in past and present timeframes including courtroom scenes, and from three viewpoints – Sarah, Tom and a third narrator whose identity will keep you guessing. There’s a change of pace and location in the second half but this powerful domestic drama becomes an emotional rollercoaster which held my interest to the end.

The Lies We Tell will be published on 17 June by Penguin and can be pre-ordered here

Thanks to the publisher for inviting me to read an advance copy.

Book review: The Stolen Sisters by Louise Jensen

I’ve been saving this up to read after seeing the author’s photos of the deserted RAF camp that inspired the creepy setting, complete with terrifying clown on the wall!

Sisterhood binds them. Trauma defines them. Will secrets tear them apart?

Leah’s perfect marriage isn’t what it seems but the biggest lie of all is that she’s learned to live with what happened all those years ago. Marie drinks a bit too much to help her forget. And Carly has never forgiven herself for not keeping them safe.
 
Twenty years ago The Sinclair Sisters were taken. But what came after their return was far worse. Can a family ever recover, especially when not everyone is telling the truth…?

If you’ve read other books by Louise Jensen, it will come as no surprise that this a sensitive, thought-provoking and deliciously twisty psychological suspense. The story isn’t so much about the kidnapping itself as about the lasting effect it’s had on the three girls and the long-reaching consequences. When their abductor’s released from prison the women find themselves reliving their childhood experience but are they safe? There is a whodunnit factor and I had a hunch about this but what really intrigued me was the whydunnit.

The story’s brilliantly structured with lots of creepy foreshadowing and shifty characters so like the girls you don’t know who to trust. As Leah says:

“Monsters walk among us and sometimes they look like you. Sometimes they look like me.”

It’s told with warmth and compassion in different viewpoints and Now and Then (twenty years ago) timeframes showing how each of the girls carries a sense of guilt but they’re dealing with the memory in different ways. And of course as the story progresses secrets tumble out which throw new light on their choices and responses.

Marie, sparrow-thin and alcoholic, is barely coping at all and can’t help raking over the experience on every anniversary. She’s never got over the fact that on the day of the abduction she threw the dog’s ball over the fence.

Carly, the eldest, blames herself for not having been able to protect her siblings and won’t allow herself to love anyone new. She took the twins out of the garden with her to look for the dog – and into the path of the abductor.

Routine-obsessed Leah appears to be a calm mother and carefree wife but as she says:

“We all wear a mask sometimes, don’t we?”

She’s never let go of the memory that she didn’t shut the garden gate properly. But can she trust her own eyes or does she really keep catching sight of the abductor?

I raced through, promising myself just one more chapter right up to the thrilling end!

The Stolen Sisters is published by HQ and is available here.