Katharine Johnson's Blog, page 3

Book review: The Murder Game by Rachel Abbott

I’ve loved all Rachel Abbott’s books so was very excited to read this. What an irresistible concept – a group of friends brought back to a house in Cornwall where a murder was committed a year ago, to find out whodunnit – and who must pay.

We were all there that day. Now one of us is dead…

The first time Jemma and Matt were invited to Polskirrin – Lucas Jarrett’s imposing ocean-view home – it was for an intimate wedding that ended in tragedy. Jemma will never forget the sight of the girl’s body floating towards the rocky shore. Now, exactly one year later, Lucas has invited his guests back for a macabre anniversary. But what Lucas has in store for them is nothing like a candlelight vigil. Someone who was there that night remembers more than they’ll admit to, and Lucas has devised a game to make them tell the truth.

Jemma believes she and Matt know nothing about what happened… but what if she’s wrong? Before you play a deadly game, make sure you can pay the price…

One of the things I love about Rachel Abbott’s books is that although police POVs are included, the procedural element is never the main focus of the story. I’m far more interested in what goes on in characters’ heads than what it’s like to be a police officer. As with the Tom Douglas series, DI Stephanie King appears late in this story when we’ve had a chance to really get to know the characters and their situation.

The bonus in this book is the superb setting – a Cornish manor house perched on a headland with formal gardens and woodland leading down to the sea.

What I loved most about the story was the lurking menace and build up of tension. As usual, all the characters are multi-faceted and believable – although certainly not likeable. Throughout, they’re all looking at each other wondering who knows what and who’s guilty of what, and who their secrets are safe with.

I found Lucas especially intriguing. Why’s he chosen this method of establishing guilt and what’s he hiding about his own past? Jemma was the easiest to empathise with, being the outsider in the group. Her marriage to Matt has disintegrated since the night of Lucas and Nina’s wedding and they haven’t spoken about the tragedy since.

Although I had a hunch about the murderer, all of the characters had secrets and could plausibly have been involved, and it was the whydunnit that really intrigued me so I was fully immersed right up to the thrilling end.

I’d thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Guest List by Lucy Foley or One By One by Ruth Ware.

The Murder Game is published by Wildfire, an imprint of Headline and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook and audiobook here

Book review: Love You Gone by Louise Mullins

I love a psychological thriller involving entangled relationships and when I saw that this one was set in Bristol where I grew up, I couldn’t wait to get started!

Gemma, an 18 year-old student with her life ahead of her, has disappeared and is soon found to have been murdered. As the story unfolds, it’s clear there’s no shortage of people who’d like to have seen Gemma gone including her stepfather, real father, friend (and love rival), her tutor with whom she was having an affair, his wife, and Gemma’s angry boyfriend. I love the way the author peels back the layers of these multi-faceted characters to reveal their innermost thoughts and secrets, and reasons to hate each other as their lives intertwined.

My favourite character is the person best equipped to solve the mystery, investigative journalist Rachel – but she’s an alcoholic and has a history with one of the suspects, so is she reliable? Can she trust her own addled judgement, and can she stay safe?

I’m obviously biased when it comes to the setting but I felt it was ideal, with the iconic suspension bridge the perfect place for the dramatic climax, which would make a great TV scene. I recognised the places (right down to my local coffee shop!) which made it even easier to visualise the scenes in this suspenseful read.

Love You Gone is a fast-paced, twisty read that I devoured in one go, and highly recommend to fans of psychological suspense. It’s published by Dark Edge Press, an imprint of Usk River Publishing, and available here

Book review: Her Last holiday by CL Taylor

I’m always drawn to stories that feature a dysfunctional group of people in a claustrophobic setting so this one set in a sect-like wellness retreat appealed to me straight away.

Description

You come to Soul Shrink to be healed. You don’t expect to die.

Two years ago, Fran’s sister Jenna disappeared on a wellness retreat in Gozo that went terribly wrong.

Tom Wade, the now infamous man behind Soul Shrink Retreats, has just been released from prison after serving his sentence for the deaths of 2 people. But he has never let on what happened to the third suspected victim: Jenna.

Determined to find out the truth, Fran books herself onto his upcoming retreat – the first since his release – and finds herself face to face with the man who might hold the key to her sister’s disappearance. The only question is, will she escape the retreat alive? Or does someone out there want Jenna’s secrets to stay hidden?

I loved the characterisation, especially Fran, a wilful, opinionated middle aged IT teacher who felt like a breath of fresh air. At the start of the book we learn she’s one of those people who acts first, thinks later and can’t help intervening when she sees another person in trouble. Only someone with her courage and tenacity would take the risk she does to solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance, even if it is at her mother’s request. But with her outspoken nature I wondered how long she’d be able to stay undercover and stay out of danger.

As well as Fran’s viewpoint, we have Jenna in a past timeline, and Kate, Tom’s wife and business partner – three very different but equally intriguing women. Does Tom control Kate or Kate control Tom? Is Jenna’s narrative reliable? Bits of back story woven into the tale show the relationship between the sisters – selfish, independent Fran who’s escaped her parents’ disapproval, and kind, obedient Jenna stifling under the spotlight of their attention, encouraged to do what Fran didn’t.

Also on the retreat is Caroline, an undercover reporter, and a collection of suspicious individuals including three guests who were on the original retreat in Gozo with Jenna.

I loved the unsettling atmosphere and escalating tension, and the reveals. Although I guessed the main twist there were plenty of other things which kept me guessing, and the ending was thrilling.

Her last Holiday is CL Taylor’s eighth standalone psychological thriller. If you enjoyed Rachel Abbott’s The Murder Game and Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, there’s a good chance you’ll love this.

It will be published by Avon Books in April, and can be preordered here.

Book review: The Castaways by Lucy Clarke

A beautiful setting always adds to my enjoyment of a book, especially during lockdown when reading’s been the only way to travel. The remote south pacific island in this story is so vividly described you feel you’re there by the white sand, coconut palms, tropical jungle and coral reef. However, be warned! This place is anything but idyllic. The small group which survived the plane crash have to find a way to survive without destroying each other. I loved this paradoxical hellish paradise and locked room situation.

A secret beach. A holiday of a lifetime. Wish you were here? Think again. You’ll never want to leave – until you can’t.

I found this a breath-taking read that consumed me from the first page. It’s told in two timelines and in two points of view: Lori who was on the place that crashed and Erin her sister who didn’t board the plane that day (wait till you find out why!) and is desperate to find out what happened to the missing aircraft, but will she discover where it landed in time?

I loved the complex relationship between the two sisters, and there’s a fabulous build-up of tension and distrust between the characters on the island, most of whom are hard to like but compelling to read about. Their flaws and secrets are expertly drip-fed into the tale. I was gripped throughout and the ending was exactly what I was hoping for.

I’d highly recommend this book to fans of And Then There Were None and Lord of the Flies, and the film Cast Away.

The Castaways was published by HarperCollins UK on 1 March ISBN 9780008334130.

Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Cover reveal: The Art of Loving You by Amelia Henley

I’m so excited to share with you the cover for Amelia Henley’s next book which will be published in July! Aren’t these colours gorgeous? So uplifting and ideal for a summer launch.

Amelia Henley describes herself as “a hopeless romantic who has a penchant for exploring the intricacies of relationships through writing heartbreaking, high-concept love stories.” This one promises to “break your heart and put it back together again.”

If her debut novel The Life We Almost Had is anything to go by, I can believe it!

Libby and Jack are the happiest they’ve ever been. Thanks to their dear friend, eighty-year-old Sid, they’ve just bought their first house together, and it’s the beginning of the life they’ve always dreamed of.

But the universe has other plans for Libby and Jack and a devastating twist of fate shatters their world.
 
All of a sudden life is looking very different, and unlikely though it seems, might Sid be the one person who can help Libby and Jack move forward when what they loved the most has been lost?

If you’re a fan of psychological thrillers you’ll probably know Amelia better as Louise Jensen. As Louise Jensen she has sold over a million copies of her global number one bestsellers which include The Gift, The Date and The Stolen Sisters. Her stories have been translated into twenty-five languages and optioned for TV as well as featuring on the USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestsellers list. Louise’s books have been nominated for multiple awards.

The Art of Loving You will be published by HQ on July 22 but if you can’t wait until then, you can preorder here.

Book review: Eleven Days in June by RP Gibson Colley

I’m drawn to coming of age stories with protagonists who are social misfits so was delighted to be offered the chance to read this one.

Daniel Whitaker is 20, lives in a sleepy village in Devon and works in a small DIY shop. He likes numbers and hero worships Lord Nelson. But he finds ordinary people difficult to understand and he’s certainly never had a girlfriend. His mother mocks him, he misses his father and he pines for Ollie, his only childhood friend who truly understood him. But, despite it all, Dan thinks he’s happy enough. Until one June day, the beautiful and mysterious Libby walks into his shop – and into his life.

Libby’s sudden appearance turns Dan’s ordered existence upside down. But Dan soon realises that Libby isn’t who she seems. Who exactly is she? What is she hiding, and, more importantly, who’s that threatening man always looking for her?

In trying to help Libby, Dan comes to realise what’s missing in his own life, and, in turn, appreciates what’s really important…

My review

I was thoroughly immersed in this touching story set mostly in the 1980s. It’s the first in a series set in the village of Little Leaf and a quick read at 225 pages but the characters have sufficient depth to leave a lasting impression. I really felt for Dan whose safe, predictable (and mundane) lifestyle comes under threat when his mother starts dating. Although Dan left school with only a certificate in cycling proficiency he has an encyclopaedic memory. He’s able to name all the US presidents, the past and present players in his favourite football team and can tell you anything about Lord Nelson. He likes routine, takes what people say literally and doesn’t understand jokes but is very skilled at making model ships. This being the 1980s, he hasn’t been given a diagnosis and is just seen as strange. At school he was bullied for being different and betrayed by his only friend Ollie. As an adult people are more tolerant of him but happy to take advantage. The people he works with in the hardware store are quite tolerant until his desire to please Libby gets him into trouble. His mum seems exasperated with him most of the time while his dad’s only piece of advice is that women are best avoided.

When Libby turns up, Dan’s smitten although to the reader her behaviour’s manipulative. And then there’s the colonel who Dan’s mum brings home. Can he be trusted? Is he who he says he is? What about the man who comes looking for Libby? Is she in danger and is Dan doing the right thing by getting involved?

The story takes place in the summer of 1985 with flashbacks from formative events in the previous decade. I enjoyed the musical references and found the scenes easy to visualise. The tension builds as different characters cross paths and Dan risks everything to save the person he loves.

I’d recommend this book to fans of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time or Miriam Drori’s Cultivating A Fuji.

The kindle version of Eleven Days in June is published today and it’s also available in paperback. You can buy it here

My thanks to the author for a review copy.

Book review: Invisible Girl by Lisa Jewell

I can’t resist a book by Lisa Jewell so was thrilled to be given the chance to read this one.

LONDON: On a fine avenue of grand houses, big cars and electronic gates, lies a neglected urban wasteland.

It is nearly midnight, and very cold. Yet in this dark place of long grass and tall trees where cats hunt and foxes shriek, a girl is waiting…

When Saffyre Maddox was ten something terrible happened and she’s carried the pain of it around with her ever since. The man who she thought was going to heal her didn’t, and now she hides from him, invisible in the shadows, learning his secrets; secrets she could use to blow his safe, cosy world apart.

Owen Pick is invisible too. He’s thirty-three years old and he’s never had a girlfriend, he’s never even had a friend. Nobody sees him. Nobody cares about him.

But when Saffyre Maddox disappears from opposite his house on Valentine’s night, suddenly the whole world is looking at him. Accusing him. Holding him responsible.

Because he’s just the type, isn’t he? A bit creepy?

My review

This story took me a little longer to get into than other books by this author but what I loved about it was the way it shows what it feels like to be on the wrong end of social injustice. Lisa Jewell is so good at getting inside characters’ heads and making you feel their thoughts. I was reminded of a couple of real life cases where prejudice has got in the way of an investigation.

It’s told in different viewpoints – Saffyre who’s been damaged by a childhood experience and let down by a system designed to help her; Cate, wife of Roan the psychologist who counselled Saffyre; and Owen who lives across the road from Cate and Roan. I enjoyed seeing how these characters’ lives intertwined, with suspicion, psychological trauma and revenge bubbling under ever more furiously under the surface as the story headed towards an inevitable conclusion.

Owen’s storyline intrigued me most. I wanted to know what experiences had shaped him and how the situation he was in would affect him. A social misfit and incel, he largely had my sympathy although some of his thoughts and responses were disturbing. His attempts to find sympathy online draw him into a dark, misogynist community but how far is he prepared to go down that road?

While it would be hard to beat The Family Upstairs for plot or The House We Grew Up In for characters and surprise twists, I’d recommend Invisible Girl to fans of psychological dramas and can imagine it as a TV series.

Invisible Girl is published by Random House UK/Cornerstone and available now in ebook, paperback, hardback and audio versions. Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Book review: the End of Men by Christina Sweeney-Baird

I wasn’t sure how I felt about reading a story about a pandemic during an actual pandemic but in the end curiosity got the better of me.

Dr Amanda Maclean is called to treat a patient with flu-like symptoms. Within three hours he’s dead. This is how it begins. The unknown virus sweeps through the hospital with deadly speed. The victims are all men. Dr Maclean raises the alarm. But by the time the authorities listen to her, the virus has spread to every corner of the world. Threatening families. Governments. Countries. Can they find a cure before it’s too late?

This speculative novel is imaginative, well written and amazingly prescient, bearing in mind Christina Sweeney-Baird wrote it in 2018, well before the Covid 19 Pandemic. At the time of writing, she says it “felt like the ultimate thought experiment. How far could I take my imagination? How would a global pandemic with an enormous death rate change the world?”

The book’s set in the near future with the pandemic starting in 2025. The victims of this fictional plague are exclusively male, although women can be asymptomatic carriers, so the book is largely about how the world would function without the majority of men.

Although our experience of the real pandemic has made some aspects of the story feel less plausible – for example, children are forcibly evacuated to remote areas and there is a food rationing programme – the fictional pandemic is in some ways uncannily similar.

Patient Zero in Glasgow complains of feeling lethargic and having a headache. After his death his wife “is sobbing over and over again that it was just the flu.”

Amanda the doctor has to battle to be taken seriously. Her emails are ignored by the health authorities with the result that the virus spreads beyond Glasgow and it becomes too late to track who has gone where. “If I had been listened to back then we might have been able to set up effective quarantines and bring it under control.”

The fictional virus doesn’t respond to antivirals and there’s a desperate need for a vaccine. Until one is developed people must “Stay home…Avoid crowds, avoid public transport, for the love of God don’t get on a plane.”

Cancer patients aren’t able to get their treatment. Hospitals won’t accept pandemic patients. “Hospitals used to be a place of kindness and care but now they turn men away if their complaint is the Plague.”

There is panic buying. The Army is brought in to drive ambulances, fire engines and lorries carrying food to supermarkets.

False rumours fly around, for example that Swedes are immune so Sweden is a safe place.

Characters worry about finances. They blame each other for spreading risk and endangering lives. Divisions open up between those who have somewhere else to go and can afford to stop working and those who can’t.

They lock down.

“We stay here in our house, hibernating, hoping to outlast the Plague as if it will recognise our fortitude and strength of will, see our house and go, ‘No, let’s leave them alone. they don’t deserve this.'”

They watch their loved ones die. “The moment is here but I’m not ready. Give me another week, another day, another hour. We haven’t had long enough. We were meant to have a life together, grow old together, have more children together. It can’t be ending yet.”

“Mum, I don’t understand, we haven’t gone anywhere.” I don’t know my darling boy. I don’t know how this happened. I must have caught it when I went outside. I must be the host. I must have gotten too close to you. I’m so sorry.

The story’s told in different viewpoints with lots of emails, which is where it gets a bit disorientating but it feels like a crisis documentary cutting from clip to clip.

The author captures brilliantly the sense of unreality and disbelief as populations sleepwalk into the disaster. For a while shops stay open determined to avoid financial ruin but as Catherine in London says “How can people go into the Liberty Christmas Department and spend £30 on a sequinned robin decoration when our husbands, our sons, our fathers, our friends, might all be dying?”

It is in some places a tough read but fundamentally a story about hope and human resilience.

I can’t honestly say I enjoyed reading this book but that’s largely to do with timing. Would I recommend it? If you’re a fan of dystopian fiction that’s in some ways very close to reality, then absolutely!

The End of Men is published by The Borough Press, an imprint of HarperCollins on 29 April 2021. Thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Book review: Letters to the Pianist by SD Mayes

I’m always drawn to WWII stories that offer a new angle. I’ve had this one on my To Be Read list for ages, having heard brilliant things about it, and am so glad the Christmas break finally gave me a chance to read it.

In war torn London, 1941, fourteen-year-old Ruth Goldberg and her two younger siblings, Gabi and Hannah, survive the terrifying bombing of their family home. They believe their parents are dead, their bodies buried underneath the burnt remains – but unbeknownst to them, their father, Joe, survives and is taken to hospital with amnesia.

Four years on, Ruth stumbles across a newspaper photo of a celebrated pianist and is struck by the resemblance to her father. Desperate for evidence she sends him a letter, and as the pianist’s dormant memories emerge, his past unravels, revealing his true identity – as her beloved father, Joe. Ruth sets out to meet him, only to find herself plunged into an aristocratic world of sinister dark secrets.

Can she help him escape and find a way to stay alive?

My review

It’s hard for a novel to stand out in such a competitive genre but this one does. As well as being an engrossing drama about a family torn apart by war, it also shines a light on the sinister world of Nazi sympathisers hidden among British high society.

Ruth’s such a likeable character – plucky, resilient and determined to get to the bottom of the mystery behind her father’s reappearance.

I also loved the way the father Joe found himself caught between different lives – the elite family he’s married into, the children his amnesia took from him after the bomb blast, and the other woman who recognises him from the past. As the truth emerges about his identity and the political leanings of the family he’s become part of, it’s clear he and the family he left behind are in a very dangerous place.

This is an emotional, shocking and fascinating story that I couldn’t put down. What starts as an engrossing family drama develops into a heart-in-mouth thriller. I turned the pages feverishly, desperate to know how it would end.

The author took inspiration from her mother’s terrifying wartime memories for the early scenes which is probably what makes them so plausible, while her research skills as a national newspaper journalist helped her craft the Nazi aspect.

Letters to the Pianist is published by BHC and is available in ebook and paperback here

Book review: People Like Her by Ellery Lloyd

I hadn’t heard of Ellery Lloyd before but loved the sound of this very contemporary psychological suspense.

Followed by millions. Hunted by one.

THE INFLUENCER 
I need to be liked. It’s my job. My personal brand is built on honesty. 
Family, friendship, cheering other mothers on when things get tough.
Doing it together – telling it like it really is – that’s what @the_Mamabare is all about. 

THE HUSBAND 
I just want a quiet life. Her adoring followers feel like they understand my wife.
My wife certainly understands them. 
I know she is beautiful, smart, ambitious, charming. 
But she’s also a liar. 

THE FOLLOWER 
I want revenge. The filter’s about to drop. 
I’ve been watching you and your family very closely. 
You’ve ruined my life. 
Now I’m going to ruin yours.

This story pulled me in from the first page. The characterisation was sooo good and I was fascinated by their lives which were in some ways transparent and in others very private. Emmy’s a social media influencer who’s built up a huge following among young parents as Mamabear, a very relatable mum who inspires other young parents. Her social media life is a business that’s grown out of her journalism background as opportunities in print journalism dried up rather than a depiction of their real lives but as readers we have access to another viewpoint so are constantly aware that someone out there has a grudge against Emmy and is out to destroy her.

I loved the way the author shows how Emmy in particular is caught between her two lives – the fictional one she presents to her followers and her real one in which she’s a much more organised, together person but has problems she couldn’t share online without compromising her image. As we meet her mother and glimpse experiences from her childhood we start to see where this chameleon-like behaviour comes from.

I especially liked author Dan’s narrative. He admires his wife’s ability to play the social media game which provides them with a generous income, but he becomes increasingly concerned about the consequences of living in the social media spotlight, and the effect this could have on their children. He finds the other influencers shallow and potentially threatening and is baffled by his wife’s ability to ignore this and shrug off comments by trolls. And he also knows that one unpopular post could bring everything crashing down.

The tension soars as it becomes clear that one of Emmy’s haters has got access to the family’s real life as well as the one she posts about, and is also playing with the truth, making the couple fear for their little girl’s safety.

This was such a clever book and a perfect contemporary read showing the lure and pitfalls of life as an influencer. I devoured it! Although the change in direction for one of the characters at the end required a bit of suspension of disbelief, I really enjoyed the way the story was teased out and would recommend this to anyone who enjoys psychological suspense. You won’t regret it!

Throughout I found myself wondering who Ellery Lloyd was and why I hadn’t heard of him or her before. It turns out Ellery Lloyd is the pseudonym for husband and wife team Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos. Collette’s a former journalist and editor, has been content director of Elle and editorial director at Soho House, while Paul’s an author of two previous novels and programme director of English literature with creative writing at the University of Surrey.

People Like Her will be published by Pan Macmillan on 21 January.