How are we all doing? I’ve had a pretty good week I think. On my final day of a long weekend today and, due to the fact I still have annual leave to use, I’m on a three dayer this week, then two more four days weeks due to Easter. Easter! remember those days when. you realise that Easter is in April and it feels like an eternity until that next. lovely batch of Bank Holidays … Yeah. Two weeks and it will nearly all be over and we can start stocking up on the Halloween and Christmas chocolates which will inevitably be in B&M stores very soon … (I’m only half joking 😉)
#Lockdownjourneys
#travelwithoutmoving
Strange times I suffered some strange malady where I had a block of ten whole days where I didn’t buy a single book. It’s over now and my recovery is going well, so authors of the world can relax. I decided to convert some of a Christmas treat I received from work into a book token and bought a couple of titles that had been recommended to me – Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby, and The Grifters by Jim Thompson. Must have kick started my binge buy genes as I also topped up on The Night Train by Sharon Bolton, a short story collection and a pre-order of M.K. Hill’s next book, One Bad Thing, which is out next February and is so new to the pre-order world it doesn’t even have a cover. And because I have now done the cover reveal, I can confirm that The Rabbit Factor by Antti Tuomainen was one of my many February secret squirrel Orenda Books pre-orders. I cannot wait for this book! You can read all about it here.
Three new Netgalley books this week – two for tours and one because I love the series. No Going Back by Casey Kelleher; In The Blood by Margaret Kirk and The Happy Family by Jackie Kabler.
Also had a wonderful week for #bookpost. Some very unexpected parcels arrived mid week, Truth or Dare by M.J. Arlidge, the latest Helen Grace title, plus a finished copy of Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly which I share my thoughts on today as part of the tour. Then this past weekend I received copies of three very beautiful and highly anticipated Orenda Books titles – The Great Silence by Doug Johnstone; One Last Time by Helga Flatland and This Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech.
How pretty are they all?
Books I have read
Silenced by Solveig Pálsdóttir
The darker the secret, the harder to bury it. Compelling reading – Lilja Sigurðardóttir
As a police team is called in to investigate a woman’s suicide at the Hólmsheiði prison outside ReykjavÃk, to detective Guðgeir Fransson it looks like a tragic but straightforward case.
It’s only afterwards that the pieces begin to fall into place and he takes a deeper interest in KristÃn Kjarr’s troubled background, and why she had found herself in prison.
His search leads him to a series of brutal crimes committed twenty years before and the unexplained disappearance of the prime suspect, whose wealthy family closed ranks as every effort was made to keep skeletons securely hidden in closets – while the ReykjavÃk police struggle to deal with a spate of fresh attacks that bear all the hallmarks of a copycat.
Glass Key Award-nominated Icelandic author Sólveig Pálsdóttir is an exciting new voice in Nordic crime fiction.
No Going Back by Casey Kelleher
A child has been taken. A family is out for revenge.
Riley Cooke is just one day old when he is stolen from the hospital. His young mother, Shelby, is beside herself. DC Lucy Murphy and her team face a race against time to find the vulnerable baby and bring him home – before the child’s grandfather, fearsome gangster Pete Baker, takes matters into his own hands.
Pete is sure he knows who’s behind baby Riley’s abduction, and he thinks they ought to pray Lucy finds them before he does. Because someone is going to pay dearly for causing this much pain to his family.
They say never stand between a gangster and his target. But that’s exactly what Lucy must do – because if Pete is wrong, innocent blood could flow.
A shocking and addictive read that will keep you turning the pages. Fans of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers and Emma Tallon will love this.
After The End by Clare Mackintosh
Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. Only now they’re facing the most important decision of their lives – and they don’t agree.
With the consequences of an impossible choice threatening to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.
But anything can happen after the end . . .
The Is How We Are Human by Louise Beech
When the mother of an autistic young man hires a call girl to make him happy, three lives collide in unexpected and moving ways … changing everything. A devastatingly beautiful, rich and thought-provoking novel that will warm your heart.
_______________
Sebastian James Murphy is twenty years, six months and two days old. He loves swimming, fried eggs and Billy Ocean. Sebastian is autistic. And lonely.
Veronica wants her son Sebastian to be happy … she wants the world to accept him for who he is. She is also thinking about paying a professional to give him what he desperately wants.
Violetta is a high-class escort, who steps out into the night thinking only of money. Of her nursing degree. Paying for her dad’s care. Getting through the dark.
When these three lives collide – intertwine in unexpected ways – everything changes. For everyone.
A topical and moving drama about a mother’s love for her son, about getting it wrong when we think we know what’s best, about the lengths we go to care for family … to survive … This Is How We Are Human is a searching, rich and thought-provoking novel with an emotional core that will warm and break your heart.
THE COMPELLING, GOTHIC, BRILLIANTLY ATMOSPHERIC THIRD NOVEL IN THE DI LUKAS MAHLER SERIES
Some cases are personal…
Tied to a derelict pier on Orkney, the bloated remains of a man bob in the waves, under the shadow of forbidding Sandisquoy House. The locals know him as William Spencer.
But DCI Lukas Mahler identifies him as Alex Fleming – his former boss.
Unable to step away from the case, Mahler tries to piece together why Fleming would retire to such a remote location. But the deeper he digs, the more disturbing the investigation becomes.
Seal bones, witches’ salve, and runic symbols appear everywhere he looks, ushering Mahler towards Fleming’s most notorious unsolved case: the ‘Witchfinder’ murders. And towards a dark and uncomfortable truth someone has gone to great lengths to bury…
Yep. Another five books making it 15 in March so far. Believe me this won’t continue, especially when I have to go back to working five days a week, although the weather and days are changing so the morning walks will resume soon, and hopefully a few more audio books will be consumed. A busy enough week on the blog with a full recap below:
#Review – Penshaw – LJ Ross
#Review – The Night Gate – Peter May
#Review – Future Perfect – Felicia Yap
#Review – The Last House On Needless Street – Catriona Ward
#Review – Mexico Street – Simone Buchholz
A full week on the blog this week. Blog tours today for Watch Her Fall by Erin Kelly, a cover reveal for Antti Tuomainen and Orenda Books, and more tours for Hotel Cartagena by Simone Buchholz, Mark Tilbury’s Supernatural and Thriller Box Sets, Not Without My Sister by Marion Kummerow and What Beauty There Is by Cary Anderson. Busy, busy, busy.
Well I hope you all have a very lovely, book filled week. We’re moving ever closer to that tantalising taste of freedom so I am going tos tay tucked up as long as possible and make sure I get to enjoy being on the other side.
Stay safe and happy reading.
Jen x
Jen Med's Book Reviews 
What a week!!
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Been pretty busy lol
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