Well … that’ll teach me. Didn;t travel quite as far afield as planned this week thanks to storms Dudley and Eunice. Well, to be fair to Dudley, it was more Eunice’s fault, but hey ho. What can you do? Trip postponed to the end of March so you’ll have to make do with my very limited pictures of a couple of ducks and a muffin … I am safe, I am well, and Eunice largely passed my town by so all in all, it’s not been a bad week. Still had six days off work so still winning.
Because I didn’t really go anywhere, I did splash out on a few books. The Vacancy by Elisabeth Carpenter; Dead Man’s Grave by Neil Lancaster; Shiver by Allie Reynolds; Killing Floor by Lee Child and. books 1-3 in the Amos Decker series by David Baldacci, Memory Man, The Last Mile and The Fix.
I also received my Orenda Subscription box this week from Bert’s Books – Unhinged by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst and Off Target by Eve Smith, as well as my preorder of All That Lives by James Oswald.
And a few bits of book post too, just to round off a very bookish week (physical books anyway). Birthday Girl by Niko Wolf from Hodder Studio; The Dark Flood by Deon Meyer from Hodder & Stoughton and The Anniversary by Laura Marshall from Sphere.
E-book and audiobook wise, I;ve a few more orders in. Two new audiobooks, both short story collections – Everyday Kindness edited by LJ Ross and The Perfect Crime a collection edited by Vaseem Khan and Maxim Jakubowski. A few preorders – Dream Town by David Baldacci, Night Shadows by Eva Björg Ægisdottir and The Last Girl to Die by Helen Fields. Plus I preordered the new Rebus novel from Ian Rankin, which is so new it doesn’t even have a title yet …
Books I have read
Penny’s life is one big, fat secret… and everyone is about to find out
Penny isn’t the girl she used to be, or the woman everyone thinks she is now. At 19, she bolted for London and never looked back. Nobody there knows who she was – not her care home colleagues, her boss, her clients or even her best friend and flat-mate. Auntie Mags is her only connection to her past, and she’s keeping schtum.
Oli can’t believe his luck. Not only is he about to fulfill his dream of really making a difference (assuming he wins his seat in the upcoming general election), now he’s met the perfect woman. Within a few dates he’s sure he wants to spend the rest of his life with Penny, and it’s all he can do not to shout it from the rooftops.
But Penny has hidden her secret by not shouting from any rooftops. In fact, the quieter, the better. So when Oli’s campaign swings into gear and the reporters start circling, it’s not only her future that’s about to come crashing down.
How can she find a happy ending with Oli when her past will definitely ruin his future, yet living with the lie will ruin their future together?
Then Penny’s past gets out of prison, and he’s about to turn up like a… bad penny.
Two victims. Nothing connects them, except that someone buried them in the exact same way.
Seven hundred years apart.
An archaeological dig at the old South Leith parish kirkyard has turned up a mysterious body dating from around seven hundred years ago. Some suspect that this gruesome discovery is a sacrifice, placed there for a specific purpose.
Then a second body is unearthed. This victim went missing only thirty years ago – but the similarities between her death and the ancient woman’s suggest something even more disturbing.
Drawn into the investigation, Inspector McLean finds himself torn between a worrying trend of violent drug-related deaths and uncovering what truly connects these bodies. When a third body is discovered, and too close for comfort, he begins to suspect dark purpose at play – and that whoever put them there is far from finished.
Broken Promises by Mel Sherratt
Family is everything. Loyalty should be…
The Limekiln Estate has witnessed many a dark crime over the years. When DI Allie Shenton is called out to a suspicious death, she isn’t surprised to see it’s a local she knows only too well.
While the slaying of Billy Whitmore is on everyone’s lips, a woman is stabbed in her home. A day later and a third victim turns up.
Three known associates brutally murdered – the bodies are piling up quicker than the forensic evidence is coming back. Yet Allie senses there’s something more disturbing going on. She’s sure Fiona Abbott, Billy’s partner, is involved too.
With enemies from her past rearing their ugly heads, and the press and public up in arms, Allie has her work cut out to get to the shocking truth. Can she and her loyal team stop the killer who has a close-knit community living in fear?
And by raking up secrets from the past, has she made the Abbott family the next target, especially fourteen-year-old Kelsey?
Set within the gritty streets of Stoke-on-Trent, this fast-paced British detective novel is a dark murder mystery with an emotional pull.
The Anniversary by Laura Marshall
Eleven murders. Twenty-five years ago.
Are some truths better left buried?
On 15th June 1994, Travis Green – husband, father, upstanding citizen – walked through the streets of Hartstead and killed eleven of his neighbours. The final victim was four-year-old Cassie Colman’s father.
As the twenty-five year anniversary approaches, Cassie would rather forget the past – even as her mother struggles to remember it at all. Then something hidden in her mother’s possessions suggests those eleven murders were not what everyone believes.
Once Cassie suspects she’s been lied to about the most important event of her life, she can’t stop digging up the past.
But someone will do anything to keep it buried . . .
The past week on the blog was fairly busy with reviews all week – recap below:
#Review – Hyde – Craig Russell
#Review – You Never Said Goodbye – Luca Veste
#Review – Unhinged – Thomas Enger & Jørn Lier Horst
#Review – A Lethal Deception – Rachel Amphlett
#Review – Breathless – Amy McCulloch
The week ahead is full again with three blog tours this week – Where Blood Runs Cold by Giles Kristian; The Killing Kind by Jane Casey and All That Lives by James Oswald.
And that’s me done. Got a dozen reviews to catch up on (literally) and a few more books to read so I will see you next week.
Happy reading all
Jen
Jen Med's Book Reviews 
Nice looking books.
Enjoy and have a great week!
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Thank you. I think I need plenty of time off work to keep up with my reading
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