Howdy doody all. How has your week been? MIne was pretty uneventful. Worked three full on days at work, including a desk move. Tried to get motivated to read – failed. Tried to diet – failed at that too although I have shed a small amount of weight so I’ll take it. Off is off right? Wrote a few reviews, took a couple of walks, watched the rain on Sunday (still watching it as I write this post in fact) and spent Saturday afternoon and evening binge watching Stranger Things on Netflix. Did see the Paddington & Her Maj thing on Twitface – probably the only bit of the jubilee I saw to be honest. Fair play to The Queen. At least she has a sense of humour. Probably needs it after the past few years …
A kind of uneventful book week as far as I can recall. Received one pre-ordered book – The Botanist by MW Craven – and one proof in readiness for the paperback blog tour – Hostage by Clare Mackintosh. Now read, just needs to be reviewed.
One new Netgalley title – New Beginnings At The Old Bakehouse by Christie Barlow, part of the Love Heart Lane series. Order wise I bought The Murder List by Jackie Kabler and pre-ordered The Hidden Secrets of Bumblebee Cottage by Christie Barlow. I also pre-ordered The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman. And that’s about it this week.
Books I have read
Save hundreds of lives. Or save your child?
You’re on board the first non-stop flight from London to Sydney. It’s a landmark journey, and the world is watching.
Shortly after take-off, you receive a chilling anonymous note.
There are people on this plane intent on bringing it down – and you’re the key to their plan.
You’d never help them, even if your life depended on it.
But they have your daughter . . . So now you have to choose.
DO YOU SAVE HUNDREDS OF LIVES? OR THE ONE THAT MATTERS MOST?
‘Count to three,’ her mother told her, the last words she would ever speak.
An Impossible Crime Scene
A wealthy woman is found brutally murdered in the locked fortress of her London mansion. Surrounding her are four mysterious objects, including a book on forensics by Dr Laughton Rees.
An Inescapable Past
As a teenager, Laughton’s life was destroyed after witnessing her mother’s brutal murder. Now a mother herself and forensic analyst, she is an expert on how to read crime scenes – but never works live cases.
An Uncatchable Killer
Pressured by the lead detective to help with the investigation, Laughton begins to realise that the objects left by the body are not just about the victim, they’re also about her. Her childhood was destroyed by one killer. Now she must catch another before her daughter’s is destroyed too.
Fatal Witness by Robert Bryndza
How do you find a killer who has destroyed all the evidence?
Detective Erika Foster is on a late-night walk near her new house in Blackheath when she stumbles upon the brutal murder of Vicky Clarke, a true-crime podcaster.
Erika is assigned to the case and discovers that Vicky had been working on a new podcast episode about a sexual predator who preys on young female students around South London, staking out his victims in their halls of residence before breaking in at the dead of night.
When Erika discovers that Vicky’s notes and sound recordings were stolen from her flat at the time of her murder, it leads her to believe that Vicky was close to unmasking the attacker, and she was killed to guarantee her silence.
The case takes on a disturbing twist when the body of a young Bulgarian student doctor is discovered in the same building, and this makes Erika question everything she thought she knew about Vicky. With very little evidence, the clock is ticking to find the killer before he strikes again.
The Spirit Engineer by A.J. West
Belfast, 1914. Two years after the sinking of the Titanic, high society has become obsessed with spiritualism, attending séances in the hope they might reach their departed loved ones.
William Jackson Crawford is a man of science and a sceptic, but one night with everyone sitting around the circle, voices come to him – seemingly from beyond the veil – placing doubt in his heart and a seed of obsession in his mind. Could the spirits truly be communicating with him or is this one of Kathleen’s parlour tricks gone too far?
Based on the true story of Professor William Jackson Crawford and famed medium Kathleen Goligher, and with a cast of characters including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini, The Spirit Engineer conjures a haunted, twisted tale of power, paranoia and one ultimate, inescapable truth…
Just the four books this week which is perhaps not so great given we had a four day weekend, but I’m happy enough with it. Spent half a day watching a dear Evan Hansen and Stranger Things after all … It means I am now at 80 books read this year which is not bad for this early in June. I had a pretty okay reading month in May as well. Not my best, but given I was on holiday for a week, and reading took a back seat, I’m happy with my total of 15 books read.
The Lost Ones by Marnie Riches
Special Delivery by Rachel Amphlett
Nothing Else by Louise Beech
The Death of Remembrance by Denzil Meyrick
Tasting Sunlight by Ewald Arenz
Bad For Good by Graham Bartlett
Birthday Girl by Niko Wolf
Survive to Fight by Billy Billingham
The Lost Children by Michael Wood
Confidence by Denise Mina
Scheme by Jeffery Deaver
The Botanist by MW Craven
A Home At Cornflower Cottage by Tilly Tennant
No Place To Run by Mark Edwards
Hostage by Clare Mackintosh
A busy enough week on the blog too with posts all week. Recap below:
#Review – Death at the Dinner Party – Emma Davies
#Review – The Summer Of Secrets – Patricia Wilson
#Review – The Fire Killer – Ross Greenwood
#Review – The Death of Remembrance – Denzil Meyrick
#Review – The Botanist – MW Craven
The week ahead is also pretty busy. Four blog tours this week. We will eventually get quieter, honestly. Tomorrow I review Survive to Fight by Billy Billingham, then I have reviews of Cat and Mouse by MJ Arlidge, The Lost Ones by Marnie Riches and No Place To Run by Mark Edwards.
So that’s my week in a nutshell. First full week in work since February this week so lord knows what impact that will have on my reading! Wish me luck.
Have a fabulously bookish week
Jen x
Jen Med's Book Reviews 