Genre: suspense

Review: Silent Little Angels by Jennifer Chase

Posted February 17, 2023 by louisesr in Review / 0 Comments

Silent Little Angels by Jennifer Chase
Series: Detective Katie Scott #9
Published by Bookouture on April 19, 2022
Genres: suspense
Pages: 378
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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The water ripples as the girl's body escapes the reeds and floats silently upwards. Her beautiful face-blue eyes frozen open, skin as white as snow-breaks the surface. But it's too late, this innocent soul has taken her final breath...

When camp counselor Carolyn Sable's body is found floating in a lake beside Eagle Ridge Summer Camp, Detective Katie Scott must dig deep to stay focused. As a child, Katie spent many happy weeks at that camp toasting marshmallows on the fire with her best friend Jenny... until the day Jenny disappeared. The loss will always haunt Katie, but Carolyn's inconsolable family need answers.

Searching the area, the devastating discovery of two more bodies sends the case into a tailspin. Suddenly on the hunt for a serial killer, Katie's blood turns to ice when she finds newspaper clippings about her own past cases planted near one of the bodies. Was this twisted killer banking on Katie taking the lead? And why?

Carolyn was adored by children and staff at the camp, so Katie thinks her sudden resignation is key to cracking the case. Uncovering a tragic accident involving a group of children the weeks before Carolyn left, Katie knows she's getting close.

But when the carefully laid trap Katie sets to catch Carolyn's killer backfires, Katie finds herself in unthinkable danger and unable to even trust her own team. Can she stay alive long enough to crack the toughest case of her career, and how many more innocent lives will be lost before she does?

When I chose this book I didn’t realise that it was part of a series (have you noticed I seem to say that a lot, I really should pay more attention). I saw the cover, thought it looked nice and then read the synopsis, I don’t think that I missed out on anything because I’d not read the earlier books in the series, but I am going to go back and start this series from the beginning.

I liked Katie as a detective, she’s a military vet which is mentioned a number of times but I didn’t think that her character really showed this off (other than in one incident towards the end of the book), if she had been a male character I felt that this would have been made more evident throughout the book rather than her constantly having to point it out to the male characters who were trying to mollycoddle her (is that a universal term?)

I did also like McGaven and thought they had a great relationship, although it was s bit weird that sometimes she seemed to be giving him orders and at others he seemed to be ordering Katie around.
I’d have liked Cisco to have featured a bit more prominently. He’s a great addition to the team.

I had my suspicions about a lot of characters throughout the book, and hadn’t guessed who the bad guy was (although I was certain who it wasn’t) and some of my suspicions did prove to be correct.

All in all a solid read and I’m excited to read the rest of the series

About Jennifer Chase

Jennifer Chase is a multi award-winning author and consulting criminologist. She has authored eight crime fiction novels, including the multiple award-winning Emily Stone thriller series along with a screenwriting workbook.

Jennifer holds a Bachelor degree in police forensics and a Master’s degree in criminology. These academic pursuits developed out of her curiosity about the criminal mind as well as from her own experience with a violent sociopath, providing Jennifer with deep personal investment in every story she tells. In addition, she holds certifications in serial crime and criminal profiling. She is an affiliate member of the International Association of Forensic Criminologists.

Jennifer Chase was born and raised in California and still lives there with her husband, dogs and cats. In addition to writing and consulting, Jennifer enjoys spending time outdoors, both at the beach and hiking, and engaging in some amateur photography.

Website | Goodreads | Amazon

Review: Stranded by Sarah Goodwin

Posted December 14, 2022 by louisesr in Review / 1 Comment

Stranded by Sarah Goodwin
Published by HarperCollins Publishers on February 28, 2022
Genres: suspense, Thriller
Pages: 400
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
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Goodreads

You'll want to stay. Until you can't leave...

A group of strangers arrive on a beautiful but remote island, ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live there for one year, without contact with the outside world.

But twelve months later, on the day when the boat is due to return for them, no one arrives.

Eight people stepped foot on the island. How many will make it off alive?

This is such a strange book to review. I really enjoyed it and Sarah Goodwin is a great writer but if I had to provide a summary then in all honesty, I don’t think that much really happened. However, I did really want to read more and struggled to put it down.

This is a novel that shows how one power hungry male, can influence a group to target the weakest member. I’d read a lot of things about this being like Lord of The Flies and so I’d expected a lot more murder amongst them, which we don’t get.

I also really struggled to believe that a reality tv show such as this wasn’t being aired on a weekly basis while it was being filmed, but instead was saved up until everyone left the island to then be edited and broadcast – so not going to happen.

Review: Shiver by Allie Reynolds

Posted December 12, 2022 by louisesr in Review / 0 Comments

Shiver by Allie Reynolds
Published by Penguin Publishing Group on December 28, 2021
Genres: suspense, Thriller
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
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Goodreads

When Milla accepts an off-season invitation to Le Rocher, a cozy ski resort in the French Alps, she's expecting an intimate weekend of catching up with four old friends. It might have been a decade since she saw them last, but she's never forgotten the bond they forged on this very mountain during a winter spent fiercely training for an elite snowboarding competition.

Yet no sooner do Milla and the others arrive for the reunion than they realize something is horribly wrong. The resort is deserted. The cable cars that delivered them to the mountaintop have stopped working. Their cell phones--missing. And inside the hotel, detailed instructions await them: an icebreaker game, designed to draw out their secrets. A game meant to remind them of Saskia, the enigmatic sixth member of their group, who vanished the morning of the competition years before and has long been presumed dead.

Stranded in the resort, Milla's not sure what's worse: the increasingly sinister things happening around her or the looming snowstorm that's making escape even more impossible. All she knows is that there's no one on the mountain she can trust. Because someone has gathered them there to find out the truth about Saskia...someone who will stop at nothing to get answers. And if Milla's not careful, she could be the next to disappear...

I seriously loved this book!! Allie Reynolds is a former Snowboarding champion and that really came through in her writing, I don’t think any amount of research would have been able to convey so well the thoughts and fears of a professional snowboarder, yes, they could have wrote about the technical terms but I think you got an added depth to the story from her experience.

I really enjoyed the dual timeline, the present day where someone has called together a group of friends in order to find out what had happened to one of their group 10 years earlier. And 10 years earlier where we see the season leading up to the disappearance of Saskia.

Honestly, when you’re looking for who would have a motive for killing her, you’re not going to be short of suspects. She was one ruthless, evil person. I’d have quite happily buried her under an avalanche by half way through the book.

I think I suspected everyone at some point in this novel. However, the ending was ultimately pretty satisfying for me.

If you liked The Sanatorium, The Guest List or The Chalet then I would highly recommend this. I’ll be looking out for more work by Allie Reynolds.

BOOK TOUR: The Blame Game by Sandie Jones

Posted September 13, 2022 by louisesr in Review, Tour / 1 Comment

The Blame Game by Sandie Jones
Published by macmillan, Macmillan Audio on August 22, 2022
Genres: suspense
Pages: 336
Format: eBook
Source: Random Things Tours
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As a psychologist specializing in domestic abuse, Naomi has found it hard to avoid becoming overly invested in her clients' lives. But after helping Jacob make the decision to leave his wife, Naomi worries that she's taken things too far. Then Jacob goes missing, and her files on him vanish... But as the police start asking questions about Jacob, Naomi's own dark past emerges. And as the truth comes to light, it seems that it's not just her clients who are in danger.

Naomi is a psychiatrist who specialises in working with victims of domestic abuse. Throughout this story we only hear from 2 of her clients. Jacob who is suffering from domestic violence and Anna who is having marriage difficulties following the loss of her son a year earlier. We also have a side story from Naomi’s past which gives us some insight as to why she has chosen this career path.

I wanted to like Naomi but I just couldn’t warm to her, she’s a mess. Her past is interfering with her head and she’s incapable of setting boundaries. I appreciate that dealing with victims of domestic abuse must be really hard, it’s not something I could do. BUT, on the same note, this is a job where you cannot take the work home with you – or the clients for that matter. And the lack of boundaries is what is getting Naomi into trouble.

There are a number of happenings around Naomi’s house (which is also where her office is) that sets her on edge. Did she hear footsteps on the stairs? Did she leave her office door unlocked? Where did she put Jacob’s file?

When Jacob decides he can take no more and leaves his wife it’s not long before the police are involved.

This is one where you want to shout at Naomi to just tell the truth, don’t ommit things, don’t spin them. Things would be a lot easier if she told the truth and got on with things. Yes, things would look bad, she’d look like an idiot (she is an idiot, and an annoying one at that) but it would benefit everyone in the long run.

The phrase “there’s two sides to every story and then there’s the truth” is so apt for this book. It perfectly sums it up.

About Sandie Jones

Sandie Jones has worked as a freelance journalist for over twenty years, and has written for publications including the Sunday Times, Woman’s Weekly and the Daily Mail. She lives in London with her husband and three children. The Other Woman is her debut novel.

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Book Tour: Quarter to Midnight

Posted August 11, 2022 by louisesr in Review, Tour / 5 Comments

Quarter to Midnight by Karen Rose
Series: New Orleans #1
Published by Hachette UK on August 4, 2022
Narrator: Lee Osorio
Length: 21 hours
Genres: suspense, Romance
Pages: 560
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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Goodreads

Rocky Hebert walks into his death at quarter to midnight one New Orleans night.

His son Gabe cannot accept the official verdict of suicide and enlists the help of the Burke Broussard Private Investigation Agency to discover the real cause of death.

PI Molly Sutton knows what it's like to lose a father in tragic circumstances and will go to any lengths to crack the investigation, as she tries to fight off her growing feelings for Gabe.

They soon realise Rocky was working on an investigation of his own; one that threatened to expose the deep corruption going all the way to the top of the police department. And that the key to the puzzle lies with a young witness to a murder that happened years earlier: Xavier Morrow.

Just what did Rocky know? And who might have shut him up?

As they get closer and closer to the truth, they realise that the killer is not going to stop at Rocky. And that Xavier is in very real danger. Someone will go to any lengths to protect what he witnessed that night coming out...

'High-wire suspense that keeps you riveted' Lisa Gardner

'Intense, complex and unforgettable' James Patterson

'Fast and furious' Sun

I am so happy to share that I am on the book tour for the new book from Karen Rose – Quarter to Midnight. This is the first book in a new series form her set it New Orleans. Thank you so much to Random Things Tours and the publisher for inviting me on to this tour.

*although I was gifted an advance copy of this book the version I had was unreadable. HOWEVER, I love Karen Rose books and would have bought this any way so although this is a tour, the book was purchased by myself.

I only discovered Karen Rose earlier this year and I am slowly working my way through her backlist. I was going to pass on this as it would have meant reading out of order (I know I do that a lot but I’m trying to stop) but then I discovered that this was the first in a new series so it would be rude not to right?

This is a huge book coming in somewhere around 600 pages, I got the audio and it was over 21 hours!!! Luckily for me, I don’t listen to it on 1x speed (seriously, does anyone really speak that slowly?) I found that 1.75x was the perfect speed for me with this and I read it over 3 days.

This was a bit of a weird book for me as it was all about the investigation, we know who was killed and we know who by. As the story unfolds we find out the why. The beauty of the story is in the process of what Gabe and Molly go through to avoid being killed themselves and to identify and catch the killer. I got so invested in this story and where it was going to go. There was non stop action and a bit of romance thrown in. It really didn’t feel like it was overly long, something which had worried me a little when I first looked at it.

I particularly like Xavier and his motley crew of family and friends. I thought they made a great addition to the storyline. They were so down to earth and likeable.

This is classified as romantic suspense, rather than the thriller that I know from her earlier books. While I enjoyed it, I definitely prefer a book with more thriller/suspense and less romance. But that is a personal preference of mine and as romantic suspense goes this was really good