Book Addicts Anonymous

"The scariest novel since Stephen King's The Shining, The Birthing House grips from the first line to the final terrifying twist." That is what it says on the back cover. With that in mind I sat and read the last 100 or so pages in broad daylight.
The story is indeed griping, and you just want to read on. I've never read The Shining, so can't equate. The last 100 or so pages the story took on a nightmare-ish quality that made me want to keep on reading, rather than put the book down.
The story starts out quite positively, but then things start to go wrong, and the main character seems to become obsessed by the house. I was however disappointed that the snakes the main character keeps were not made more use of, as they could have added a sinister twist to the story, yet another one.
The story is well constructed, and I could see that with very little alteration it would be able to be made into a film.
To read more about the book and author, click here.

Sharon J Bolton's first novel tackles a subject, albeit in a disguised way, that once brought to mind, I found difficult to forget. I won't spoil it, but the novel gives nothing at all away about this particular thread of the plot.
Part thriller,part medical, part investigative is what springs to find on reading the bumph. I did find myself telling the heroine "don't do that" several times, but as you know, the heroine....no doing would lead to a very short dull book.
I enjoyed the various twists and turns of the plot, and wasn't able to predict a couple of them. The setting, of the novel is crucial to the plot, it really couldn't happen elsewhere, [other than other remote islands,] as is revealed towards the end of the novel.
Sacrifice is a first novel from a past Waterstone's "New Voices" promotion, S.J.Bolton having now written a second novel, and her website says she's working on a third.
I'll not type out the bumph here, visit Sharon Bolton's website to read more about Sacrifice, her newest release Awakening, and the book still being written.

www.sjbolton.com

This was my Yule pressie from Blue. :)
Scarpetta is now on assignment in New York, and she is brought in on a case. We learn that Pete Marino has not died, but is working back on his old stamping ground in New York. Scarpetta is unaware of this, which is surprising as Benton, her husband, arranged it.
But the case Scarpetta is called in on is not her usual run of the mill, (are they ever?) case, as this "client" is alive, he thinks he is being framed. The case seems to take on a sinister turn, and it becomes obvious the killer is not Oscar Bane, but someone who either knows Scarpetta, or has studied her way of working.
I won't spoilt the book for you, but it ends in the usual tense style, with the killer being brought to justice.
I enjoyed this book, and am glad that Marino had not committed suicide.

http://www.patriciacornwell.com/

Interesting book this!
Although the cover pictures a certain notorious child murderer, nowhere, absolutely nowhere in the text is she named.
At first, I thought the book was going to be along the lines of Tomorrow by Graham Swift, (see previous post,) in that the whole story takes place overnight, whilst PC Billy Tyler is guarding the body of the woman.
However, after about halfway through the book, the atmosphere changes, and it becomes part "ghost" story.
I really don't want to spoil it, so won't give away too much.
It did not, nor does not try to gain the reader' sympathy for the woman, if it had, I would have stopped reading it at the first attempt to gain sympathy.
It is a very engrossing book, I just wanted to keep reading "one more page" or "to the end of this section".

http://www.bloomsbury.com/authors/microsite.asp?id=48&section=1 about the author.
http://www.bloomsbury.com/deathofamurderer/ for read extracts from the book.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/25/fiction.crimebooks for further information.

What I will add about this book, is, I have read a biography on the couple, and come from the area where they operated. The facts in the bock are very accurate, and the passage where Billy recalls visiting the Moors is very accurate and evocative.

Wow!!!!
I loved this book. It only took a couple of days to read as I kept picking it up, instead of doing what I should have been doing.
The novel looks to be a simple crime thriller at first, but is in no way simple.
The story is told from an omniscient narrator and in the first person by Naomi. The chapters narrated by Naomi are as if addressed to Robert, her married lover.
http://www.sophiehannah.com/crimefiction.html

This is a book you really won't want to put down. The characters are thoroughly rounded and believable. The plot well woven. I'll definitely be looking out for other books by Sophie Hannah