Book Addicts Anonymous

Well, this one hasn't disappointed at all.  I love S J Bolton's books she knows just how to build up the tension and keep her readers guessing.
Now you see me is a crime thriller, and very well crafted.  The central character is Lacey Flint who finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation when a woman dies in her arms after being murdered in a particularly horrific way.  As the story progresses you find yourself mentally shouting at her to "not do that", but let's be honest, a thriller wouldn't be a thriller if everyone did the sensible thing all the time.
It appears that there is a copycat killer loose on the streets of London, and they aren't copying any old murderer, they are copying one of the most notorious, Jack the Ripper.
The book kept me hooked from beginning to end, a brilliant book.

An engrossing book that starts with someone getting an unexpected promotion, then a woman who has served time in prison, wrongly convicted, for the murder of her children, is murdered. The only link to the reader is that the person who has received the promotion is working on a documentary about wrongly accused women.
It's a fast paced book with plenty to keep the reader's attention.
Sophie Hannah is a favourite of mine.

"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.

After the previous abandoned book, this one was a pleasant surprise. It is Flynn's debut novel, but don't let that put you off. The plot is sufficiently complex to keep the reader busy. The timeline, is mostly straightforward, although there are times when the main character, Camille, remembers past events. I was completely hooked, and I know it's a cliche, but I really couldn't put it down. I look forward to seeing more from Gillian Flynn.

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

First, I must apologise to Old Bean, as this book is on her TBR list, what she didn't know was t'was also on mine!
I started this when I posted last, and haven't been able to put it down....so much so that I left other stuff just so that I could get on with reading.
This novel is a crime/detective novel, but Karin Slaughter has put so many twists into the plot that it takes a while to figure out exactly "whodunnit", that is not a criticism, as so many crime novels are so obvious, they get boring to read. In fact if this one is available as a talking book, I would get it for my partner who is dyslexic, and does love a good crime programme on TV. I think this would equal most CSI episodes.
I won't spoil the plot of this brilliant novel here.
If you want to know more, visit
http://www.karinslaughter.com/triptych.html
for the bumph, which I must say completely undersells the novel.

Another book about vampires, but this one has shape-shifters, werewolves/panthers and fairies in it. (And.... No, the fairies are not Cicely Mary Baker types, they have quite an attitude.)

The book opens with Sookie, the main character, dropping of her brother in a village where werepanthers live for the first full-moon after his "conversion".
The man she leaves her brother with gets shot. Sookie finds this out the next day in her workplace. The book is liberally sprinkled with "supernatural" beings, some openly recognised by the authorities, others still hiding their existence.
One thing I will say, this book is supposedly a romance......if it is, the person who classed it as romance has a very strange idea of what is romantic.
I'll share the bumph with you.

This has become my latest "Favourite" book, you know the one you want to read and read again. It doesn't matter in the slightest that I have read this book before, it is so well written and constructed that it still engages me . I think I have possibly read it at least once a year since I got it in 2000. If anyone ever asks me to recommend a book that is a little different, it is this one I would recommend. I've read all of Michel Faber's books apart the collections of short stories, because I've never found them in the bookshop, but not for want of looking.

As I say, I've read this novel several times, and whilst at university wrote a brief review of it. Below is the review .

Under the Skin. Michel Faber. Century Publishing. £6.99 296 pages.
Thriller, suspense, or horror? I’m not sure which genre Under the Skin falls into, the blurb on the back of the book isn’t either. Therefore to write a normal review would not do the book justice. No, Under the Skin is not a weird, minor cult type book, it just defies classification. Fans of Iain Banks’ Wasp Factory would probably enjoy the twists in the plot, yet it is not necessary to have read Wasp Factory to enjoy this novel.

“Isserley always drove straight past a hitch-hiker when she first saw him, to give herself time to size him up. She was looking for big muscles: a hunk on legs. Puny, scrawny specimens were no use to her.” (p 1).

The opening page introduces us to the main character, Isserley, and the fact that she picks up hitch hikers, and we are told that she is selective. The plot unfolds slowly, giving enough information to keep the reader engaged, whilst not spoiling the suspense.
Under the Skin introduces the reader to a world where the normal is abnormal, and vice-versa. The heroine and her work colleagues are not what the reader would expect. Isserley’s true identity is not revealed until she meets her employer’s son. Even then we are not told directly what she looks like, but are left to draw our own conclusions, after a detailed description of Amlis Vess. Her aim in life is not at all genteel, or ordinary, her living conditions unusual.

“The bathtub was clean but a little rusty, as was the sink. The yawning interior of the lidless toilet bowl, by contrast, was the colour and texture of bark; it had not been used for at least as long as Isserley had lived here.” (67)

The omniscient narrator does not seem biased, reporting all thoughts and actions equally. Even the fate of the hitch-hikers is not the obvious one that the reader would assume from the all-seeing narrator’s balanced narration.

“She tried to project herself forward in time, visualizing herself already parked somewhere with a hunky young hitch-hiker sitting next to her; she imagined herself breathing heavily against him as she smoothed her hair and grasped him round the waist to ease him into position.” (7)

And from the viewpoint of one of the hitch hikers picked up by Isserley:

“Maybe he was being a hypocrite. He did recognise this woman as… well…a woman, surely? She was a female; he was a male. These were eternal realities. And, let’s face it, she was wearing amazingly little clothing for the weather. He hadn’t seen so much cleavage in public since well before the snows had set in.” (202)

If certain other indicators were not given, the reader could be forgiven in thinking this novel was just warming up to be a kinky sex romp. However, we are disillusioned from having any such silly thoughts at the end of the first chapter, and are given a hint at what might be the true situation.

“Isserley flipped another toggle, her fingers trembling ever so slightly. The gentle tick of the indicator lights set the rhythm of her breathing as she allowed the car to drift off the road and smoothly enter the lay-by. The speedometer wobbled to zero; the car stopped moving; the engine stalled, or maybe she turned off the ignition. It was over.
As always at this moment, she saw herself as if from a height; an aerial view of her little red Toyota parked in its little asphalt parenthesis. The FARMFOODS lorry roared past on the straight.” (21).

The novel is set north of Glasgow/ Edinburgh, the location never being named directly. Although geographical pointers are given. This choice of setting is crucial to the plot, as the novel could not be credible if it had been located in a more approachable site. The disappearance of the hitch hikers would have been more noticeable elsewhere, and Isserley’s method of assessing their worth impractical in a more highly populated area. The language is easily accessible, encouraging the reader to read on. Without giving too much away all I can say is, Under the Skin is a very user-friendly novel, with a totally unexpected storyline, which is gradually revealed as the novel progresses. I believe it is in the process of being filmed. This is one adaptation I will try to see on the screen.

For further information on Michel Faber. http://www.canongate.net/MichelFaber

II found an excerpt of this novel a website. I enjoyed what I read, so decided to buy the novel. I had to order it, as it wasn't in stock.
I'm going to say before I go any further that this novel has been translated from French, but I didn't realise this until I was over a 100 pages into it. (I find some translated novels difficult to read, but not this one.)
It's classed as a thriller, and has short chapters, each letting the reader learn an important piece of information. I think if I re-read the novel I might pick up on the clues I am sure are there.
But they are well hidden in this book, and when the murderer was eventually caught I was more than a little surprised.
Commisairre Adamsberg appears to be haphazard in his detecting methods, and it is more than halfway through the book before he takes the case on. However, he has been following it with interest from the start of the novel, and avoiding getting himself shot by another criminal.
I found the novel very addictive, and again, it was another novel I couldn't put down, which is a tribute to both Fred Vargas' writing and the translation by David Bellos.
Vargas' characters are quirky, and endearing, one of the gendarmes has a very strange way of talking, adding "how should I say" to the end of each statement he makes.

Blurb time!

This book gripped me right from the start.
The chapters are short and to the point, broken up into different character's viewpoints, although at first it is not 100% clear who the narrator is of each piece, it soon establishes who is narrating which part. Actually the only part I didn't know who was narrating was Rainie's narration, in the early stages, and once you know a little more about her, it becomes obvious why the author has done this. The language throughout is very accessible, the tension is built up very cleverly. I must admit, I did suss "whodunnit" before the end of the book, although I didn't know why. I think there is a very telling part in the story when the reader could pick up the "whodunnit", but it would be easy to miss. (I suppose I'm used to Patricia Cornwell scattering subtle clues as to the identity of the perpetrator of the crime, although in this novel, only one person ends up dead, I'll not give away who or why, you need to read the acknowledgements at the end of the novel, and visit the author's own website. I must say I like the idea.)
Now the bumph!

When someone you love vanishes without a trace, how far would you go to get them back?

For ex-FBI profiler Pierce Quincy, it's the beginning of his worst nightmare: a car abandoned on a desolate stretch of Oregon highway, engine running, purse on the driver's seat. And his estranged wife, Rainie Connner, gone, leaving no clue to her fate.

Did one of the ghosts from her troubled past finally catch up with Rainie? Or could her disappearance be the result of one of the cases they'd been working - a particularly vicious double homicide, or the possible abuse of a deeply disturbed child Rainie took too close to heart? Together with his daughter, FBI agent Kimberly Quincy, Pierce is battling the local authorities, racing against time and frantically searching for answers to all the questions he's been afraid to ask.

One man knows what happened that night. Adopting the alias of a killer from eighty years ago, he has already contacted the press. His terms are clear: he wants money, he wants power, he wants celebrity. And if he doesn't get what he wants, Rainie could be gone for good.

Sometimes, no matter how much you love someone, it's still not enough. As the clock winds down on a terrifying deadline, Pierce plunges headlong into the most desperate hunt of his life, into the shattering search for a killer, a lethal truth, and for the love of his life who may be forever . . . gone.


To visit the author's website http://www.lisagardner.com/

Compared to her other books, this is quite a thin book.
But in true Cornwell fashion it keeps you engaged, from start to finish.

A Massachusetts state investigator is aclled home from the National Forsensic Academy in Tennessee. His boss, an attractive but hard-charging woman, is running for governor, and as a showcase plans to use a new crime initiative called At Risk - motto: 'Any crime, any time.' She's looking for a way to employ cutting - edge DNA technology, and thinks she's found it in a twenty-year-old murder - in Tennessee. If her officer solves the case, they'll look pretty good, right?

Her investigator is not so sure, but before he can open his mouth a shoking piece of violence intervenes, an act that shakes up not only their lives but the lives of everyone around them.....

I really enjoyed this book, and as a stand alone novel it is good, but a little complex. If Cornwell is starting a new character, it's a brilliant introduction, as she gives the main character some good connections that could prove interesting in future books.

[Type in green, blurb from back of book.]

This book seemed to me amazingly slow to start, which disappointed me as the bumph on the cover reads so well.
But, the more I got into the book, the more I was hooked. The way the book is written mirrors the narrative of the story. It is really quite clever. There is an aray of characters, seeminly with little in common, all thrown together.
Any way, a bit of the bumph, but no more.

For investigative journalist Jack Parblane, these are worrying times: it's been alomst three years since anyone tried to kill him and he fears he's losing his touch. But then comes an assignment in the Scottish coutryside that will more than make up for lost time...

Ultimate Motivational Leisure offers the latest in corporate outward bound courses, but if nothing else he gets a free weekend of shooting at PR people with a paintball gun.

Except the longer the weekend goes on, the weider things start to get. Firt somone steals the SIM cards from everybody's mobile phones. Then, when the group accidentally strays on to army land, the army starts firing back - and not with cans of Dulux. Suddenly no one can tell what's real and what isn't, wheter this is part of the game, or if everybody is fighting for their lives....

And I will not spoil the story, except I will say that I thoroughly enjoyed it, and in the end found the book very difficult to put down.

(Text in orange is from the back of my copy.)

I recently learned this is the book which introduces at least two characters who have gone on to be featured in Patterson's teen series Maximum Ride. I am going to read those as well.