A Patient Fury by Sarah Ward - Review

When I read the fourth book in this series a couple of weeks ago, I realised, as I said, that I hadn't read the third one. I had it on my shelves but hadn't got around to it. I really like the series, so I wanted to complete it. I had picked up two other books but couldn't get into them, for one reason or another. I will definitely come back to them both - one of them is March's book club book so I'll have to read it if I want to attend the meeting, and the other was Call Down the Hawk which I obviously want to read because I love the Raven Cycle! I'm thinking actually that I might take that on holiday at the end of April so that I've got time to properly concentrate on it.

So anyway, I went back to the DC Connie Childs books because I knew it would be pretty easy reading and I was having a busy couple of weeks and needed something I didn't need to put much effort into. Crime novels are perfect for that for me. And indeed, I read this really fast, hardly able to put it down.

I will say that I think it's the worst of the four books so far. I can't really say why, but it felt incomplete to me at the end. However, I still really liked it, so it's not like it's a terrible book.

Sadler is called to a house fire in the early hours of a summer morning. The house is owned by Peter Winson, his much younger wife Francesca, and their son Charlie. All three die in the blaze. Sadler and Connie are shocked to find Francesca's body hanging from a fixture on the landing. Usually in cases like this, the man of the family kills the others and then himself, but here all signs point to Francesca having killed her husband and son before taking her own life.

Peter has two children, George and Julia, from his first marriage, who are now nearing fifty. The two of them react strangely to the news that their dad, stepmother, and half-brother are all dead. However, it transpires that their mother, Elizabeth, went missing in 1980 when they were children, and was never found.

Julia harbours some hope that her mother is still alive and spends time on internet forums posting messages for her mum. She works in a local cavern and lives alone with her dog Bosco. As the police investigation goes on, Julia becomes certain that someone is following her and standing outside her house. There's quite a lot of red herrings, some of which just went nowhere and which annoyed me, but one of which turns up a nice friendship that I enjoyed throughout the book.

Meanwhile, Connie refuses to accept the official versions of events and is convinced that the truth about Peter, Francesca, and Charlie's deaths are caught up in what happened in 1980. She starts digging into the past, against Sadler's instructions.

I did enjoy the mystery but as I say, it felt incomplete to me at the end. I didn't feel there was enough Sadler in this book, I would've liked more. However, I'm giving this three and a half out of five.

Shut Down Strangers and Hot Rod Angels (Anthology) - Review

This book is an anthology of words inspired by the work of Bruce Springsteen. There's poems, fiction, and memoir and life writing. You may not know but I'm a big Springsteen fan and have used his music as inspiration in my own work. I even wrote a zine about Bruce, which you can buy here on Etsy. I wish I had seen the call out for this anthology because I would have definitely submitted sometihng. I was raised on Bruce's music - my parents both liked him. Listening to him now reminds me of my dad, who we lost tragically nearly twelve years ago. It reminds me of going on holiday and sunshine and wide open motorways with Bruce playing loudly on the car stereo. So when I saw this anthology on Twitter, I ordered it immediately. And then picked it up as soon as it arrived because I wanted to read other fans' thoughts and feelings and stories.

As with all anthologies, there's some pieces I connected to a lot more than others. I especially liked the life writing, where people wrote about their own lives and experiences. I really liked the pieces set in New Jersey seaside towns with delapidated boardwalks and faded glamour. I think this is a really accomplished collection of works, and I'm really happy to have read it. I'm giving it four out of five, and I love love love the cover!

Shut Down Strangers & Hot Rod Angels is available to buy here. I am just sharing this link, it's not an affiliate link or anthing!

The Shrouded Path by Sarah Ward - Review

I've read the first two of the Connie Childs books by Sarah Ward and really enjoyed them. You can find my reviews here for In Bitter Chill and here for A Deadly Thaw. I bought the third book - A Patient Fury - but hadn't got round to reading it. In fact, I'd forgotten about it. Then I spotted this in the library when I was there for my craft club at the beginning of February and decided to get it out. Reading these books out of order isn't a problem because they stand alone. There are a couple of mentions to the previous book, but nothing spoilerish. Something in that book has made Palmer leave though, which I'm glad about because he annoyed me. Instead, Connie and Sadler are joined by a new detective, Dahl.

At the beginning of the book, Sadler is on holiday, on a staycation at home. In his absence, Matthews is keeping things ticking over. She wants Connie to go over an unexplained death just to make sure there was nothing suspicious about it. Nell Conley was found dead on her sofa by her neighbour. When Connie digs deeper, she thinks there's a link to a previous unexplained death, that of Ingrid Neale, who was found on her sofa by her sister. Connie and newcomer Dahl start to investigate, including the women's doctor in their investigations.

Sadler's neighbour wants to speak to him because Nell Conley mentioned to a lawyer that she was thinking of writing a memoir. It seems like this has made someone in the vicinity get very anxious about something that happened back in the 1950s up in a disused railway tunnel known as the Cutting.

Meanwhile, Mina, a woman who works as a gardener around the town of Bampton, is visiting her elderly mother, who is dying of cancer in hospital. Hilary, when unsettled and on a lot of pain medication, mentions seeing "Valerie", and mentions killing her. Mina promises her mum that she'll find out what happened to Valerie.

I liked this book a lot, I thought it was better than the last one I read. The atmosphere of a damp, wintry Derbyshire is done really well. The High Peaks are somewhere I know well, living not too far away in Barnsley, and I love the air of menace the area has in these books. I liked Mina better than I've liked the female protagonists in the previous two books. I really liked her life and her mother and how she was trying to unravel the mystery.

I did feel like the denoument was a little bit lacking. I would like more showing of the police talking to the culprit to try to understand them a little bit better, but that's honestly the only thing I didn't like about the book. I'm giving it four out of five!

The Ballroom Cafe by Ann O'Loughlin - Review

I've had this book on my shelves since 2016. Recently Lee and I have been going through all the books again and I've tried to cull ones which I know I won't read. I feel bad - because books! - but I know it's for the best, and I'm going to donate them to a local charity which will sell them at a tombola to raise funds, so that's good.

Anyway as I've been going through the books, I've pulled out ones that I want to read soon. There's a huge pile next to my bed now! This was one of these. I can't remember where I first heard of it, but the premise appealed to me.

The book is set in Ireland in 2008. That confused me slightly, as it wasn't published until several years after that, which put the timelines out somewhat and made things confusing. Two sisters, Ella and Roberta, live in their crumbling family home, a huge mansion house on the edge of a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. They are both elderly women, and they have not spoken to each other in decades. The house has huge loans on it and the bank are pressuring for repayment.

Ella decides to open a cafe in the house's ballroom. Roberta leaves scathing notes warning her against it, saying that she will bring scandal upon them all and open up old secrets. Ella leaves notes in reply ignorning her sister and saying that she has to make some money somehow.

A lady called Debbie turns up to the house one day. She is American, and after the recent death of her father she has discovered that she was adopted in Ireland. She and Ella become quick friends and Debbie helps to run the cafe. She goes to the convent to try to find answers about her mother, but comes up against closed doors and no answers. She takes to the radio to demand answers, and a dam breaks.

Meanwhile we get to know the tragedies Ella has been through in her life, and what happened between her and Roberta. The cafe is a success, mostly because the post mistress Muriel Hearty and other busybodies of the town are desperate to know what's going on.

I felt like there was a lot of the book that was pretty predictable, and there was just a lot of detail that wasn't needed. It's really oddly written too - totally overwritten and frothy in parts, especially in parts that are really sad and could have used a lighter, more sensitive touch. Then there's other parts that are just totally skated over when more detail is needed. It reads like a romance novel, but really isn't.

There's also quite graphic mention of two suicides, which I felt wasn't needed.

I'm giving this three out of five - despite really wanting to read it, I didn't find it my cup of tea at all.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power - Review

Where did I get it? Netgalley, so thank you very much to Pan Macmillan for giving me access. I was excited because I had heard so much about this book on Twitter. I actually had it on pre-order last year, but for some reason it got cancelled? I'm not sure if there was a delay in the book or something. But, I'm glad I've got to read it!

What's it about? Hetty is a pupil at a school on Raxter Island, an island off the coast of Maine. It's an all girls school, and the girls and two of their teachers are under quarantine. Eighteen months ago, the Tox spread among them. It is some kind of disease, but it affects each of them differently. Each girl gets "flare ups" of her own particular disease every now and then. There are just two teachers left - just the Headmistress and Miss Welch. Welch is in charge of Boat Shift, three girls who go to the island's pier to pick up food and other supplies from the Navy and Centre for Disease Control. Food and medical supplies are really scarce, and each day when Boat Shift comes back there's a fight for food. Girls die fairly frequently; from a full school there's only around sixty of them left. Plus the island itself has the Tox too - all the animals are wilder, all the plants are poisoned. Hetty has been part of Gun Shift until the start of the back, keeping watch all night with a shotgun to ward off bears and other wild animals. The school has no contact with the outside world. It is basically feral, every girl for herself. 

Hetty's best friend is Byatt, who she met on her first day years ago. Hetty's from a naval family and grew up on a base down in Virginia. Byatt is from Boston. They are also friends with Reese, although she is spiky and a little bit cold towards Hetty. Hetty lost the use of one of her eyes because of the Tox, when her eyelids fused together. Reese has glowing hair and a silver, scaly hand. Every girl is disabled in some way by the Tox, and as I said, they haven't all survived. 

I found the book compelling but it is very graphic and gory. There's a lot of disease, disability, gore, and blood. I think it's done well in context, but it may not be the right book for you. 

What age range is it for? 14+. 

Are any main characters LGBTQ+? Yes, but no spoilers. 

Are any main characters people of colour? If they are, it isn't mentioned. 

Are any main characters disabled either mentally or physically? Yes. There's a lot of pain, disability, post-traumatic stress, health uncertainty, and so on. It may be triggering. 

Is there any sex stuff? No 

Are drugs mentioned or used? Yes, there's a really intense part with a drug, if you need more details on this please contact me. 

Is there any talk of death? Yes, lots. 

Are there swear words? A couple.

What criticisms do I have? I enjoyed the book, but I didn't think it was complete enough. It reads to me very much like the first in a trilogy, and doesn't all together work as a standalone. There aren't enough answers. I wanted bigger showdowns with more answers; I wanted to know what happened to the main characters. Maybe it is going to have follow on books, and I would definitely read them, but I do think this needed to be different in order to stand by itself. That isn't to say it's bad, but it felt incomplete to me. 

Would I recommend the book? Despite my criticisms, yes! I think it is very compelling and I wanted to keep reading to see what happened. 

Why did I choose to read it at this point in life? I have heard rave reviews of it and wanted to see for myself. 

What do I think of the cover? I think it's nice, although maybe a little bit stylised - the reality of the Tox is much more gruesome and gory and I feel like the cover could have reflected this a bit more. 

What other books is it like? I've seen it described as We Were Liars (which I loved, but wanted to throw out of a window, and which I read before I started this blog) meets The Power. I guess that is a fair explanation of the book, but it doesn't quite get there. 

How many stars? Three out of five, although, if there is a follow on book, I may revisit that rating. We shall see!

Wilder Girls was published on 6th February 2020. I was given a free electronic copy of the novel but was not compensated in any other way for this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. 

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths - Review

I requested this book on Netgalley because you know me, I'm a huge fan of Elly Griffiths' books and always like to read them straight away. So many thanks to Quercus books for granting me permission for this book. It is the newest in the Dt Ruth Galloway series and I love returning to Ruth, it always feels like a sit down with a friend.

The book starts a couple of years after the ending of the last book, The Stone Circle, when Ruth has moved to Cambridge to be a lecturer there. She is living with Kate, of course, and Frank, Ruth's boyfriend. Kind of. Ruth is quite reticent to call him that, and even though Frank is a really decent person, he doesn't really set Ruth's heart on fire or anything.

Nelson is still in Norfolk, but his daughters Laura and Rebecca now know that Kate is his daughter and Laura especially is keen to make her part of the family. Baby George is now two years old. Judy and Tanya are still on his team, but Cloughie has moved to Cambridge too to head up his own team, and Nelson really misses him.

Anyway, the previous summer, two bodies were discovered in the back garden of a woman called Chantal. Her boyfriend Ivor was arrested, thanks to forensic evidence on the bodies, and has been found guilty and is now awaiting sentencing. Nelson is convinced he also killed two other women, Nicola and Jenny. The forensic witness in the case was Ruth's ex-boss, Phil, but Ivor says he will talk to Nelson about where the other bodies are if Ruth goes to the prison with him and is the one to carry out the excavation.

Meanwhile the police go back over all the witnesses from before. Ivor lived on something like a commune for a while with a number of other people, one of whom turns out to be a new friend of Ruth's called Crissy. New things come to light and with the discovery of the second set of bones, there's a question mark over Ivor's guilt.

There's also the myth of the Lantern Men on the fens, about a light in the darkness that you follow and end up meeting a sticky end...

I liked the book, I liked Ruth removed from the Norfolk setting even though she ended up going back for the case. I understood why she couldn't quite settle with Frank, and I loved that Kate was a bit older and that her sisters knew about her. Nelson didn't do anything to annoy me, and even though I wouldn't say I liked Clough as a character particularly, I did feel like he was missing from the team and wanted him to come back! I would have liked more Cathbad, but I always say that because I love him so much. The bits he was in were great, though.

I'm sure we will see Ruth again, because the end of the book was very ambiguous. I do wonder what Elly has planned for the end of this series... I can't wait to see!

I was provided with an electronic copy of this book for review purposes, but was not otherwise compensated. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Second Dad Summer by Benjamin Klas - Review

Second Dad Summer will be published on the 5th of May 2020 by Red Chair Press/One Elm Books. They kindly granted me an ecopy of the book for review. I was not otherwise compensated for this post and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I requested this book because I liked the premise: Jeremiah is a kid whose parents are divorced, and he spends every summer with his dad. His dad Al is bisexual, and has just moved into an apartment with his boyfriend, Michael. Jeremiah really doesn't like Michael or how hard he tries to be Jeremiah's friend. He especially doesn't like Michael's bike, which as a unicorn head and lots of streamers and glitter.

Jeremiah's apartment building also contains a grumpy old man called Mr Keeler, who is abusive towards Michael but Michael is kind to him anyway. It turns out that Mr Keeler is gay too, so I have to say I was surprised by the slurs that Mr Keeler throws at Michael. I can believe it would happen, but I would have liked a little bit more explanation about why Mr Keeler is like he is.

Jeremiah makes friends with a girl in a building opposite, a girl called Sage. She doesn't like Mr Keeler because he is very protective of the plants in front of the building, but through the book Jeremiah and Sage become friendly with him. Jeremiah also learns that maybe Michael isn't so bad after all.

This is a really cute chapter book. I think Jeremiah is around eleven or twelve years old, and I would say it is suitable for tweens aged nine to twelve. I liked the diversity within it, I liked how careful people were with each other and how many important conversations happened without the points being laboured.. I am giving this a very solid four out of five; I am looking forward to seeing what this author does next!