Kill the Father (Sandrone Dazieri, 2017)

When a six-year-old boy and his mother go missing, and then the mother is found beheaded, Rovere, the Chief of Rome's Major Crimes unit, is one of the few who doesn't suspect the boy's father. Aware of the consequences of investigating the case formally, he persuades Deputy Captain Columba Caselli, on leave after a recent case ended in disaster, and Dante Torre, a man who spent his childhood locked inside a concrete silo after being kidnapped by a man he knows only as the Father, to investigate off the record. Working together, this unorthodox pair soon discover that the Father has returned to what he does best.

Five stars. Columba and Dante are perhaps the most fascinating and unusual partners I have ever encountered in fiction, and I am utterly besotted with them. Kill the Father is as intelligent as it is page-turning, and the sleep I lost over it was worth it.

Recommended for:
Everyone, but especially anyone who has grown disenchanted with the thriller genre

"I don't know if I would have found you, but I do want to free that child in the video before he turns into someone like you. The world only needs one Dante Torre."


Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee, 2015)

Jean Louise Finch, perhaps best known by her childhood name of Scout, is living in New York, twenty-six years of age, but she returns home to Maycomb, Alabama to visit her aging father, Atticus Finch. As memories come flooding back to her, Jean Louise struggles to understand what has happened to the town and the people she once loved. And hardest of all, she struggles to understand whether she can still love them.

Four stars. The characters are exquisite, perhaps most so in their flaws, and I particularly fell for John Finch (Uncle Jack). I loved Lee's lucid style of writing, particularly the way in which she often writes what Jean Louise wants to say before what she actually says, which was perfect for asking the uncomfortable questions raised by this book.

Recommended for:
Anyone who, like me, has still not gotten around to reading To Kill a Mockingbird (which I am now very excited to read)

"Had she insight, could she have pierced the barriers of her highly selective, insular world, she may have discovered that all her life she had been with a visual defect which had gone unnoticed and neglected by herself and by those closest to her: she was born color blind."


My Husband's Son (Deborah O'Connor, 2016)

Heidi and Jason are a married couple, united by the fact that Heidi's daughter Lauren was murdered six years ago, and Jason's son Barney disappeared a year later. Their fragile marriage is shaken when Heidi, by chance, sees a boy whom she is convinced is Barney, but whom Jason is equally convinced is not. Whether Heidi is seeing this, or whether Jason either doesn't recognise his own son or is hiding something, Heidi cannot get the boy out of her mind and determines to get to the truth.

Two stars. My main problems were my inability to sympathise with Heidi, whose actions were questionable to say the least, and the lack of a twist in the ending. I found Heidi's hypocrisy especially hard to handle, as she rebukes Jason for keeping secrets from her all the while keeping secrets of her own. And while O'Connor kept me wanting to read, I found the ending to be ultimately what I was expecting, with even the final 'twist' becoming apparent to me some time before the end.

Recommended for:
Anyone who is fan of domestic thrillers, because I am in the minority with my opinion and even if you agree with me, this is still a very readable book

"I thought of Vicky going up to Barney's room every week with her dusters and polish. The way Jason spent his time scouring the internet forums for potential sightings. I envied their defiance, their right to keep everythign ready, just in case. I envied their right to hope."


Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Patrick Süskind, 1985)

Perfume is the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille who, since his birth in Paris in 1738, appears ordinary, harmless, perhaps even a little dim-witted, while also making everyone around him feel ill at ease. Why? Because Grenouille was born with an extremely acute sense of smell, perceiving through scent rather than vision, and without an odour of his own. Perfume is the story of a murderer.

Four stars. This is an extremely unusual book, and perhaps for that reason alone it is worth reading. Süskind creates an utterly unsympathetic character, but he makes us want to read about him (because whatever else Perfume may be, it is highly readable). What does this say about Grenouille? And, more importantly, what does this say about the reader? Perfume will linger with me for some time, like any good scent should.

Recommended for:
Anyone who is looking for something different, and who is able to handle some quite dark and disturbing imagery and ideas

“For people could close their eyes to greatness, to horrors, to beauty, and their ears to melodies or deceiving words. But they couldn't escape scent. For scent was a brother of breath...He who ruled scent ruled the hearts of men.”


Second Life (S.J. Watson, 2015)

After their mother's death, Julia took on the responsibility for her younger sister, Kate, a role she continues to play many years later, having adopted Kate's son Connor when she was unable to cope with him. Julia, a recovering alcoholic, has a few shadows in her past but now lives a happy life, working as a photographer, with the now teenage Connor and her husband, a surgeon, Hugh. But then Kate is murdered. And, struggling to cope, Julia decides to set up an account on the same sex-site which Kate used before she was killed. At first Julia convinces herself that she is doing it to try and get to the truth behind Kate's death, but after a while she isn't so sure.

I'm still reading this one, so you'll have to keep an eye out for my review!