A Good Thriller discussion
NetGalley Books
>
Share Your NetGalley Reviews Here
Charging my Kindle before starting
The Retreat by Mark Edwards after finishing a delightful, heartwarming, happy/ sad and satisfying book
Cassandra's Secret: Sometimes the only way to move forward is to go back... by Frances Garrood. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Just finished
The Retreat by Mark Edwards Five full blindingly bright stars! My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
The Fated Sunset by Nishanth R is an action-filled debut novel by a 16 year old! Well worth the read. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished Mick Herron”s London Rules, his latest visit to the Slow Horses of Slough House. Still an entertaining bunch of demoted (“demented”?) spooks.
4★ My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished
DEAD BAD a gripping crime mystery full of twists by Helen H. Durrant I didn't think that this was quite as good as the rest of the series, but is still a good read. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...Now reading
The Truth in My Lies by Ivy Smoak
The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly. The latest Charlie Parker adventure - outstanding as always!http://bookreviewsbymonnie.blogspot.c...
I've just finished an excellent psychological thriller
The Date by Louise Jensen. Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Finished reading
My Husband’s Lies: An unputdownable read for summer 2018 by Caroline England which, after a somewhat confusing start, developed into a really good read. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com. https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...Started
Dying Truth: completely gripping crime thriller (Detective Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
Mod
Thanks to Net Galley, the publishers and the author for an ARC Copy of this explosive action packed page turner of a book.
Susan Foster wants to retire. Her boss wants her dead.
After decades as Victor Kemp’s off-the books killer, Suzanne finally quits. Not until five years later does Kemp discover how thoroughly she’s deceived him. Determined to punish her, he tracks her to Wales to watch her die. Instead, he walks into a trap.
Believing themselves safe at last, Suzanne and her family relocate to London, where she hopes to find the peace that has eluded her for so long. Her son is engaged to a nobleman’s daughter; her husband has a good job with British Intelligence. Yet she still struggles with restless dreams and the premonition that her nemesis has survived.
He has: Kemp, though severely injured, is rebuilding his empire and plotting revenge. He’s prepared to risk everything to end the former assassin. He may not be the only one.
Suzanne has no choice: to protect those she loves, she will be forced to kill again. Assassins, it seems, can never retire!!
This author has created a multi level gripping, very clever, fast paced thriller of a story, filled with an array of great strong characters, realistic scenarios, with a collection of twists that leave you with a action packed thriller of an ending.
The strength in this book is the strength in the characters in this story.
Congratulations Ms Nikki Stern
Five stars
About to start
Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea after I have just finished two reads that rate at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Dying Truth by Angela Marsons is a brilliant 5-star read. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
The second read,
What Holly's Husband Did by Debbie Viggiano failed to engage me. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Our House by Louise Candlish is the nightmarish tale of a woman arriving home to find her house has been sold and strangers are moving in.review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
About to start
Half The Lies You Tell Are True by C.P. Wilson after staying up reading until 3am to finish
Don't Believe It by Charlie Donlea. Yes, another 'stay up all night reading until you finish it' book! My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
My review for the dark and gripping thriller, Jar of Hearts
by Jennifer Hillier definitely 5★ from me!review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
About to start
Night-Gaunts and Other Tales of Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates after finishing
The Summer Children by Dot Hutchison, an excellent third installment of a brilliant series. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Mod
Firstly, thank you to Net Galley, The publishers and the author for an ARC copy for an honest review..
Oh dear !!
The first thing I have to say is sorry !!
I understand we all like different styles of books, different writing styles, different genre of books, for me this lacked any strength in the story any smoothness of the characters.
Personally I just did not like the writing style, too heavy and slow, no strength to the characters, I felt I never got to know them.
Rome is cold with the threat of snow when a serial killer, soon nicknamed The Carpenter, starts killing women with a hammer and nailing cryptic notes to their chests. He has already killed his third victim when the novel opens. The stakes are raised when attacks Rossi's girlfriend, Yana, leaving her in a coma.
The story concentrates on how the corruption in all aspects of Italian life has facilitated the serial killer, Michael Rossi is the senior investigating officer; he is well-educated, a philosopher , he sees his police officer role as a vocation. An individual who looks at the bigger picture, which helps him to be an excellent detective. His success allows him a certain latitude with his bosses, but they still frustrate his progress.
Problems with the style of writing, too many names, too heavy in the plotting, the politics behind it all was confusing as well and I struggled at first to get into the whole election and understand who was being corrupted and where the corruption was happening, I literally lost the plot !!
My apologies but the weakest book read this year, sadly.
Only two stars from me for this debut author.
What a wonderful, convoluted mystery, and I enjoyed all seven!The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle 5★ by Stuart Turton
5★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I really enjoy a series where the MC grows and develops as in this third book in the Angie PAllorino series -
The Girl in the Moss by Loreth Anne White 4.5★review: ttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2417142429
My library already has this, but but some of you may still have it to read on your NetGalley lists.Compelling true-crime. If it weren't so well-documented, it would be hard to believe.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann reads like a novel with an outrageous plot that will outrage YOU!
5★ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Latest is Come and Find Me I have to say folk this series is very much underrated in my opinion. It really is very good with a couple of the books being outstanding. I highly recommend.
My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A second look with the benefit of hindsight. Talented Aussie author Aoife Clifford has written her second book Second Sight. Lots of seconds there, but it's a first-rate read!
4.5★ Link to my review
Re: Trust Me:Thank you to Hank Phillippi Ryan and NetGalley for a pre-release copy of this book.
Up front, I’ll admit I’m a fan of Hank Phillippi Ryan, her Charlotte McNally books, and her Jane Ryland books.
In a departure from those books, Ryan tells us the story of Mercer Hennessy, a writer still reeling from death of her husband and daughter, asked to write the story of Ashlyn Bryant, a woman accused of murdering her own daughter.
Ryan kept me guessing about Ashlyn throughout the book. One minute I was sure she was guilty as sin of killing her daughter; the next I was sure she wasn’t, the next I wasn’t sure either way. She kept me in limbo about Mercer, too: Was she responsible for her husband’s and daughter’s deaths? Other key characters lived in that same good-to-bad spectrum, leaving me wondering what they were hiding. To keep the reader guessing like that over 400 pages is the mark of a great writer
On the other hand, I semi-suspected how this story would play out, had a feeling what twists would be coming, and in general I was right. Until almost the end, when Ryan pulled the rug out from under me.
One reviewer said ‘The tension mounts at a blistering pace.’ It doesn’t but that’s a good thing because tension that rises that fast can be exhausting. The reader feels as if he can never catch a breath. No, the tension here is low key but constant and creeping upward at a stead rate. That works better because it sneaks up on the reader instead of slapping him in the face. And when the reader realizes how much the tension has gone up, it has a stronger impact.
Will I read more Hank Phillippi Ryan books? Absolutely. And when this book comes out in paperback, I’ll buy a copy. Why? Because there are some authors whose books I want in paperback – Michael Connelly, Robert B. Parker, and Lee Child, to name a few. Hank Phillippi Ryan is on that list. But I hope at least some of those books are McNally or Ryland novels.
Now to something that is not good:
This NetGalley download had a lot of production errors:
1/ There were no indents or other indicators of where one paragraph ended and the next one started.
2/ Every chapter begins with the first letter of the first word on a separate line,
3/ Words are broken in two in biz
arre places for no apparent reason,
4/ Things like 60 Hank Phillippi Ryan and Trust Me 274 pop up randomly,
5/ In some places wordshowuplikethis and in other places, t h e y s h o w u p l i k e t h i s.
6/ And my favorite: —1 and —0 appearing frequently throughout the text to no apparent purpose in the middle —0 of sentences and even in the mid —1 dle of words.
I'm guessing what I read qualified as the e-book equivalent of an ARC, but even in an ARC, this mountain of errors is unacceptable. This deluge of screw-ups did not endear me to NetGalley one bit, and it will be a long time before I get another book through them.
Mod
Thank you to Net Galley, my favourite publishers Bookouture, and of course my friend Angela Marsons.
The Detective Inspector Stone Number eight. The best so far.
Stunning, shocking, emotional, disturbing.
How far would you go to protect your darkest secrets?
When teenager Sadie Winter jumps from the roof of her school, her death is ruled as suicide – a final devastating act from a troubled girl. But then the broken body of a young boy is discovered at the same school and it’s clear to Detective Kim Stone that these deaths are not tragic accidents.
As Kim and her team begin to unravel a dark web of secrets, one of the teachers could hold the key to the truth. Yet just as she is about to break her silence, she is found dead.
With more children’s lives at risk, Kim has to consider the unthinkable - whether a fellow pupil could be responsible for the murders. Investigating the psychology of children that kill brings the detective into contact with her former adversary, Dr Alex Thorne – the sociopath who has made it her life’s work to destroy Kim.
Desperate to catch the killer, Kim finds a link between the recent murders and an initiation prank that happened at the school decades earlier. But saving these innocent lives comes at a cost – and one of Kim’s own might pay the ultimate price.
This book is shocking, you ask yourself the questions does this happen in our schools in the UK or around the world.
The Dark Secrets of the upper class, the very posh schools, their hidden secrets, Angela Marsons has created a very realistic, well paced and gripping story, with the most powerful plot that shocks you to your roots.
Emotional, heartbreaking, gripping, tense, and what a shock !
How does Angela Marsons keep getting better !
About to start
Blood on the Tracks: Railway Mysteries by Martin Edwards after finishing
Her Name Was Rose by Claire Allan which starts out as a slow burner that quickly becomes addictive. My spoiler free review can be found at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished the
The Fifth To Die by J.D. Barker 5★Just as evil and twisted as the previous book in the series (trilogy?), The Fourth Monkey.
review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My review for
Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman 4★. A good debut and an enjoyable read, but not quite 5 stars for me.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The absolutely brilliant
The Fifth To Die by J.D. Barker. My spoiler free review can be found on https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... and on my blog sandysbookaday.wordpress.com https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/...
Recently finished
Rattlesnake Wells, Wyoming by William W. Johnstone https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rattlesnake Wells, Wyoming by William W. Johnstone https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A terrific addition to the series about Quin Colson.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Another intriguing entry into the Kendra Micahels series.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Just finished
Hang Him Twice by William W. Johnstone. My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Hang Him Twice by William W. Johnstone. My review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
😍😍😍😍 for
The Boy at the Door by Alex Dahl. My spoiler free review can be found at https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/... and https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished
. While it is a deeply disturbing fictional story, it is based on a real life kidnapping that occurred in 1948. Truly a heart-breaking read - but beautifully and carefully rendered. My Review
Starting
The Silent Sister by Shalini Boland after finishing a 😍 😍 😍 😍 read
Snap by Belinda Bauer. My spoiler free review can be found on https://sandysbookaday.wordpress.com/... and on Goodreads.com https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Good Thriller
Books mentioned in this topic
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor (other topics)Fallen Star (other topics)
All This Could Be Yours (other topics)
The Tourists (other topics)
The Zorg: A Tale of Greed and Murder That Inspired the Abolition of Slavery (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Christine Kuehn (other topics)Lee Goldberg (other topics)
Christopher Reich (other topics)
Siddharth Kara (other topics)
Carla Kovach (other topics)
More...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...