Book #63 The Taking of Annie Thorne

The Taking of Annie Thorne by C.J. Tudor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Phew! This is Pet Cemetery on steroids! A tragic event in Arnhill leaves a vacancy at the local school. A place that used to support a mining community before the pits closed. It offers an opportunity for Joseph Thorne to flee from serious gambling debts and apply for the teaching post - in the village where he spent his formative years. Where his eight year old sister Annie disappeared for forty-eight hours - and then she came back. But was it Annie, really? Does Joe remember everything that happened twenty-five years ago? Beth Scattergood teaches art at Arnhill. She says on meeting Joe: "Only two types of teacher end up at Arnhill Academy. Those who want to make a difference and those who can't get a job anywhere else. So, which are you?" What was it Joe? That mysterious text you received? 'I know what happened to your sister. It's happening again' A shiver down the spine...

The old gang are still here, well, some of them. Joe's mates from way back. The ones who were there when it happened. The only ones who knew... Sinister events from all those years ago woven into a horror story that is epic and truly frightening. Throw Stephen King, James Herbert and a touch of Edgar Allen Poe into the blender and C.J. Tudor emerges with this delicious tale of a village, a pit, unexplained suicides and hair-raising scary events.

I cannot say more about the plot without spoilers. I can say though, do not read in bed, at night! And if you enjoyed The Chalk Man you will certainly get chills from reading The Taking of Annie Thorne.

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Book #62 Angel In The Shadows

Angel in the Shadows: The Heartland Trilogy, Book Two by Walter Lucius
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A long (464 pages), complex, complicated plot of international intrigue that took me a long time to read. Investigative journalist Farah Hafez is pursuing a story of state corruption involving Russian oligarch, Valentin Lavrov when she is kidnapped and forced at gunpoint to make a video supporting a Chechen terrorist organisation and denouncing the Russian president. Now she is on the run. Her friend and fellow journalist Paul Chapelle manages to aid her escape to Jakarta whilst Dutch detective Radjen Tomasoa is investigating another strand of this confusing tale. Locations are widespread: Amsterdam, Moscow, Kabul, Johannesburg, Jakarta.... with a multitude of villains. I just found it too much to maintain concentration. As this is the 2nd book in The Heartland Trilogy it would no doubt have helped to read Book 1 first.

I was offered this ARC by the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Book #61 She Lies In Wait

She Lies in Wait by Gytha Lodge
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear. This just did not resonate with me. I could not connect with the characters - not enough character development. Like moving through a ballroom at a masked ball. I continually got confused over who was who. And a lacklustre bunch of detectives led by DCI Jonah Sheens investigating a 30-year-old cold case that, for me, never got warm. I figured out half way through who the probable culprit was and still struggled to finish She Lies In Wait.

My thanks to NetGalley for my ARC, sorry that I did not enjoy it more.

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Book #60 The Lost Man

The Lost Man by Jane Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have previously read The Dry and Force of Nature by Jane Harper so, when offered the opportunity by Little, Brown Book Group and NetGalley to read The Lost Man, I jumped in. And this book is different. A great family drama set against the backdrop of the Queensland outback, 1500 kms west of Brisbane, where cattle stations cover several thousand square kilometers. Like that of the Bright family. Territory where temperatures regularly reach 45⁰C and to be left stranded means certain death. As Cameron Bright was to find out. Found dead and sprawled out in front of the Stockman's grave. Since the father Carl Bright had died, three brothers had shared the responsibility of managing the spread: Nathan, Cameron and Bub - the youngest. They all knew the peril of being stranded in the outback, so just what happened to Cameron? Is this a sinister occurrence or a stupid mistake? He leaves behind his wife Ilse and two daughters...

The Bright family have many skeletons in the cupboard - not the least - Nathan, with a troubled background. And Bub is no saint. And as various truths begin to emerge the family are faced with events that hold dire consequences.

The Lost Man is a fabulous mystery/drama that gets under your skin. Slow paced and relentless with reveals that are breathtaking in scope. Highly recommended. Another ripper from Downunder!

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Book #59 Wild Fire

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So, there it is then. The publishers in their wisdom decided to put the Acknowledgements at the very beginning of the book. First sentence: "This is the last Shetland novel..." There were some of us who still held on to a glimmer of hope, trying to ignore the fact that Ann Cleeves had intimated that Wild Fire would be it...

Shetland. Welcoming. Wild. Remote. It is all of these. I have been there. I love the place and I have loved this series. All good things must come to an end I suppose. So, how does Cleeves handle this swan song? What will happen to DI Jimmy Perez? No spoilers from me! This is writing of the highest calibre. A slow burner that ignites the pages, when a young nanny's body is found hanging in the barn of incomers - the Flemings. An English family who have moved to the area to give their autistic son a better life. The girl was the nanny to the children of Dr and Mrs Moncrieff.

Two families, four parents, six children. Include Magnie Ridell, besotted with the nanny, Emma. His mother and his aunt. A previous suicide. Duncan Hunter is here, natural father of Cassie, DC Sandy Wilson, DCI Willow Reeves - on-off lover of Jimmy Perez. A Perez here who seems constantly preoccupied...

Not many possible suspects then but the conclusion still managed to evade me! And what of Perez? Did Cleeves...? Didn't she...? You will have to read it to find out!

Me? I have to swallow my disappointment. This is the last Shetland...

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Book #58 The Forbidden Place

The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Oh dear. I got completely bogged down with The Forbidden Place (no pun intended). So much hype about the book and yet, for me, it's a slow burner that never really gets going until near the end.

Nathalie returns to her childhood home in Mossmarken, a village on the edge of a mire in the remote Swedish wetlands. Rents a cottage on the estate of the local manor in order to carry out studies on emissions from the mire. The same mire where 'The Lingonberry Girl' had been found, a body dating back to 300 bc. The same location where her parents had died when she was just twelve years old. And then there is Maya, an artist interested in the bog as a site of mystery and especially in bog bodies as a historical phenomenon. This location where a number of persons have disappeared over the years. When a corpse is found - pockets filled with gold - just like ancient human sacrifices - detective Leif Berggren investigates...

Nothing here set my pulse racing and the conclusion, for me, was rather underwhelming.

My thanks to Hodder & Stoughton - Mulholland Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Forbidden Place.

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Book #57 Down to the Woods

Down to the Woods by M.J. Arlidge
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If you go Down to the Woods today... you'd better go in disguise... beneath the trees where nobody sees... is a devilish killer. Ponies slaughtered and victims hunted down and dispatched with such evil and menace. But it's no picnic, certainly not for DI Helen Grace, who once again is pitched against a ruthless killer who hides at ease amongst the dense surroundings of the New Forest. No apparent motive, no apparent link between the victims.

Helen's team become involved in a frustrating investigation with little if nothing to go on and it is difficult to say more without giving away too much. But it's hats off to M.J. Arlidge for writing another thrill-ride of a police procedural with a helter-skelter, breathtaking ending as DI Grace once again puts herself in harm's way. And just for a moment there I thought - OH NO!....

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