Category: Adult Fiction

‘The Lost Village’ – Camilla Sten

Finishing this with the wind whistling in the woods outside my home, I confess to feeling more than a little jittery at the thought of this story.

The Lost Village focuses on a mystery that has puzzled people for years…a village where all 900 inhabitants mysteriously disappeared, leaving no trace of their presence. The only person found when someone later entered the village was a young baby. A grisly scene met the people who rescued the baby – the body of a woman who had been stoned to death in the village square. Of course, people want to know what happened.

In the present day we have filmmaker Alice whose grandmother used to live in the village. She received letters from her family when she first moved, but had no idea what happened to them. She shared stories about village life with Alice, so this is very much a personal journey.

This personal involvement leads to what can best be described as a blinkered passion. Alice has spent years dreaming of making a film about the village and documenting what happened. She manages to track down the daughter of the baby found in the village (this isn’t a spoiler, though this fact isn’t shared with all the cast who journey to the village to shoot material to secure backing for their film).

From the moment they arrive in the village, Alice and her crew sense something eerie about the place. Of course, their unease starts to grow and we’re never quite sure whether the mysterious noises and sightings are products of unsettled minds or something more threatening.

As the story progresses the growing unease is well-captured. When it becomes clear they are trapped in the village it doesn’t bode well. This claustrophobic sensation is increased as Sten cuts into our present story with the narrative of incidents in the village leading up to the disappearance. The threat is real…and once this is clearly established it became (for me) scarier but also enabled me to develop some empathy for the characters who I wasn’t unduly concerned about initially.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for giving me access to this prior to publication.

 

‘The Sanatorium’ – Sarah Pearse

A remote setting in the Swiss Alps sounds idyllic, but the trip Elin Warner takes to the luxury hotel sited there turns out to be anything but.

Elin is a detective. After a traumatic incident in the course of duty, Elin has been experiencing flashbacks to an incident in her childhood that resulted in the death of her much loved younger brother, Sam. She is struggling to function, and has taken time out of work. This has been the perfect opportunity to confront some of her demons…the visit to Switzerland is to celebrate the engagement of her older brother.

Upon arrival we sense conflict. Elin and her brother clearly have unresolved issues, and from other narrative accounts interspersed with Elin’s story we know that this hotel is not as pleasant as it seems.

The site of an old sanitorium, the history of the place is tinged with darkness. When an employee of the hotel goes missing it becomes worrying. When an avalanche occurs, leaving the staff and odd guests stranded, things take a more sinister turn. Then a second body is discovered and it’s fair to say all hell breaks loose.

Someone is playing a very dangerous game, determined to take their vengeance on someone for something they resent. We are given a number of options for possible suspects, but Elin throws herself into this investigation with reckless abandonment. All around her, people are injured or killed…but still she determines to play the hero and sort this out (because she has to make up for something she wishes she’d done a long time ago).

We do eventually see Elin get the satisfaction of solving this, but at what cost? The revelation seemed to be a jump just a little too far to feel fully plausible, and my lack of engagement with Elin herself made this hard to really feel overly happy about. Things seemed to be over, but then came that weird tagged-on ending suggesting that perhaps we shouldn’t be so quick to accept everything the author had presented us with. I have my suspicions of the identity of the mysterious watcher in the carriage, but it seemed so at odds with everything else that I’m not sure what to make of it.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication. It had some high points, but felt just a little too jumbled to work effectively.

 

‘The Mystery of Mrs Christie’ – Marie Benedict

Agatha Christie is one of those authors that I know very little of. I’m aware that she had links to the village I now live in, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the stories by her that I’ve read. However, perhaps because of the time she lived in I am not particularly aware of any biographical details of her life.

I did not know that she actually disappeared for eleven days in 1926, so of course the idea behind this book had me interested.

Initially, I found myself wholly engaged. We follow the story through Agatha’s eyes of her meeting with Colonel Archibald Christie. The two developed what could best be described as an infatuation and it appears to be a wholly romantic story. For this reason I found it fascinating that the narrative was interspersed with the story told through Archie’s eyes of the days following his wife’s disappearance. This paints quite a different picture, and clearly depicts a relationship in turmoil with both parties determined to get their own way.

The story was fine, though as we neared the end it started to feel a little slow. As readers we knew from the start that Agatha was in control of this scenario, and it was frustrating to wait for the rest of the world to catch up.

When I summarised the story for my husband he said ‘like Gone Girl’. That manipulation and careful orchestration of people to lead a plan through its stages of execution definitely wasn’t lost on me. Neither Agatha nor Archie came out of this particularly well. They both seemed inherently selfish, and yet I couldn’t help but admire Agatha for having the ability to strategise at such a tumultuous time.

 

‘The Wife Upstairs’ – Rachel Hawkins

Much as I love Jane Eyre, there are elements within that never quite sit right with me. I often wondered why Jane didn’t show the strength of will and defiance of expectations to really push the boat and do something truly shocking at the end. The whole mad wife in the attic scenario lent a more sympathetic portrayal to Rochester than he perhaps deserved. Yet it’s a book that I deeply enjoy, and I was more than a little nervous when I realised The Wife Upstairs was transposing many of these elements to a modern setting.
Having now finished the book I have to say I really enjoyed it as a concept.
In our version, Jane is running from her past but she is now a dog walker in an exclusive neighbourhood as she tries to find her way into the life she craves. We follow her interior monologue, so we know she has more than her fair share of secrets and that she is just as happy to manipulate someone if it suits her. For this reason, I found myself feeling less concerned for Jane’s welfare than I did in the original. She makes some silly choices and fails to see some potential issues that she really should have factored in.
Our Mr Rochester is Eddie, a charismatic man who is having to live with the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Bea. Neighbourhood gossip reveals a little more to this story than Jane was told, and it was pretty obvious that we would be watching this story unravel over time.
There are, perhaps of necessity, some changes to the original ‘Jane Eyre’ and these do work fairly well. If you read this with no knowledge of the text then you have a great thriller with some well-timed reveals and shocks. Even with those with knowledge of the text won’t be disappointed. I confess to waiting for some of the ‘twists’, but there are still surprises. I also really liked the ambiguity of the ending, which leaves us – and Jane – in a rather difficult position.

‘People Like Her’ – Ellery Lloyd

 

People Like Her is meant to be a timely reminder to consider the role played in our lives by social media. How far does it impact on us? To what extent does it influence our behaviour? Pertinent questions, but this book – sadly – didn’t really hit the mark for me.

Our main character, Emmy, is a popular internet phenomenon. The face behind ‘mamabare’, Emmy lays her life out for public scrutiny. She courts fame, purely to achieve more likes, and this is a lifestyle that more than pays the bills. Making a life out of selling your family might not make sense to many, but everyone will have experience of social media. We all have opinions on online presence, and how far is too far. For this reason I can see the book tapping into a fairly large audience.

Though the book begins slowly as we’re introduced to our couple, it shifts by the end into a much more dramatic affair. From early on we are aware that someone is unhappy with Emmy and wants her to pay for a perceived slight. They are a threat, but how do you ward off threats when they are safe behind a veil of anonymity?

Unfortunately, the character of Emmy was problematic for me. Initially she seems somewhat dizzy, a little naive and determined to milk her cash cow while she could. There was little to really encourage me to empathise with her as everything she did was about her public profile. When she is under serious threat I felt for her, and yet she had acted with such callousness towards those she claimed to care for that I struggled to not blame her a little for what happened. Victim blaming is never going to be a good thing, but it’s so hard not to do that with Emmy that I fear this will ensure some of the comments raised by this book will miss their mark.

Another problem character for me was husband, Dan. A writer in name, who seems to actually do very little, he infuriated me. He seemed to have reservations about this venture, but never took steps to challenge it. What little action he took to offset the influence held by his wife’s job was ineffective, and his final action was – perhaps – even more cynical than those we’d been encouraged to criticise in his wife. Yes, he helps resolve things…but what he does at the end suggests that the influence of the media is more insidious than we might think.

Thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for granting me access to this prior to publication in exchange for an honest review. I’m convinced this will be lapped up by many, but the cynicism shown by our characters left me without the requisite sympathy I feel was needed to make this wholly successful.

‘The Last Thing to Burn’ – Will Dean

 

The Last Thing to Burn is a book that will haunt me. Will Dean has written a book that I read with an increasing feeling of sickness and disgust, but was deeply touched by the hope and strength of spirit shown by the female characters.
Our main character is ‘Jane’, who when we are introduced to her in the opening chapter sounds like a young child. She is running away from the farm where she lives with Len, and it quickly becomes clear that things are not at all as they seemed.

‘Jane’ is a Vietnamese woman, trapped in a hostile environment. Lured to Britain under the promise of a better life, she has been held captive and forced to endure the kind of life that nobody deserves or should have to live.

Watching the emotional and physical abuse this woman was subject to was awful. It was very clear why she did not try to escape, but I spent most of the book imagining just what it might take for her to snap and decide the risk was worth it.

Viewing events through Than’s eyes I was filled with horror that such events could ever occur. When she is forced to become privy to another woman being taken prisoner, it felt as if I was watching a dry tinderbox waiting for the match to be lit and send everything up in flames.

Her situation alone was bad enough, but once she becomes a mother it felt as if it were only a matter of time before something snapped. That was, indeed, the case and what transpired towards the end was bleak, though it gave some semblance of hope. It was certainly testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication. Highly recommended.

‘The Midnight Library’ – Matt Haig

“It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. That the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective”

The above quote, for me, sums up my experience of reading The Midnight Library. I’m kicking myself for not listening to this on BBC Radio before Christmas, and reading it on New Year’s Day after a pretty miserable year by any standards lent it a certain poignancy that cannot be underestimated. We might all think about what might have been, and there are – undoubtedly – times when we might feel less than enamoured with what’s going on around us. At times this felt like A Christmas Carol for the modern reader – with the concept of the library and its alternate lives replacing the spirit guides. Whatever our response to the message, the reminder that how we perceive things can make a huge difference to our existence is an important one.

Our main character, Nora Seed, is a fairly ordinary character. Nothing particularly significant happens to her, but a series of unfortunate events in her life build up to her feeling that life is not worth living. She wants out. She chooses to die.

What she gets is the Midnight Library, a sort of magical portal capably overseen by the wonderful Mrs Elm, the librarian she recalls from school. Under Mrs Elm’s tutelage she learns that the library offers her the chance to try a new life. She can get to experience all the possibilities her life offered her.

We follow Nora as she becomes an Olympic swimmer, a rock star, a wife and mother, a drop-out, a pub owner. Each life offers something different. Each life was a possibility for Nora, had she made different choices. She tries many lives, but none feel quite right.

At a crucial moment, Nora comes to a startling realisation. There’s a chance things may not be quite right but she wants to live. She wants her life.

Quasi-scientific, magical in parts…and definitely the kind of thing I could see making a wonderful movie. This book will mean different things to each person who encounters it. For me, it offered escapism with a timely reminder to take the time to recognise the joy in the choices we have made and the lives we are leading. While things aren’t great, this might be tough. But it’s a sentiment I want very much to uphold.

 

‘The Burning Girls’ – C.J. Tudor

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this before its publication in January 2021. Unsettling but riveting, and while elements of this were tough to read the overall impact is powerful.

The story focuses on single mother Jack Brooks, a vicar, and her daughter. After an awful incident involving one of her parishioners Jack is troubled, and the Church is unsure how to support her. Their answer is to pack Jack off to Chapel Croft, a temporary placement in a small Sussex village. This village has a long and troubled history, and from their first day in the village it is evident that this place harbours many secrets.

As we follow Jack in her role we are given a number of clues about her mysterious past. She has her own secrets, and has had her own share of troubling experiences. We don’t learn the exact nature of these until later…but there’s little hints and I was desperate to know how her story tied in with that of the mystery voice – a character recently released from prison who we know has committed awful acts and for reasons we’re not sure of wants to find Jack.

The focus on Jack’s mystery was certainly intriguing, but the historical focus of the Sussex Martyrs and the two village girls who disappeared years earlier was just as interesting. The previous vicar had spent time investigating these incidents, and there’s lots of clues given as to what happened though the significance of certain details isn’t pertinent until later. The body count was surprisingly high, and I can only imagine the fun Tudor had planning this and working out how to combine elements of a number of story threads.

I don’t want to say more in case of revealing certain plot details that are best learned at the point Tudor chooses to reveal them. Suffice to say, if you enjoyed her other novels this will probably go down well. There are some elements of the story that aren’t fully resolved and yet this ambiguity – for me, anyway – showed all too clearly how the boundaries between evil and horror can blur.

 

‘Some Choose Darkness’ – Charlie Donlea

I think I might have found myself an author to try more by. For such an unpleasant subject I found reading this very oddly moving.
Initially we open with what is clearly an unpleasant scenario – a killer explaining the physical and mental high he achieved from strangling his victims with a noose. This was definitely a little close for comfort, but we then switched action and focus which offered a very different experience and this switch in timeline/narrative voice opened up an intriguing read.
The Thief was the moniker given to the man who was eventually charged with killing Angela Mitchell. No body was ever found, and it was thought – because of investigations carried out by Angela – that this man was actually responsible for many more murders.
We follow Angela as she deals with what she calls her obsessions. Convinced there is something odd she, like many at the time, is keen to know what happened to the women who have disappeared. She is suspicious of many, determined to use her notes and thoughts to work out what exactly happened. Unfortunately she soon learns that things are a lot closer to home and we worry about what happened to her. Her nature and depiction (as an autist at a time where misunderstanding was rife) was sensitively done.
Much of our time focuses on Rory Moore, a difficult character but one who I found fascinating. Shunned by many, definitely not comfortable in herself, but she is an expert in solving cold cases. When her father dies Rory is trying to tie up his business when she learns that she will have to take on his final outstanding case – getting parole for The Thief. Wondering what on earth her father was doing leads her to undertake some digging of her own. What she learns then shocks her to the core, and though we suspected her father might have closer links than we were expecting, this took us to a very different place.
Alongside the story and the time frame I was intrigued by the various characters that featured in this story. The benefit of hindsight is a wonderful thing, and perhaps much could have been done differently, but this situation and the resolution was far more emotional in its impact than I expected.
I am very much looking forward to seeing more of Rory in her role.

 

‘If I Disappear’ – Eliza Jane Brazier

Sometimes people are running away from things, and they’re not always honest about their reasons.

In this true-crime/mystery we follow our main character Sera as she decides to leave her life and go to solve a mystery she has become obsessed with…that of Rachel, a true-crime podcaster who has disappeared.

Sera finds herself in a remote ranch working under Rachel’s parents. Nobody wants to talk about Rachel and nobody seems willing to offer any clues as to what might have happened.

With her imagination running riot Sera starts to unravel. She is struggling with the effect of her miscarriage and divorce, and is just as lost as the other girls mentioned.

The podcast seemed as if it would be more important, and yet there were hints it was used to help our killer find their victims.

We get answers…though these are not always what we expected.
Thanks to the publishers for the ARC. An intriguing idea.