Category: Adult Fiction

‘City of the Lost’ – Kelley Armstrong

A highly entertaining, if somewhat unusual, read.

Casey made some poor choices when she was younger. She suffered a brutal attack when her boyfriend was threatened for selling drugs on someone else’s turf. Abandoned by her boyfriend Casey endures an awful assault. Eventually she gets her own back and kills a man.

The guilt over her actions never goes away, even though she trains as a detective. Her best friend, Diane, has been with her throughout and has her own problems…an abusive ex. When things get too uncomfortable, plans are made to escape to a place few know about. A place where people can start afresh. A place where everyone is hiding something. Rockton.

Casey is there as a new detective. She’s not sure why she’s needed and then learns there’s been a number of unexplained deaths. Body parts found, and signs that someone dangerous is causing problems. Having thought she was finding a safe place, Casey starts to think Rockton is a lot more serious.

The story started quickly and there’s plenty of action. We get lots of characters who we dig into and learn about. There’s a mysterious group in charge who definitely know more about some disreputable situations than they ought to. And there’s a romance, of sorts, as Casey grows closer to someone who’s got their own reasons for wanting Rockton kept safe.

 

‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six, but nobody knows the reason behind their split at the absolute height of their popularity . . . until now.

Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock and roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.

Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.

Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.

A very different story, yet one that feels like it will be played out time and time again.

On the surface it’s a story about a band forged and manipulated in a way we’re all too familiar with now, watching them rise to the giddy heights and then implode. It’s also a love story – played out with a number of characters – that everyone can identify with in some way.

While I spent the first part of the book trying desperately to work out if this was a real band or not, it felt as if it could have been. The passion for music shone through, and it was fascinating to see the way Reid chronicled the art of writing and producing music. However, it also had a seedier side – the chronicling of people at their very worst, driven by demons they have little to no control over and feeling it was a precarious tight-rope that could have gone either way.

I found the interview format rather disconcerting initially, but as I settled into the story it allowed us to see many facets to the characters and their interactions.
I’ve heard great things about the audio version of this, and definitely want to listen to it at some point. I’m also curious to see the TV adaptation of the story – and can’t wait to see who plays Daisy who was not always the most likeable character, but from the moment we’re introduced to the vulnerable child Daisy she was someone I was rooting for.

 

‘A Window Breaks’ – C.M. Ewan

How far would you go to protect your family? Hopefully, this is something you will never have to worry about.

Our main characters are a family who have suffered more than anyone should have to. Their eldest child, a sixteen year old boy, was killed recently when he took the car without permission, crashing and killing both himself and his girlfriend. Only a week before the start of the book, the surviving family members are attacked as they leave a work event. Daughter, Holly, is attacked and the family are struggling to pick up the pieces. When boss, Lionel, offers them the use of his Highland Lodge to get away for a while it sounds like a perfect opportunity.

The first night they are there, the adults are woken by the sound of breaking glass. Unsettling, and at first we put their reactions down to nerves following recent experiences. But then they hear more noises and see men downstairs. They’ve come prepared. But, for what?

Tom and Rachel then begin a tense cat-and-mouse hunt. They take their child and try to escape-but every attempt is thwarted.

While the initial set-up was great, from this point on it became exaggerated to the point of losing my interest. We wanted to know who these people were, and find out what secrets Rachel and Tom were keeping. We got no answers…just a repetitive cycle of hide, almost found, escape…

As we start to creep closer to answers things take a more gruesome turn. In light of the actual details, this seemed too much to believe. The snippets of son Michael’s last moments did make more sense. Certain characters seemed to grow into quite unbelievable caricatures…but perhaps this is a natural result of circumstance and having the opportunity to do something about it.

By the end I was relieved with certain events, but can’t help but feel this was all rather over-the-top.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read this prior to publication.

 

‘The Other People’ – C.J. Tudor

Thank you C.J. Tudor for yet another compulsive read. It has left me rather chilled, but once I started this I was desperate to know how everything fitted together.

Our story begins with Gabe travelling home, worried he’ll be late. He sees a rusty car being driven erratically in front of him. In the rear window he sees a young girl…his daughter Izzy…but then he loses sight of the car. Calling home he’s met with the awful news that his wife and daughter have been murdered. So, who was in the car?

The next time we see Gabe is years later. He’s taken to driving up and down the motorway looking for clues as to the whereabouts of his daughter. He is no longer a person of interest, but nobody has any clues as to what might have happened.

Without giving too much away, we are then shown a number of incidents that seemingly have no connection. We see Fran and her daughter, Alice, on the run. We have service station worker Katie struggling to make ends meet after the death of her father. We have the discovery of a car in a pond, with a body inside. And we have a number of references to a young girl asleep, a beach and pebbles…and references to The Other People.

What then follows is a twisting turning read, with just enough hints to have us start making links. There’s mystery aplenty and a borderline menace that had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling.

Once I finally reached the end I felt wrung out. So many secrets; so much sadness. Throughout, there was a sense of good people making bad choices…but I guess how we act in those trying times is what defines us. I just pray that I’ll never be in that kind of situation!

 

‘The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo’ – Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’d heard lots about this book over the last few months, and the fictional Evelyn Hugo seems to have created quite a stir. The premise certainly made me curious – I couldn’t imagine what would possess someone to marry seven times – but I was reluctant to start this in case I didn’t feel quite the same way.
From the outset we are spun a story about the woman the world knows as Evelyn Hugo. We learn that her daughter has died and she is going to auction some of her well-known dresses to raise money for cancer charities. For reasons that we are not permitted to know until much later on, reclusive Evelyn agrees to an interview – but she insists on a relatively inexperienced journalist called Monique being the one she’ll talk to.
Though Evelyn holds the cards here, we follow Monique as she meets with Evelyn and prepares to interview her. Upon their first meeting we are told that Evelyn wants Monique to write her biography. We know there’ll be a reason for this, but we don’t get told what it is until we’re truly invested in the situation.
I was intrigued by the press excerpts from the time as they showed the reality of the world Evelyn was part of. We are given Evelyn’s frank account of her relationships and her determination to rise to the top of her profession. We follow Evelyn through her marriages to her co-stars, a well-known singer, a director and her best friend amongst others. We see the price she was prepared to pay for her fame and her feeling of wanting to achieve what she felt she should. What we are told fairly early on is how she sacrifices so much for her true love, the one she has never spoken of until now.
While Evelyn herself was not always the most likeable of characters, she was presented in a way that elicited sympathy. Sometimes she made terrible decisions, but she often made these decisions from a desire to do right by those she loved. I felt quite angry for her and Harry, and so many other characters, that they could not be honest about themselves because of attitudes in the world they inhabited.
Monique was a character that I couldn’t quite fathom. Her interactions with Evelyn allowed us to slowly learn about her life, and the time devoted to her background and situation certainly had me thinking she would be more integral to the story than she initially seemed to be. By the time we have revealed the exact link I was imagining all sorts. The revelation certainly justified Monique’s somewhat ambivalent attitude to Evelyn, and it made sense of her actions towards the end.

 

‘Love and Other Words’ – Christina Lauren

I don’t know if I really believe in the kind of all-consuming romance that our main characters, Elliot and Macy have. From the time they first meet it seems pretty obvious that they are closer than your average boy/girl pairing. We don’t find out for a long time why they’re not together, but we get to see them re-acquainted eleven years in the future. Things are the same between them, but there’s clearly something big they need to get over.

Told in alternating timeframes we slowly get to see the significance of this relationship.

As a way of forging a new life once his partner dies, Macy’s dad decides to buy them a second home. When they go to look at the house, Macy is shocked to see the boy next door curled up in one of the rooms reading. Rather than being freaked out by this rather odd experience, Macy sees it as a signal to begin what she clearly regards as the most honest friendship she has.

Over time Macy and Elliot realise that their closeness is not just a sign of friendship. We see them take the tentative steps towards lovers…but still no closer in the present to knowing why things went so wrong.

In the present, Macy is living a rather soulless existence. She is engaged but when she sees Elliot in a local coffee shop it’s clear that this is not going to end as she expects. Within a very short space of time the fiancé is despatched and the lack of emotion surrounding this gave one explanation for him seeming such a cardboard character.

I was expecting this to be a story of their romance. It was, but it was also a story of the little details of their lives that led to them not speaking for eleven years.
Perhaps in the real world you’d move on from such an experience. Perhaps in the real world you’d recall this relationship fondly but I cannot see you willingly turning everything upside down on the off-chance that things might still be what they were. Thankfully, this is the book world where we’re not ruled by our heads…

 

‘The Mercies’ – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

Having only read Hargrave’s fiction for younger readers I was unsure quite what to expect of this. The subject immediately made me think of The Crucible and I was intrigued by the remote physical setting and the historical setting. Having just finished, I am struck by the immersive quality to this. It caught me quite unawares and I have to say that for such an unpleasant subject it was a pleasure to read.

The book begins relatively slowly. We’re introduced to the islanders and we begin with the depiction of the dreadful storm that killed all but a handful of men. Watching Maren and the other women as they realise their husbands/sons/brothers are never coming home was a heart-wrenching moment.

Knowing that from this point forwards they would have to find ways to live with the unimaginable immediately created sympathy with their experience, which certainly helps when we see what is in store for them.

I have been fascinated by the posts Hargrave has shared on Twitter showing her visit to the place which inspired this read. It was remote, and it reminded me of the books I’ve read about life on places such as St Kilda. Even in the modern world such places are remote, and it takes a certain mindset to survive in such conditions. To do so in the time in which this story is set must have been tough.
Following the details we’re given about the island women I was unsure why we suddenly switched to the character of Ursa, the daughter of a shipowner who lives in relative ease in Bergen. When her father organises a marriage to Absalom Cornet we learn that Ursa is to become the wife of this man she’s never met before – a man sent from Scotland to travel to Vargø and investigate the lives of the women left behind.

Although we’re told this focuses on the real-life events on Vardø and the witch trials of 1621, the sense of unease created once Ursa arrives on the island was distinctly uncomfortable. Seeing this young girl struggle to develop as she becomes little more than the property of her husband was uncomfortable. Though she grows closer to Maren it doesn’t take long before relationships fracture and the hunt begins.

Once the details of the witch hunt were in the open, Hargrave holds little back in depicting the true horror of this time. At the time of reading I was struck by the obvious pride felt by Absalom and others at what they were doing. Seeing the way the women turned on each other was definitely uncomfortable, and yet there were little glimpses of positivity in the way Maren and Ursa turned to each other and sought comfort where they could.

This is one of those stories that I could imagine reading again, delighting in the depiction of setting and characters. It is both brutal and tender. The ending left many questions, but it also served to resolve some of the concerns raised. I can’t wait to see what others I know make of this.

 

‘Bitter Falls’ – Rachel Caine

Yet another explosive read in the series…

Having settled into their home, it’s no surprise that some still resist the presence of Gwen, Sam and the kids. There’s plenty of comments and little incidents that are designed to make them leave. Gwen resists this, determined to give her kids some form of normal but we know this is always going to be tricky.

When Gwen is asked to investigate the disappearance of a young man called Remy, nothing could have prepared her for what she gets caught up in. Her investigations lead her to a young woman who has tried to escape a cult…but they’re tracking her and things quickly become awkward.

When Sam and Connor are abducted by the cult we know they’re getting reckless. Something big is planned but Gwen is determined to do whatever she has to in order to protect her family.

What follows is big. There’s lots of switching views so we see the outside picture alongside the experience of those inside the compound. Part of me feared where this would go, but it had me on the edge. I feared the outcome at the same time as being desperate to see things resolved, however that was done.

The question for Gwen and her family is…what next?

 

‘Long Bright River’ – Liz Moore

‘The dropper is lowered. The child turns his head toward it, toward the medicine, seeking it. He remembers it.
He opens his mouth. He drinks.’

The closing image of Long Bright River is just one of the images that will haunt me some time in the future. The ‘medicine’ being administered to this newborn is an opiate substitute. From the outset this child, like so many others, will show signs of addiction and need care to withdraw successfully. He may or may not make it. So many do not.

From the synopsis I knew this was not going to be a comfortable read. What I wasn’t prepared for was just how powerful I found the story.

The story focuses predominantly on two sisters, Mickey and Kacey. Brought up by their grandmother after their mother overdoses, they live in a fairly deprived area of Philadelphia. The sisters have the same opportunities but take very different paths. Mickey becomes a police officer, patrolling her home streets, looking out for those who live to feed their addiction. Kacey is one of the many in the grips of addiction, working the streets to earn what she needs for her next fix. This part of the story, and the slow reveal of the nature of their relationship over time, would have kept me engaged on its own.

However, in the course of her work Mickey starts to realise that many of the girls working the streets are being killed. The initial response is that they’ve overdosed, but the signs point to a killer on the loose. When Mickey learns that Kacey has been missing for a month, she fears what may happen next. And so begins the other compelling part of the story: the police procedural showing the investigation and the thriller as we start to realise that the person responsible may be a lot closer to Mickey and her role than you’d dare imagine.

Long Bright River focuses on so many unpalatable truths. There’s no happy-ever-after ending, but the story and its characters certainly grip you from the outset and will not relinquish that grip easily. A powerful read.

 

‘Things in Jars’ – Jess Kidd

In the dark underbelly of Victorian London, a formidable female sleuth is pulled into the macabre world of fanatical anatomists and crooked surgeons while investigating the kidnapping of an extraordinary child in this gothic mystery—perfect for fans of The Essex Serpent and The Book of Speculation.

Bridie Devine is a character you can’t help but warm to. From her humble beginnings to her current situation, our detective is shrewd and motivated by a keen sense of justice.

The first thing that struck me with this story was the need to suspend disbelief with regard to some of the plot-line. The depiction of Victorian England was clear and spirited, though we are privy to some dark and dangerous events.

Bridie is asked to investigate the disappearance of a child. We soon learn that the child is unusual, and her appearance/behaviour is a difficult idea to comprehend. Before we know it we’re plunged into a murky underbelly of schemers and ne’er-do-wells.

Though we have an assembled cast of characters, there were some that stood out. A villain he may have been, but Gideon Eames was certainly interesting. From the details given of his childhood to the present he is certainly a dangerous adversary.