Category: Mystery

‘Three Things About Elsie’ – Joanne Cannon

The three things we need to learn about Elsie aren’t explained fully, but we know she’s important to Florence.

Initially I wasn’t sure what was happening with this. An old woman called Florence appeared to be lying on the floor, waiting for someone to discover her. It wasn’t clear what had happened to her, or why nobody had found her. Returning to her during the story we realise she is lying on the floor throughout the five or so hours it takes to cover the narrative.

Alongside the real-time events, we get flashbacks and recounts of the key moments of Florence’s past and slowly come to realise the significance of Elsie.
The story itself focuses on someone unburdening themselves of a secret they’ve held close for years. Unfortunately this secret is also misguided, and we learn events didn’t quite happen as thought. The secret is linked to the presence of a man called Gabriel Price,who bears an uncanny resemblance to a man called Ronnie Butler who Florence knew years ago.

Interspersed with the secret and the details of Florence are a number of characters working in the home that Florence is in. From quite early on, we get signs that Florence is living with dementia, but the significance of this doesn’t really become known until later.

While I preferred Joanne Cannon’s first novel, this was an interesting read and one which certainly made me take a moment to think about how we treat those amongst us who are most in need of help.

‘The Perfect Mother’ – Aimee Molloy

Mothers’ groups can be a great source of companionship, but they also result often in a strange form of one-up man-ship as those involved strive to maintain the facade of ‘perfect mother’. This book takes what’s become quite a common thing and plays up to every fear you might have about the people you’re suddenly sharing intimate details with.

The May Mothers…a group of women (and a token male) who bond over the fact they each gave birth in May. Keen to support, but it’s very easy to see that these people know very little about each other.

On a night out when their children are young, the unthinkable happens and one of the children is abducted. What follows is a curious mix of establishing what happened to Baby Midas and unearthing the many secrets held by each of the group members.

We get multiple POVs which made it seem quite slow. Everyone had a secret and we just had to wait and see how these linked to the story.

I can see why this has been optioned for a movie, and I imagine it will be a book on many group lists. Unfortunately, the ending fell a little flat for me and I felt things were increasingly rushed in an attempt to resolve the many strands.

‘Lock Every Door’ – Riley Sagar

If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Those words, spoken by Jules’s best friend, come back to haunt us as we work out exactly what’s going on.
There’s an interesting time frame to this story that allows us glimpses of the key events, while also showing the build-up to them. Jules has, by any standards, had a tough life. Her sister went missing years ago and her parents died in a house fire. When she loses her job she returns home to find her boyfriend having sex with someone else. So, putting all those things together it’s hardly surprising that she’s keen to respond to the advert she sees.

When Jules sees the advert requesting a house sitter for an apartment she thinks it’s the answer to her prayers. When she hears how much she’ll be paid, she is determined to see it out although the rules that are in place seem draconian.
From the moment Jules moves into The Bartholomew she’s fed crazy stories from her concerned friends, and her own paranoia starts to prey on her mind. She tries to avoid thinking too much about her concerns but as another of the house-sitters disappears, Jules can’t help but try to work out what’s going on.

The truth is far more terrifying than anything she could have imagined.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the other novels by Riley Sager, I am – again – grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication in exchange for my honest thoughts.

‘Fragments of the Lost’ – Megan Miranda

Jessa is given the unenviable task of sorting through her boyfriend’s room when he dies. His mum doesn’t know that Caleb and Jessa were no longer an item, but when Jessa is asked to do this final thing, she feels she has to help out. Even though she feels Caleb’s mum holds her responsible.

Jessa was one of the last to see Caleb alive. He turned up to her cross-country meet then left. Rumours circulate as to why, but nobody could have predicted that Caleb would be caught in the floods that swept their town that night and that his car would be swept off the local bridge.

Jessa is everywhere in this room, and it is certainly not the kind of experience you’d wish on anyone. However, as Jessa packs up Caleb’s belongings there are clues that perhaps she didn’t know him as well as she thought.

In the opening stages of the novel it seems to focus very much on the relationship and grief element, which had limited appeal. However, very quickly we move into Jessa trying to uncover the mystery of Caleb’s last days and putting together the clues she’s been left as to exactly what happened. This soon became a tense mystery, and slowly trying to put the pieces together was great fun. Jessa was believable and though I was surprised by the ending it really was a great read.

‘The Whisper Man’ – Alex North

An accomplished debut that had me completely caught up in the events described.

A small child with an imaginary friend who begins to talk about the boy under the floor. An unknown man believing he’s doing the right thing by the children he’s taking. A police officer intent on making up for what they see as the mistakes of the past. A terrifying set of circumstances that draw a group of people together. This book had so many elements that combined to form a compelling read.

In the small town of Featherbank everyone has heard the rumours of The Whisper Man. All small children know not to leave their doors open, and stories of children hearing whispers outside their windows are common. Yet the man behind these rumours was caught and imprisoned, having admitted to the murders of five children.

When we learn that widowed Tom Kennedy has decided to move to Featherbank with his son, Jake, it’s pretty obvious that things are not going to be quite what he’d hoped. And opening with the description of a young child being abducted sets us up for the idea that, perhaps, The Whisper Man had an accomplice. The moment when Jake starts to talk about hearing voices there was an awful sense of inevitability to this story.

Thankfully, the details of the crimes against the children were not recounted in graphic detail. However, there was a fair amount of graphic violence, and the psychological focus was intense.

Early on in the story I had my doubts as to well this mood could be sustained. I needn’t have been. Throughout I was double-checking details and trying to test theories.

A huge thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication, and it’s already been recommended to a number of friends.

‘Wilder Girls’ – Rory Power

Raxter Island – deserted – and on it a boarding school for girls, with a small number of students. These students have, effectively, been cut off from the outside world after exposure to a virus.

We focus primarily on three girls: Hetty, Byatt and Reese. Like the other girls their exposure to the Tox has created some bizarre occurrences. Yet they’re surviving.

Without really knowing what happened, it was hard to get a handle on this scenario. I spent a large chunk of the book feeling as if I was blindly following someone down a dark alley. Aside from being discomfited as I read, I found the developing situation a compelling one.

I was desperate to know what was happening, while also having a very clear feeling that I wouldn’t like the truth.

There’s a grim darkness to this that might have been handled differently. While I enjoyed it, I always felt there was background info left out and that there were details I was keen to know that were glossed over.

‘The Turn of the Key’ – Ruth Ware

A curious blend of genuinely creepy and rather more mundane reality.

Opening with a series of letters addressed to a solicitor, we quickly learn that our main character is in prison having been charged with the murder of one of her charges. Adamant she is innocent, Rowan reveals the circumstances behind her getting a job working for a wealthy family in the remote Scottish highlands.

Following the story of her arrival and work with the kids was unsettling since we know from the start things don’t end well. The family Rowan is working for definitely have their flaws and Ware plays up to our fears of smart technology by showing just how easy it can be to feel you’re losing control. Coupled with someone evidently hiding something, and mysterious noises from the attic above, Rowan spirals into a state of paranoia.

Desperate to not succumb to her fears, Rowan starts digging and learns she’s not the only one with things to hide. What we’re never sure of is the extent to which people are manipulating the information they’re giving.

The end – where we learn the truth – actually left me feeling quite upset on Rowan’s behalf. It felt like things were left unfinished.

That aside, a cracking read and thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity.

‘The Taking of Annie Thorne’ – C.J. Tudor

The Taking of Annie Thorne opens in suitably horrific fashion. A teacher with a history of mental health issues bludgeons her son to death and writes Not My Son on the walls in his blood before killing herself. To the residents of Arnhill it’s another, albeit tragic, example of a life cut short.

Then we shift our focus to Joe Thorne. For reasons we’re not sure of he wheedles his way into a teaching job in his old school. There’s definite history with Joe, but we’re not told much until we have to be.

Slowly, we learn Joe – along with his friends of the time – is hiding a secret. Something to do with the disappearance of his sister, and an old pit that appears to be imbued with some kind of supernatural power.

Alongside this, we have a story about Joe’s gambling issues and his attempt to get out of debt while trying to avoid some pretty ruthless people.

While the story was a good read, it felt like it had been done before. There wasn’t enough information given about the scenario we’re asked to believe in, so it was built into something creepy without really building it up sufficiently. I really got irritated by the unnecessarily prejudiced attitudes towards autism and mental health issues. There’s also the rather implausible reveal regarding Joe’s ‘issue’ – surely there’d have been one or two clues before that point?

‘A Question of Holmes’ – Brittany Cavallaro

A bittersweet feeling reaching the end of this series as the Holmes and Watson partnership moves in a new direction.

Having graduated they end up going to Oxford for a study programme. Holmes, as only she could, is roped into an investigation concerning an amateur dramatic group and the mysterious disappearance of one of their members. All too soon, they’re caught up in another mystery.

There was a definite sense of battle-hardened warriors to Holmes and Watson here. It’s no surprise with what they’d gone through over the last three novels, but it felt hard to read at times.

Without giving any of the story away, this was an intriguing read but it was the Holmes/Watson partnership that I really enjoyed. It didn’t pan out exactly as I thought, but it was certainly moving in the right direction.

‘The Dangerous Kind’ – Deborah O’Connor

A clever thriller that quickly drew me in.

Jessie is a presenter for BBC radio, her show focusing on those who’ve been convicted of a crime and looking at what could have been done to prevent their actions. As an ex-journalist she is obsessed with rooting out details and finding out the true story. When she is accosted by a woman on the street desperate for help working out what happened to her missing friend, Cassie, a thrilling sequence of events is set in place.

We shift from Jessie in the present to Rowena, a young girl in care, in 2002. Rowena is groomed and quickly ends up over her head in sex parties set up by paedophiles who are often meant to be part of the groups preventing such criminality.

Alongside this we watch Jessie struggle with the day-to-day problems of living with a teenage daughter who may or may not be having a relationship with an older man.

In spite of the subject matter I loved this story. It was told well, without unnecessary sensationalism but also encouraged us all to take a look at what extent we are all complicit in such events if we harbour suspicions but do nothing.

My only reason for not awarding the five stars I felt this deserved was that I did put two and two together and (for a change) made the links with the main story. However, it still surprised me with the subplot involving Jessie and her daughter and I can see this being a thriller that many will love. Thanks to the publishers via NetGalley for granting me access in exchange for my honest review.