Category: Mystery

‘Chloe Cates is Missing’ – Mandy McHugh

Chloe Cates is Missing has all the ingredients for a perfect thriller: dysfunctional family; a death; an abduction; secrets from the past and an alarming focus on social media and the extent to which it influences our lives. From start to finish it was a book I couldn’t put down, and the ending was delightfully ambiguous in a way that will torment readers long after the story ends.

The book focuses on Chloe Cates, the teen sensation of an internet blog. Thirteen year old Abby Scarborough has known no life other than a life played out on screen. Her every move is crafted and filtered, and the whole family depend on the revenue the blog created around her on-screen persona brings in. When she was a child Abby complied with her mother’s demands, but as she matures she becomes increasingly reluctant to have her key life moments played out for the entertainment of others.

One seemingly normal weekend morning, the Scarborough family have their lives turned upside down when they realise Abby is missing. Detectives are called in and, conscious of this girl’s online presence, they take this threat seriously. Detective Emelina Stone is heading up the investigation, but she soon realises she has a closer link to the family than she’s comfortable with. The secret Emelina is keeping had me on tenterhooks, and I was desperate to see how it would be relevant. This secret isn’t given up easily, but it is VERY relevant to the events in the present.

As the investigation progresses, a body is found. Suddenly, there seems to be a link between the disappearance of Abby and the murder of this missing girl. Trying to work out exactly what had happened drove me crazy, but I loved reading the way this unfolded in front of me.

Without giving away important details, this was such a clever thriller. You could never be sure who was hiding what, and though my reading of the ending may not be accurate I like to think that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree on this. Nobody comes out of it well, but it made for such an entertaining read.

I’m grateful to the publishers for allowing me the opportunity to read this before its scheduled January 2022 publication.

 

‘The Prank’ – L.V. Matthews

A prank is defined as being a bit of harmless fun. But what do you do if someone else’s fun causes another person pain? At what point should an innocent bystander intervene? And is it ever right to have such moments of humiliation recorded publicly?
El has been a different person since her father committed suicide. She knew he had depression, but had repressed her memories of the build-up to his death after finding his body. However, when a famous TV exec – who just so happens to be the producer of an infamous reality show called Pranksters – is served in her restaurant, El starts to remember things. She recalls her father being deeply affected by a prank that meant he felt responsible for the death of a young man. She eventually remembers the link between her father and this show.
Determined to avenge her father, a rather elaborate plan is hatched. El wants revenge, but is – as many of us would be – wholly clueless. She is not suspicious when an online search results in a friendly reply from someone calling themselves Horsehead who wants to help her. Alarm bells rang from the off, but it was great fun watching El worm her way into Jim’s life and start her preparations to bring him down…wholly unaware that someone else was pulling the strings all along.
The story was well-plotted and I loved the fact that nobody was quite what they seemed. Dig a little and it seems many people have something to hide, but there was a grim sense of satisfaction from watching how events unfolded.

 

‘The Missing Hours’ – Julia Dahl

The Missing Hours is a book that will infuriate many readers. Though it is a book focused on a deeply triggering topic, our character takes action and this could seem a positive step. However, by the end it’s fairly evident that little has changed for our main character and such an incident could easily reoccur.

The book opens with a graphic account of our main character, Chloe Castro, waking up the night after an evening out. From the description of her it’s clear she’s been attacked, but we’re not given the full horror until later. Chloe is a girl who, on the surface, seems to have it made. She’s from a wealthy background, is friendly and doesn’t have to worry about much. But, the Chloe we meet at the start of the book is one who is very far from okay and who you cannot help but feel sorry for.

The attack that took place on Chloe was perpetrated by people she knows, a guy she dated in the past and a new acquaintance from college. One raped her, the other forced her to perform oral sex and they filmed it. This sickening act is described a number of times as one of them sends the video to Chloe and a couple of her friends.

I found the way this incident was treated fascinating. Chloe’s initial reaction is to hide away and though she deals with some of the practical issues arising from such an incident, the emotional impact is ignored. Once the video is released, family members try to step in and prevent anyone learning of it…and the focus is very much on damage-limitation. I struggle to understand how anyone could see such a film, know a criminal act had been committed and not do anything to challenge it.

Certain people within the book blame Chloe and there are some distressing moments that clearly indicate why so many victims never bother to report such events. Chloe is in the position that many might envy…she has the money and means to do something about her attackers.

Vengeance is a key element of the book. While Chloe’s actions cannot be condoned, they are understandable and those impacted are such unpleasant characters that you almost feel like turning a blind eye.

This is a murky read, nothing is clear cut and I liked the way we are presented with the facts and left to judge for ourselves. However, it still felt as if the victim was to blame for things and I found it hard to deal with the lack of closure by the end.

I’m grateful to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this prior to publication and it’s one I would, with caution, recommend.

 

‘Stranded’ – Sarah Goodwin

 

Stranded is a book that surpassed my wildest dreams…it went far beyond what I expected, and had a haunting quality that will stay with me. This is a book I expected to like, but it was so well-written that I can’t wait to recommend it to others.

The story focuses on eight very different people, cherry-picked by a team of producers to take part in a new reality TV show. They are to be taken to a remote island off the coast of Scotland where their every move will be recorded as they have to live in a new community for a year. As is made clear, something goes terribly wrong and not everyone survives this experience. Of course, we want to know what happens and how, but we are made to wait!

Our main character is Maddy. Something of a loner she wants to participate in the show as a way of escaping her reality after the death of her parents. Fitting in with new people doesn’t come naturally to her, so we are placed in the enviable position of watching things through Maddy’s eyes…outsiders, monitoring the interactions of the group and left to second-guess the motivations of others based on what Maddy tells us about them.

The other group members have – it’s clear – been picked as a way of generating conflict. Things begin positively enough, but it doesn’t take much to set off a deterioration in the group dynamic. All too soon we’re in a Lord of the Flies-style hell, with each of the group fighting for survival.

There was a certain tension that came from knowing that Maddy survived and was being interviewed about her experience. I feared this knowledge would mar the reading experience, but it actually heightened the tension for me since I was desperate to see exactly what had happened and how she’d managed to escape when things looked so very bleak. I also found the introduction of the supernatural at key moments a positive as it illustrated the extreme mental duress she was under.

I can’t thank the publishers and NetGalley enough for allowing me to read this before publication. A truly exciting book…

‘The Man Who Died Twice (Thursday Murder Club 2)’ – Richard Osman

In our second adventure with the members of the murder club we are treated to an outlandish crime, numerous twists, murders aplenty and the kind of healthy disregard for the rules that I assume you might acquire when you reach a certain age.

The Thursday after the events of book one, the club is meeting and we have set in place a most unusual scenario linked to Elizabeth’s past. It involves a rakish ex-husband, twenty million pounds worth of diamonds, the mafia, local shady businesspeople and an ever-increasing number of bodies as events play out.

Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are on fine form once again. Pitting their wits against those who have made a life out of crime the group are terrier-like in their focus and determination to solve this particular puzzle. Bogdan comes into his own, and the involvement of Chris and Donna allows for some amusing side action (though it doesn’t say much about the efficacy of the police). There’s a lot of diversionary wordplay but this does keep the feeling of a cosy mystery when they’re actually confronted with something that would be terrifying.

Great fun, and I’m grateful to the publishers for letting me read a copy in advance of publication.

‘This Poison Heart’ – Kalynn Bayron

This Poison Heart is the first in what promises to be a most exciting series. I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication, and am genuinely wondering what will happen next.
Our focus for this story is Briseis, a character with a most unusual talent. She has an affinity with plants and is able to bring anything back to life and help it bloom. This skill comes in very handy in the florists her mums run, but the fact she has seemingly no reaction to poisonous plants suggests there’s more to this than Bri realises.
Introducing us to Bri’s talents early on is a great way to get our attention, but her lack of knowledge about what she can do means many of our questions are not answered. We are given time to get to know Bri and her mums. Their relationship and interactions are warm and caring, and spending time with them means we genuinely care when we learn of the financial pressures they are under.
Bri is adopted, and when she is told that an aunt has bequeathed her an estate just outside New York we – like Bri – have questions. They travel to what can only be described as a spooky mansion, to find over-run vegetation, mysterious people hanging round their property and a run-down apothecary filled with strange ingredients. People turn up requesting help, and it is soon obvious there is more to this arrangement than we might expect.
Naturally curious, Bri wants to find out more about her family. She unearths letters from her aunt and learns that she appears to have immunity to deadly poisons. There is talk of her lineage being traced back to the ancient Greeks, and though this would be exciting enough…there’s more.
Bri meets all manner of people in her new town. Her position lends her some respect, but it also brings great danger. For what is clear is Bri’s natural family have been guarding a great secret…something that some will stop at nothing to learn.
From the beginning I found myself really caught up in this. I loved Bri and her characterisation. The introduction to mythology lent an interesting element to the story, and there are a few characters that definitely pique your interest as you try to figure out their link to Bri and the repercussions for any friendship developing.
My only criticism of the book was how the pace picked up in the last quarter and was then relentless. We had a lot of info thrown at us, and – on occasion – it didn’t feel as if it made sense. The dramatic end to this book was, naturally, not an end at all and that is highly frustrating…but a very good incentive to have me racing to pick up book two when I can.

‘I Am Still Alive’ – Kate Alice Marshall

Jess Cooper is, depending on which if the final stories you listen to, a footnote in a much bigger story or a plucky heroine. Whichever version you plump for, you can’t ignore the fact she’s resourceful, determined and – dare I say it – a little bit lucky.

The book begins in a suitably dramatic fashion. Jess is alone, watching the remains of a cabin smouldering. She reveals her father is dead, she’s alone in the Alaskan wilderness and that there are men involved who could hurt her. Of course we have questions, but Jess controls her narrative and tells us there are two beginnings to her story – before her father died and after. With a start like that, how could you not want to know more?

When we first meet Jess in her ‘before’ narrative she’s struggling after surviving the car crash that killed her mother. She is being sent to live with the father she hasn’t seen for years, and her injuries make even walking hard. Given where she’s at, it wasn’t difficult to understand her upset at being taken to her father…in a remote cabin somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness. He’s a survivalist, and she is stuck with him.

Reading about her at this point was frustrating. She was hurting, uprooted from everything she knew and definitely a reluctant participant in this drama. The only thing she seemed to like was Bo, her father’s dog. It was interesting to see how she adapted to this situation – and it was clear she wasn’t as ill-equipped for it as many sixteen year olds might have been – but we weren’t being given any details of what happened.

Eventually, it couldn’t be put off longer and we were given the story of how Jess came to be alone. This was shocking, made me see her in quite a different light…and I think encourages you to hope she’ll take what she’s learned in the short time she had with her father to get through this.

This story won’t be to everyone’s tastes. I’m not wholly convinced she would have come out of the initial experience alive, but she did and that meant I was invested in seeing her remain alive. Some stomach churning moments but definitely a dramatic bit of escapism.

‘The Hawthorne Legacy’ – Jennifer Lynn Barnes

I was so excited about this, desperate to see where things would head after book one, and I’m grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read it before publication but it didn’t feel as satisfying as I’d have liked.

The book picks up with Avery trying to come to terms with her new wealth, and dealing with the problems posed by the will. She is starting to feel part of the Hawthorne family but she remains at risk.

There are new dilemmas to solve here, and Avery has to contend with the realisation that certain people remain desperate to remove her from the equation. During the course of her investigations we learn that things have been covered up, the family are no strangers to doing whatever is necessary to preserve their choices and Avery remains somewhat on the periphery.

Part of the issue for me with this was that I had such high expectations, and nothing quite seemed to gel as I was reading. Not much really happened to begin with, and there were a lot of rather conveniently revealed details to allow another phase to play out. The big secret around Avery didn’t really come to anything, and the ending felt just a little too vague to make sense. I can only guess that this was done deliberately to get readers clamouring for book three…but I’m not sure it’s done that for me.

 

‘Dream Girl’ – Laura Lippmann

Dream Girl had me reeling by the time I got to the end, as nothing was quite what it purported to be.

Our main character, Gerry Andersen, is an author of some repute. He is injured in an accident, confined to his bed and starts to doubt his recall when he believes he is being contacted by a woman of the name Aubrey – the same person who is the main character in his most popular novel.

When the story begins it’s hard to work out quite where things are headed. I was getting definite Misery-style vibes and wondered quite what we would uncover.
Without giving anything away, we eventually uncover some rather disturbing events.

Through the course of the novel we learn more about Gerry’s past. There are certainly some details that paint him in a less appealing light, but we can also see that he is (eventually) as much a victim as those we initially place in that role.

I enjoyed the focus on the literary process. My thoughts about Gerry fluctuated, though I did retain some sympathy for him by the end. Audacious in the way Gerry’s story was resolved, and I found the whole experience darkly enjoyable.

 

‘The Turnout’ – Megan Abbott

The Turnout is a story that explores the darkness under the surface of what looks beautiful. I am still uncertain to what extent we are meant to see this as symbolic of the relationship between our three main characters, but it certainly offered pause for thought.

The main focus of the story is sisters Dara and Marie, brought up in the ballet world and surrounded by traditions. They now run the same ballet school their mother ran, and each year they perform The Nutcracker. Our story takes place over a short period of time building up to the annual performance, but it focuses on so much more.

Dara is married to Charlie, their childhood friend. As the story progresses we learn more of their past and some of the circumstances surrounding them. I was struck by the darkness of their home environment, and how this had impacted on them.

Ballet will not be everyone’s thing, but the story surrounding Derek and the fragmenting of the relationship between the characters was intriguing. I found myself more interested in the stories alluded to on occasion, and was rather surprised at the turns taken in some situations.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me access to this before publication in exchange for my thoughts.