The Killing Choice by Will Shindler @NetGalley @HodderBooks @WillShindler #TheKillingChoice

 

The Killing Choice by Will Shindler

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Publication Date 11th February 2021

Genre: Crime, Mystery & Thriller

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book ahead of publication via NetGalley in exchange for my opinion.

Book Description:

'Leave your daughter with me, or I will kill you both'

It felt like a normal Friday evening before Karl and his daughter Leah were ambushed by a figure in a blank mask. At knife point, Karl is forced to make an impossible choice. Stay and die, or walk away from Leah and take this thug's word that they both will live.

Should Karl trust a villain and leave his daughter with a knife at her throat? Could he ever live with himself if he did?

It's not long before more seemingly unconnected and innocent people across London are offered a deal in exchange for their life. More blood is spilled, more families shattered, and more people are left to suffer with the consequences of their decisions.

DI Alex Finn and DC Mattie Paulsen must hunt for a killer that appears to have no face, no motive and no conscience before more victims are forced to make their choice.

This is second in Will Shindler's Finn and Paulsen series - a British detective series that ranks with Mark Billingham, M.J. Arlidge and Stuart MacBride.

My Thoughts:

Part one of this series which came out last year was one of the stand out novels of the year for me, especially as a debut book, so when I spotted book two I was desperate to be approved. Thank you so much to the publishers for your generosity, I have not been disappointed.

Detective Finn is still struggling with the loss of his wife and often hears her voice advising him on how to get on and live life to the fullest without her. Some days he listens, other days are harder and because of this her best friend has been despatched to try and help get him back in the swing of things again. All this is background though, but helps him understand the lives of Isiah and his 2 young lads who are trying to keep going after losing their wife and mum suddenly. The relationship between dad and the older lad has pretty much broken down and the younger lad is testing the boundaries of growing up.

Finn and his sidekick are called to the brutal murder of a woman in controversial circumstances. Her father allegedly left her in the hands of their attacker in order to get help but things took a horrific turn instead.  This is the start of an apparent serial killer spree in London and it needs Finn & Paulsen to get on top of things quickly to stop any further killings.

With knife and drug crime rife in the area Finn needs to follow the clues but is someone deliberately leading them in the wrong direction or is his gut instinct right? Nothing lead me to work out who -dunnit, I was not even close so well was the trail set.

I really enjoyed trying to work out whether this was gang warfare gone wrong, drug dealers crossing over territories or a completely separate serial killer at work. But why does everything keep coming back to the same common denominator on a derailed train?

Great characters, plenty of depth to the plotting and realistic crime scenes all the way. Plus it will make you ask yourself what would you do in that situation?

About the Author:

Will Shindler has been a Broadcast Journalist for the BBC for over twenty-five years, spending a decade working in television drama as a scriptwriter on Born and Bred, The Bill and Doctors. His time on these leading prime time dramas has given him a rich grounding in authentic police procedure, powerful character development and gripping narratives. He currently combines reading the news on BBC Radio London with writing crime novels and has previously worked as a television presenter for HTV, a sports reporter for BBC Radio Five Live, and one of the stadium presenters at the London Olympics. The Burning Men is his first novel.

I Follow You by Peter James @panmacmillan @peterjamesuk #IFollowYou

 I Follow You by Peter James

Published by PanMacMillan

Publication Date: 1st October 2020

Genre:Psychological Thriller

Book Description:

To the outside world, suave, charming and confident doctor Marcus Valentine has it all. A loving wife, three kids, a great job. But there’s something missing, there always has been. . . . or rather, someone . . .

Driving to work one morning, his mind elsewhere and not on the road, he almost mows down a female jogger on a crossing. As she runs on, Marcus is transfixed. Infatuated. She is the spitting image of a girl he was crazy about in his teens. A girl he has never been able to get out of his mind.

Lynette had dumped him harshly. For years he has fantasized about seeing her again and rekindling their flame. Might that jogger possibly be her all these years later? Could this be the most incredible coincidence?

Despite all his attempts to resist, he is consumed by cravings for this woman. And when events take a tragically unexpected turn, his obsession threatens to destroy both their worlds. But still he won’t stop. Can’t stop.

My Thoughts:

Peter James has long been a favoured author of mine and I have to admit that I even went so far as to order myself a signed copy of this book. Who says bloggers don't buy books?!

The location for this story, the Channel Island of Jersey, I found was a great setting to create a claustrophobic feel for this book. While the scenery is beautiful the area is relatively small so the opportunity to lose yourself in a crowd is pretty limited. Which is why our villain of the piece Marcus Valentine finds it easy to track his target's movements; together with technology of running trackers he can study her regular routes and time schedules - but even for a man who is obsessed with accurate time keeping he manages to miss her so many times.

Marcus and Georgie have their first encounter when Marcus is running late for work, zooming along the road in his flash Porsche while Georgie is out on her morning run.  He very nearly wipes her out on a crossing when he almost runs a red light and from that point on he is completely obsessed with having Georgie in his life.  Then when he finds out she is soon to be married to one of his friends things take a very sinister turn.

The creepy location of an out of season hotel, a rather random caretaker with a penchant for clown outfits and an unhealthy fixation on an event on Marcus's past all add layers to the story which have the hair on the back of your neck standing up. After all the thought and planning he has put into keeping tabs on Georgie he can't quite believe his luck when a situation involving her fiance plays straight into his hands. He genuinely feels he is able to play god and control exactly how he wants their lives to play out. I felt sorry for his wife and children - and for all his colleagues who he patronised and controlled at any given opportunity. Pretty much anyone who he came into contact with really.

I whizzed through this book in just over a day and enjoyed it as much as his other books - although I don't think anything will ever top that first book in the Dead Series.

The hardback and kindle editions are out now, but if you would prefer to wait for the paperback then you'll have to hang on until June.

About the Author:

Peter James is a UK No. 1 bestselling author, best known for writing crime and thriller novels, and the creator of the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace. With a total of 17 Sunday Times No. 1s under his belt, he has achieved global book sales of over 20 million copies to date, and has been translated into 37 languages.

Synonymous with plot-twisting page-turners, Peter has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career - which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over 40 awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter's novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.

The Juggle by Emma Murray @NetGalley @BoldwoodBooks @gilbster1000 #rachelsrandomreviews @MurrayEmma #TheJuggle

 

The Juggle by Emma Murray

Published by Boldwood Books

Publication Date 11th February 2021

Womens Fiction, Humour

My thanks to Rachel Gilbey of Rachels Random Resources for the invitation to read this book ahead of publication and feature my review as part of the promotional blog tour. My views here are my own and unbiased.

Book Description:

Mother-of-one Saoirse is just about holding it all together – combining part time work with the school run, while her husband David gets to focus on his career. But when David loses his job, everything has to change.

With no hesitation, Saoirse suggests she takes on the role of main breadwinner. After all, how hard can it be? And when a new client offers her a life-changing sum of money, Saoirse can look the other over-achieving Woodvale school-run mums in the eye with pride.

But there’s a problem with keeping too many balls in the air – eventually one is bound to drop. And when that happens – well, who knows what the consequences could be…

Laugh-out-loud funny, achingly relatable, but with a heart of gold, and warmth running through every page. This is the perfect read for anyone who has way too many balls in the air! The novel may or may not have been inspired by real life…

My Thoughts:

I was completely unaware when I signed up for the blog tour that this book is a sequel and even by the end of the story I didn't feel like I had missed significant amounts of information by not reading the first one. On reflection yes, I probably had but not sufficient to spoil the story for me.

Saoirse and David have life pretty much sorted, David works in banking while his wife does the school run and works as a ghost writer from home. Then life does what it does and drops a bombshell with David being made redundant from his job. But this coincides with Saoirse being offered the chance to earn big bucks for a seemingly easy writing job and for only six months work.  There's a saying: if something looks too good to be true it usually is. This comes to Saoirse's mind when she hears the offer - but in a desperate effort to take the pressure off David she agrees to the task and at first she believes all her dreams are coming true. 

The author presents us with comical narration of the family's day to day life with Saoirse's twice daily dreaded experience of the Organics, the seemingly perfect school run mums. Anyone who has done the school run will be able to relate to these tales and there are some particularly laugh out loud events which befall Saoirse and her daughter Anna. Dad David tries to take the strain of these treks to the school gates much to Anna's dismay (nothing the promise of a much frowned upon pink doughnut won't solve though) so that Saoirse can travel across London to meet the eccentric benefactor who is facilitating this change of lifestyle.

While taking his sabbatical from work David makes the decision to try and trace his birth mother (this must be one of the sections of the story which the first book provides a background on) which causes the inevitable ripples in his relationship with his adoptive mother, a cold, rather strange individual I found. This part of the story I found quite emotional in more ways than one, which I wasn't expecting amongst the humour I had been reading so far.

I found the whole book a very realistic representation of the many and varied characters in life - but at the same time realised that even with all these different personalities, humans are the same the world over and we are all stereotypes in one form or another. 

This would be a fun book to discuss for a book club with all sorts of issues to discuss from parenting styles, employment issues, adoption, friendship boundaries and many, many more.

From the Author:

I am an Irish author living in London, UK. I started writing stories when I was 9 years old. My first 'book' was called 'Carrie the Kitten and Friends,' scribbled untidily in a school notebook (my handwriting is as appalling today as it was back then). My favourite subject at school was English, and I regularly bored dozens of fellow school children with my prolific essay-writing. Following university where I studied English and Spanish (my Spanish is mediocre at best, but mysteriously improves after a few glasses of wine), I moved to London to pursue a banking career. Turning 30 gave me the push I needed to take all my savings and invest them into pursuing my dream job as a full-time writer. Over the last decade, I have worked on mainly nonfiction books in the area of business and academic textbooks, but my first love has always been fiction. At a publishing event a few years ago, a literary agent gave me some great advice, 'To be a writer, you need to be passionate about the subject and write from the heart.' The birth of my two daughters inspired me to apply this advice to a series of books about motherhood and its impact on romantic relationships, women friendships, and family dynamics. They are set in London and Ireland (where I am originally from) and give a humorous account of the frustrations of being a parent. Writing these books has been the hardest but most worthwhile thing I have ever done in my career. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I love writing them.

You can find out more and follow my blog at www.emmamurray.net