The Talk Show by Harry Verity #TheTalkShow @Bloodhoundbook @BookFunnel @hverityauthor

 

The Talk Show by Harry Verity

Published by Bloodhound Books

Publication Date: 1st March 2021

Genre: Psychological Thriller

279 pages

Book Description:

You never know who is watching...

When Edward gets a job working behind the scenes on the notorious and controversial Michael O’Shea Show, he thinks he’s hit the big time. But little does he realise what he’s let himself in for. 

The presenter’s brother is arrested for sex crimes, and the show is threatened with cancellation when two guests are reported missing. Then, when a member of the backstage staff is abducted, it becomes clear someone has the show in their sights. 

Is someone trying to sabotage a seemingly harmless talk show by targeting its presenters and guests? Or does the truth lie somewhere closer to home?

One thing is for sure, there’s no telling who’s watching The Talk Show…

My Thoughts:

I loved the concept of this book. With the recent controversy surrounding talk shows in the UK I was interested to see where the author would take it. I wasn't disappointed!  

New recruit to the team Edward has ideas of grandeur with his new job in television. It doesn't take long for his bubble to burst as he realises he really is the lowliest person on the team and his colleagues are quick to quell any enthusiasm he had to begin with. As you would expect there are a lot of big egos clashing on the show and the media are constantly looking to cast accusations against any of the show's presenter - some with more truth to them than others. Edward isn't the only who gets shouted down on a regular basis, with show psychologist Bernard Braithwaite also constantly in the firing line. Edward wonders how he copes in his role as he seems very anxious and lacking in confidence for someone in his position. 

I will be honest that the first half of the book was quite slow and I was almost at the point of abandoning the book (sorry!) but then BANG! things kicked in and the story took off at a rate of knots which had me hanging on tight. I'm so glad I kept with the story as the second half really was action packed.  You have guests being abducted, accusations of all kinds being levelled at just about everyone on the team and then police arriving to shut the show down while their enquiries continue because things just got very real. 

My opinion of this book is that if you are prepared to hang in there while the scene is set then you are in for a treat once everyone is in their places. I guarantee they won't be where you expect at the end!

About the Author:

Harry Verity grew up in the city of Leicester in the UK and then studied at Loughborough University and obtained an MA in Early Modern History from the University of York.

After leaving university he pursued a career writing freelance for magazines and newspapers and worked in British Book store WH Smith as a sales assistant.

As well as writing Harry travels all around the world, experiencing new cultures and making new friends. He is currently based in Vietnam where the impact of COVID-19 has been minimal.

The Talk Show is his first novel.

Your Neighbour's Wife by Tony Parsons @NetGalley @TonyParsonsUK @penguinrandom #YourNeighboursWife

 

Your Neighbour's Wife by Tony Parsons

Published by RandomHouse Cornerstone, Century

Publication Date 7th January 2021

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this novel via NetGalley in exchange for my views.

Book Description:

What do you do when your perfect life spins out of control? A gripping psychological thriller that combines the emotional warmth of Man and Boy with the page-turning brio of The Murder Bag.

Tara Carver seems to have the perfect life. A loving mother and wife, and a business woman who runs her own company, she’s the sort of person you’d want to live next door to, who might even become your best friend.

But what sort of person is she really?

Because in one night of madness, on a work trip far from home, she puts all this at risk. And suddenly her dream life becomes a living nightmare when the married man she spent one night with tells her he wants a serious relationship with her. And that he won’t leave her or her precious family alone until she agrees.

There seems to be only one way out. And it involves murder ...

My Thoughts:

The one part of this book that really puzzled me was its title. I still can't quite work out its relevance even at the end of the story.

Tara Carver has it all: nice house, nice family and her own successful business. Her husband is a house husband who looks after their daughter so she can work at her on-line dating agency with her friend and colleague. So with all those positives, why would she risk it all for a one night stand in a foreign land?  

This is what she begins to ask herself when she realises that the man she opted to risk it all with wants far more than  a quick fling. Even before she has finished her business trip he's pestering her for more so she decides to do a quick flit back home in an attempt to escape his attention. Sadly things only get worse - to the point where the police are knocking on her door. But it's not her they're interested in, it's her husband.

There are some interesting twists along the way in this book but to be honest I disliked Tara's self-centred character so much it put me off the whole book. The extents she goes to in order to protect her self were shocking, and the people who put themselves in the firing line for her in my opinion needed a psychological assessment.  

The sacrifices made in her name went above and beyond what anyone should do for another person and I was shocked at her reaction to them.  Not a book I particularly enjoyed I'm afraid. And please can someone explain that title?!

About the Author:

Tony Parsons is a bestselling novelist and an award-winning journalist. His books have been published in over forty languages and his multi-million selling novel Man and Boy won The Book of The Year prize in 2000. Most recently, he created the Max Wolfe crime series. Tony lives in London with his family.

The Ex by Diane Saxon @NetGalley @BoldwoodBooks @Diane_Saxon #TheEx

 

The Ex by Diane Saxon

Published by Boldwood Books

Publication Date: 2 March 2021

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

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

Book Description:

Sometimes your past just won't let go...All NEW from Diane Saxon

As a heat wave grips the country, DS Jenna Morgan is called to a domestic incident at the home of a young family in Ironbridge.

Pregnant Imelda Cheetham-Epstein has been found unconscious by her husband, Zak with serious head injuries.

When Jenna arrives on the scene, she discovers something even more disturbing – the couple's eleven-month-old son, Joshua, is missing and the race against time begins to find him.

Is this an accident or something more sinister?

Are the two incidents linked?

Or has something in the Cheetham-Epstein's past caught up with them?

My Thoughts:

A word of warning: this is the fourth book in a series, something I wasn't aware of until I came to write my review. That said, it clearly worked well as a stand alone novel as I didn't feel like I had missed huge chunks of the story.  DS Jenna Morgan has a pretty traumatic history in her police career that much is evident but I didn't feel that the previous incidents totally overwhelmed this story as sometimes can happen. She's a good strong character who has learned how to cope with her demons.

The location of the story in the Black Country made a nice change as we don't seem to have many writers setting their books around Ironbridge and the intense heatwave was an excellent pressure cooker environment to add to the time constraints needed to find a missing one year old child.  Little Joshua has disappeared during the violent attack on his mother but the detectives are suspicious of dad Zak as he claims not to have heard anything despite being in the property at the time.

The book is cleverly written as the reader knows exactly who has carried out the attack and to an extent why but the finer details run far deeper than events suggest.  It took me a good while to get even close to the facts but I did get a gut feeling part way through the story so the 'reveal' wasn't as big a shock as it could have been.

There are a couple of truly shocking and disturbing scenes in the book but you can't really put any trigger warnings on it without giving away the whole story which I felt was well written and tackled some very real issues. Some of the more peripheral characters felt particularly realistic.

I would like to go back and revisit the earlier books in the series to get better background on the detectives side of things to see how their characters have developed from the start.

About the Author:

Diane Saxon lives in the Shropshire countryside with her tall, dark, handsome husband. She has two gorgeous daughters, a Dalmatian, two cats, numerous rare breed chickens, and a black Labrador called Beau--a name borrowed by her hero in For Heaven's Cakes.

After working for years in a demanding job, Diane gave it up when her husband said, "Follow that dream." She subsequently had 12 Romances published for the U.S. market then turned to the dark side with her psychological thrillers. With a four-book deal through Boldwood Books, her first in series, Find Her Alive was released in 2019 followed by Someone's There in February 2020. What She Saw is her latest release in September 2020 and Diane is head down currently editing Book 4.

Find her at her website https://dianesaxon.com/ or on Twitter: @Diane_Saxon