Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave #NetGalley @Stormbooks_co #LastNightatVillaLucia

 

Last Night at Villa Lucia by Simon McCleave

Published by Storm Publishing

Publication Date: 26th July 2024

Book Description:

A body is floating face down in the middle of the infinity pool.

For a second I think I’m imagining it. My head is throbbing as I pull my sunglasses down over my eyes. It’s not even 8 a.m. and the blazing Tuscan sunshine is already stifling.

Flashes of last night play over in my mind. The spiteful words hurled across the table. The ruined meal. The endless glasses of crisp white wine. My daughter watching my every move. Tears choke my throat. This beautiful villa was the only good thing that came out of my painful divorce. I fix my eyes on the gently swaying cypress trees as I try to calm my breathing.

A police siren pierces the tranquillity and I collapse onto a wicker chair. I must get my story straight fast. But one question plays over in my mind without an answer.

What really happened last night?

My Thoughts:

This is the first book I've read by this author and while I enjoyed it to a point I felt the characters lacked a certain something that I can't quite put my finger on. The setting of the villa in Tuscany and how Cerys came to be living there with her daughter was described very well. However the constant theme throughout the book is her addiction to alcohol. I understand that this is all consuming for a person, and how it affects the whole family but I felt it overshadowed the subject of the book: the fact that there's an actual body floating in the infinity pool one morning. 

There are multiple suspects and credible motives for each of those on the list, from the son staying in the villa who has a couple of reasons why he could have committed murder, to the gardener and maintenance guy Lorenzo who has a very weak back story which could have been developed far more interestingly in my opinion. Cerys herself is a distinct possibility, or as the dishy detective suggests maybe it was a burglary gone wrong. Lucia, the maid who the villa is named after, also has her motives. But despite all the speculation and scene setting involved, I don't think there was a chapter that went by without the mention of alcohol in some guise or another which really became slightly tedious towards the end, and quite a distraction from a murder investigation. There are a couple of twists along the way, but nothing that properly shocked me unfortunately. My favourite characters were Charlie and Lowri who stood out from the cast and who I was most invested in. 

I feel this would be a good holiday read when you don't want to expend too much effort working out whodunnit whilst lying by the pool, but if you want a gripping thriller then this one just lacks that feeling of any substantial depth to the characters and plot. 

My thanks to the publisher Storm Publishing for the opportunity to read this book via Netgalley prior to publication. All opinions here are my own.

About the Author:

Simon is a million selling crime novelist. His first book, 'The Snowdonia Killings', was released in January 2020 and soon became an Amazon Bestseller, reaching No 1 in the Amazon UK Chart and selling over 400,000 copies. His seventeen subsequent novels in the DI Ruth Hunter Crime Thriller Series have all been Amazon Best Sellers and many have hit the top of the UK Digital Chart. He has sold over 2 million books since 2020.

The Ruth Hunter Snowdonia books are currently in development as a television series to be filmed on location in North Wales in 2024.

SImon also has a very successful crime series set on Anglesey with Harper Collins (Avon). 'The Dark Tide', the first of the series, was the highest ever selling Waterstones' Welsh Book of the Month.

Simon McCleave was originally born in South London. When leaving University, he worked in television and film development. He was a Script Editor at the BBC, a producer at Channel 4 before working as a Story Analyst in Los Angeles. He worked on films such as 'The Full Monty' and television series such as the BBC Crime Drama 'Between The Lines'.

Simon then became a script writer for television and film. He wrote on series such as Silent Witness, Murder In Suburbia, Teachers, Attachments, The Bill, Eastenders and many more. His film, 'Out of the Game' for Channel 4 was critically acclaimed - 'An unflinching portrayal of male friendship.' (Time Out)

Simon lives in North Wales with his wife and two children.

A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray @andrewhunterm @PenguinUKBooks #bookreview #worcesterbookstagrammer

 

A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray

Published by Penguin

Publication Date: 25th April 2024

Book Description:

Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder.

My name is Al. I live in wealthy people's second homes while their real owners are away.

I don’t rob them, I don’t damage anything… I’m more an unofficial house-sitter than an actual criminal.

Life is good.

Or it was - until last night, when my friends and I broke into the wrong place, on the wrong day, and someone wound up dead.

And now … now we’re in a great deal of trouble.

My Thoughts:

What a fantastically quirky book! It fits my sense of humour greatly and had me chuckling at various points throughout as "Al" (not his real name) describes how his life has taken a rather unexpected and disappointing turn.

Al is an interloper (aka housebreaker/squatter, but he finds these terms quite demeaning, hence the alternative). He "borrows" the homes of well-to-do folks who don't currently need the accommodation as they're out of the country for a while. And life is going well for Al, until he breaks one of his own rules and revisits a home he has previously stayed in. Someone (plural) has got there first and puts Al's plans out of kilter. This is the first of a few things which go wrong for Al which ultimately lead him to be thrashing out his version of events on an ancient computer in the "IT suite" at His Majesty's pleasure.

I know this book won't appeal to everyone, but I found it very amusing in parts, edge of the seat thrilling in others and even tugged at my heartstrings a couple of times. Al is an excellent narrator, his observations of people and places are full of humour and the scenes leading up to his eventual incarceration are plotted so perfectly they would be well-placed among the pages of many an acclaimed thriller writer. The pacing is spot on and I would love there to be a sequel so we can find out whether life ever turns out to be kinder for our lovable interloper.

If you enjoyed Belinda Bauer's 'Exit' then I think this would be a great fit for you.

About the Author:

Andrew Hunter Murray is a British Author based in London. His first book The Last Day was published in 2020 and is set in a world which has spun to a halt causing civilisation to be brought to the brink of collapse.

He works for the TV show QI and writes for the magazine Private Eye. His second novel The Sanctuary was released in 2022.

The Ex-Husband by Karen Hamilton @Wildfirebks @KJHAuthor #TheExHusband #NetGalley

 

The Ex-Husband by Karen Hamilton

Published by Wildfire Books

Publication Date: 19th August 2021

Book Description:

Charlotte and Sam were partners. In life, and in crime, but that's all behind her.

Until now, years later, it comes rushing back when her estranged ex-husband Sam suddenly goes missing. And someone threatens to expose what she did.

Desperate to escape her mysterious tormentor, Charlotte boards a luxurious superyacht in the Caribbean. But it soon becomes clear that the open ocean isn't the haven she thought it was.

Because they are onboard too. And now there's nowhere left to run.

My Thoughts:

This book has sat patiently on my shelf for a considerable while now - I don't know why, but I haven't felt it call to me as my next read until now. Which is a shame, because once I picked it up, I was drawn into the paradise world of luxury cruise liners, glamourous people and beautiful destinations. But as is often the case with paradise, there's a not so pretty side to things which is rarely mentioned in the media.

The story is related in different time frames, detailing the not-so-squeaky-clean lifestyle Sam and Charlotte had adopted aboard the luxury liners as they befriended and defrauded wealthy 'targets' among the passengers, then moving to the present day when Charlotte begins to face the consequences of those actions. Sam is long gone from her life and she's doing her best to live her life on the straight and narrow with her feet firmly on dry land. But then the messages start: someone knows what she and Sam did, and they are blackmailing her. Panic kicks in, and Charlotte runs, to the only safe place she knows: aboard a superyacht in the middle of the ocean. She's got to be safe from the blackmailer there, right? How wrong could she be! 

It took me a while to organise who's who in this book - there are quite a few characters to get to grips with and what each one's role is. Then, armed with the knowledge the reader has of previous events, the challenge is to try to work out whose motive to blackmail Charlotte is strongest - there are a list of possibilities - and why are they not pursuing Sam too? Or are they? Or is it Sam doing the blackmailing? Trying to untangle all the different strands of the story is a monumental task - no wonder Charlotte was so exhausted! The settings in this book are absolutely stunning, the descriptions certainly encourage the reader to explore the various destinations mentioned. If only we had the necessary funds...

I found the less than glamorous descriptions of life on the hospitality side of the liners and superyachts very interesting. As I work in a customer service role in my day job, the thought of being trapped onboard and not being able to escape the constant demands such a role entails is extremely daunting. At least I can go home at the end of my shift. 

The closing chapters of this book I found to be some of the best. The loose ends were gradually resolved, not always giving a 'happy ever after' result which I found fitted the overall tone of the book. I was left with a wry smile on my face, as the true nature of some of the characters came out in the end in ways I wasn't necessarily expecting. A clever conclusion to an entertaining book. I'm not sure I'd recommend reading it whilst on board a cruise liner though!

My thanks to the publisher for the opportunity to read this book via NetGalley, and I offer my sincere apologies for leaving it so long to read and review. 

About the Author:

Karen Hamilton spent her childhood in Angola, Zimbabwe, Belgium and Italy and worked as a flight attendant for many years. She has now put down roots in the UK to raise her three children with her husband and she also writes full time.

A Good Place to Hide a Body by Laura Marshall @HodderBooks @laurajm8 #AGoodPlacetoHideaBody #NetGalley

 

A Good Place to Hide a Body by Laura Marshall

Published by Hodder & Stoughton

Publication Date: 4th July 2024

Book Description:

'Can you come round?' Dad says tremulously.

'Of course. Are you OK? Is it Mum?'

'No!' He almost shouts it. 'Just come quickly. The garden...the...body... we need you, Penny.'

For women of Penny's generation, being on hand for elderly parents is just part of life. But for Penny, things have become a little more serious...

When she receives a frantic phone call from her parents one night, with express instructions NOT to call the police, Penny rushes over at once. But they haven't had a fall. They haven't forgotten their computer passwords. They've killed someone. And his body is lying in the garden, right next to the rose bushes.

Everyone is capable of murder. They just need to meet the right person.

My Thoughts:

The book starts with Penny Whitlock receiving a phone call late one evening that every tweenager dreads - a panicked plea for help from her dad to come quickly. Part of that generation who divide their time between supporting their kids who are away at university and their own elderly parents - all whilst holding down a full-time job - Penny's marriage has broken down and she's juggling everything pretty much single-handed. So the last thing she needs when she was about to hunker down on the sofa for some much needed down time is to have to manage some kind of parental crisis. The break in her dad's usually strong, unwavering voice tells her that something is very wrong. 

Rewind three months, and the journey which results in the traumatic phone call is relayed to the reader. In a nutshell, Penny's parents are struggling to make ends meet in order to keep their home maintained -Penny has suggested downsizing and all that resulted in was a degree of frostiness from her mum. How could they possibly walk away from a lifetime's work cultivating their precious rose garden?? Penny then comes up with the idea that her parents get their annexe up to a habitable state in order to rent it out. An idea which well and truly comes back to bite her when they end up with Cooper Brownlow as their tenant.

There aren't a huge number of characters in this book, but each of them plays an integral part in the story. Obviously, Penny is the keystone that links everyone else together, and her parents are fabulously well drawn by the author - some dark humour and witty comments in particular from Sissy, Penny's mum keep the lighter side of this murder mystery alive. And dad Heath is just so lovely, I constantly wanted to hug him. On the flip side we have Cooper, their drug dealing ex convict tenant and his associates who make life pretty intolerable over the short term of the lease offered by estate agent Julie and her team of one, the shiny suited, acne afflicted Dean. Add in Penny's ex-husband and his new wife Elaine with the usual irritations extended families can cause, it's no wonder Penny feels like she's trying to keep too many plates spinning.

I would almost describe this as a cosy murder mystery, but it offers a bit more grit than that. Set in a suburban location that the majority of us can relate to, Laura Marshall has written a credible story with a hint of comedy, the feel of which very much reminded me of Belinda Bauer's book Exit (if you haven't read it, you really should!). Some decent 'heart in mouth' moments keep your attention all the way through, and I definitely recommend this book if you want something lighter, but still crime oriented. Also, bonus points from me for the cover illustration, which is a perfect fit.

My thanks to the publisher for providing an early copy of the book via NetGalley.

About the Author:

Laura Marshall is the Sunday Times top ten and Kindle No. 1 bestselling author of four psychological thrillers. Her books Friend Request, Three Little Lies and The Anniversary, have sold over half a million copies in the UK and been translated into twenty-five languages.

Her fourth novel MY HUSBAND’S KILLER, will be released in November 2022.

She grew up in Wiltshire, studied English at the University of Sussex and currently lives in Kent with her family.

For more information visit Laura's website www.lauramarshall.co.uk or find her at www.facebook.com/lauramarshallauthor or on Twitter @laurajm8.