Tag Archive | Harper Collins

A Mother Always Knows by Diane Jeffrey

Mar19

Superb Psychological Suspense

A Mother Always Knows by Diane Jeffrey is a marvellous contemporary psychological crime suspense that hooked me in from the start.

The action is told through four alternating points of view and in two different time periods. This enables the reader to become totally invested in the characters. We care what happens to them.

All the characters were well drawn and were easy to empathise with. Diane Jeffrey has produced characters that are, on the whole, very likable – and those whom we don’t like, we were never meant to. Our responses were guided by the author’s pen.

Devon is the setting. Small villages should be safe but crime still happens, and people are powerless to stop it.

A particularly arrogant and despicable character is responsible for sexual crimes against two girls (that we hear of) within the tale. One is a physical assault, and the other is cyber-crime – even the police are unable to remove the indecent images. A character suffers for many months, and is only brought back from the brink by her loving family.

There is a mother’s dilemma – could her daughter be guilty of murder? And who could blame her if she was? The mother wrestles with her conscience and her desire to protect. There are questions she needs to ask – but doesn’t, for fear of the answers. I found it very easy to step into the mother’s shoes.

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The Way I Loved You by Fiona Lucas

Mar11

Take A Chance On Love

The Way I Loved You by Fiona Lucas is a most delightful contemporary novel that I savoured. I never wanted it to end.

This is a beautifully written novel about love. It is a unique tale, a sliding doors moment as a character gets to re-live her wedding anniversaries up to her disastrous tenth one. Along the way she learns what is really important; and how to listen and make memories that count. Instead of her marriage imploding, there is a chance to fix it.

The leading lady had a tempestuous childhood. We understand her feelings of anxiety, and her desire to withdraw rather than get hurt. “It’s easier not to hope, it’s exhausting to wait and believe.” But love is worth taking a risk because when it succeeds, it is beautiful.

We witness the importance of talking. If we clam up, how will others know what we are feeling?

We need to give others wings to fly, and not throttle the life out of them. “Maybe I need to not hold Luke so tightly because I’m scared of losing him. Maybe I need to let him fly, chase his dreams.”

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The Vanished Girl by Kathleen McGurl

Mar3

Layers

The Vanished Girl by Kathleen McGurl is a powerful and heartbreaking dual timeline novel that gripped me from the start.

The action is set in the summer of 1976 and in 2024. For those of us of a certain age, we remember the summer of ’76 as being glorious – long, hot days. For the characters they were, eight, twelve, and nearly fourteen-years-old. Theirs was a summer of freedom. “We were giddy with freedom and endless possibilities. Friends, a picnic, our bikes… We could go anywhere.” The reader ‘feels’ the freedom and remembers their own childhood in the summer of ’76. Days of adventures with friends, no phones to distract. The summer stretched out endlessly, creating bonds and happy memories until – the girl vanished.

Nearly fifty years later, the friends are re-united. “Inside, I’m still that kid.” Old bonds re-attach as the years fall away. Feelings of guilt return as everyone wonders if they could have done more.

The intervening years have seen a life being plied with guilt upon guilt. A life spiralled downwards. Returning to her childhood village, a character hopes she will heal.

Re-connection with childhood friends creates the original strong bonds.

The modern reader is horrified at the attitudes to those with mental health issues in 1976. They are shunned at best, persecuted at worst – by the adults, who hunt in packs. It is shameful. Only the children see the kind, gentle heart that beats beneath the skin of a nineteen-year-old man.

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Most Wanted by Andi Osho

Mar2

Spiraling

Most Wanted by Andi Osho is a powerful contemporary novel that gripped me from the start.

As the novel opens we ‘hear’ the voice of the perpetrator of the crimes. We know they have been caught – but who are they? And what are their crimes?

The setting is an urban one, in several boroughs in London. We ‘see’ the troubled youths just hanging about. We drop in on community-minded neighbours. And we witness the side effects of gentrification on neighbourhoods – in particular pushing up housing prices. Demand is outstripping supply. Houses are being snapped up. Prices are rocketing. All this is pushing local people out of area. How will it ever stop?

A young couple who has been renting, and are desperate to get on the property ladder. They are the focus of the novel. The reader can empathise with their plight and their frustration in losing property after property. Add to that, a fluid job situation creating tension, and you have the perfect storm.

The reader watches the couple becoming ever more desperate. Their actions catch the eye of local criminals. Without knowing quite how they got there, lives start spiraling downwards, and there seems to be no way out.

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