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Deadly Reckoning by Liz Mistry

Jul4

Glued & Guessing

Deadly Reckoning by Liz Mistry is a gripping contemporary crime novel. It is the third book in the Solanki & McQueen series but can be read as a stand-alone. I recommend reading the books in order as there is a storyline running throughout the three books.

I enjoyed meeting up with familiar characters including the police team D headed up by the two leading ladies.

Once more the team sets out to solve fresh murders that have links to the past. The crime busting quartet are all different, with different skill sets but they all work well together.

Past crimes are having an effect on present day as the team once more are on the hunt for a murderous character.

Nature versus nurture rules its head as a theme. We cannot choose our family. Are some genes just pure evil?

Families are complicated affairs as we see, as we follow the families of some of the officers. Even upstanding members of the community can have troubled offspring.

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In The Family Way by Laney Katz Becker

Jun19

Powerful & Heart-Breaking

In The Family Way by Laney Katz Becker is an absolutely heartbreaking novel that consumed me from the start.

The novel takes place in 1965-1966. It is a powerful book about women and their roles and rights in 1960’s America. It is horrifying to see that women were subservient to men. Everything in society was there to promote men and to down grade women.

Women were supposed to be compliant wives and mothers. It was a myth put about by men that women would be fulfilled looking after their husbands, children and the house. Whilst many did want to be wives and mothers, women are also so much more than their domestic roles.

The novel surrounds a group of women – two sisters, their friends and an unwed fifteen-year-old who helps the lead character, Lily, whilst awaiting to give birth in a home for unmarried girls that her mother had sent her to.

Each chapter alternates between the characters as we ‘hear’ of various lives and struggles.

Some women, plus the teen are incredibly ‘innocent’ in the ways of the world. They have been shielded when they really needed to have been educated in the basics of life.

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Whistle by Linwood Barclay

Jun17

Chilling

Whistle by Linwood Barclay is a chilling supernatural tale that consumed me from the start.

This is a departure from Linwood Barclay’s usual style of crime novels but he has created a marvellous and well thought out plotline, showing that he is the master of the very chilling genre.

This is not a book for the faint hearted. It is far better to read it on a bright summer’s day than a cold, dark winter evening.

The action is split into various points of view, over different time periods. It keeps the reader in a state of heightened tension – we think we know what is coming even though the characters are clueless to the power that they have unwittingly unleashed.

Whistle is a tale of evil walking amongst the innocent. Very few realise what is going on until it is far too late.

All the characters were well drawn. There was definitely an air of menace attached to the villain. He was guilty of hubris too, believing he could never be beaten.

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A Secret Escape by Sarah Morgan

Jun8

The Sisterhood

A Secret Escape by Sarah Morgan is a perfectly delightful contemporary novel that I adored. This is a book about friendship and love and family.

We see that life can be a complicated affair but family should be faithful and provide a cocoon from life. We drop in on a multi-generational female family who all love and support each other. We see that patterns have a habit of repeating down the generations.

Parenting can be hard, especially when our children are grown up and we cannot ‘fix’ life for them. “It’s the hardest thing about being a parent. You can’t fix everything.” And no matter how old your child is “when your child suffers, you suffer too.”

The love within a family provides a secure base for life. We see that not all families provide a foundation of love. “She envied her friend Milly who never had to earn praise or affection.” Love should be freely given but one mother seems unable to have the capacity to love. Her grown up daughter laments “maybe it’s me…Maybe I’m just the kind of person people leave.” All her life “she was determined to be the child her mother would be proud of, but how?” It does seem that there are just some cold fish in the love department. All her life a character tried to earn her mother’s love. The fault lies with the mother and not the daughter.

In contrast her friend Milly’s family have love in abundance. Their love extends to include all, especially a heart crying out for love. She was “desperate for any evidence that I was worth loving.”

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