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Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz

 

Nightingale & Co by Charlotte Printz.

Translated by Marina Sofia.

Published in ebook 15th January 2025, and paperback 1st February 2025, by Corylus Books.

From the cover of the book:

Berlin, August 1961.

Since the death of her beloved father, Carla has been running the Nightingale & Co detective agency by herself. It’s a far from easy job for a female investigator.

When the chaotic, fun-loving Wallie shows up at the door, claiming to be her half-sister, Carla’s world is turned upside down. Wallie needs Carla – the Berlin Wall has been built overnight, leaving her unable to return to her flat in East Berlin.

Carla certainly doesn’t need Wallie, with her secret double life and unorthodox methods for getting results. Yet the mismatched pair must find a way to work together when one of their clients is accused of murdering her husband.

Nightingale & Co is the first in a cosy historical crime series featuring the sisters of the 
Nightingale & Co detective agency in 1960s Berlin.

***********

Berlin, August 1961. 

Since her father died, Carla has been balancing running the Nightingale & Co detective agency by herself, with caring for her emotionally distant, strong-willed mother. Neither are easy jobs, leaving her little time for romance. It does not help that she is also called upon to periodically extricate her eccentric aunt Lulu from tricky situations of her own making.

Trying to stay professional while pursuing challenging investigations, and dealing with her complicated personal life is hard, particularly as a lone female investigator constantly reminded of the absence of her former beloved partner. But she has no idea quite how chaotic life can be until a young woman called Wallie shows up on her door step, claiming to be her half-sister trapped in the West after the construction of the Berlin Wall. 

Carla and Wallie are like chalk and cheese, but somehow they must find a way to trust each other, as the political landscape in Berlin changes around them - and attempt to locate a man simply known as 'Jack', while simultaneously trying to save a client accused of murder.

The story begins with luscious 1960s vibes, as Carla is called to rescue Aunt Lulu from arrest on the film set of the Billy Wilder movie, One, Two, Three, which is on location by the Brandenburg Gate. It is a scene that pretty much sets the tone for the book, when Carla has a prophetic encounter with Billy Wilder himself, during which he announces "Nobody's perfect!", as a nod to his earlier masterpiece, Some Like it Hot. 

What follows is part atmospheric detective caper, and part insightful exploration of time and place, set against the shocking political fall-out of the raising of the Berlin Wall. Carla is prim, respectable, inexperienced in affairs of the heart, and totally over-whelmed by the arrival of Wallie, a brash, busty, bar-tender in a risque club called the Eden - I loved their descriptions as Audrey Hepburn vs Marilyn Monroe, which works beautifully. They have very different ideas about how to behave, and this makes for a magical pairing - and a coming-of-age for Carla, with a touch of romantic suspense along the way. Printz fields a delightful supporting cast around them too, especially Aunt Lulu, who is quite a character!

The relationship between the sisters drives the slow-burn plot, bringing in lovely themes about family circumstances, jealousy, and betrayal that they have to navigate over the course of the story. Printz also uses their situations to cleverly examine the shadows that still loom large from World War Two in a defeated Germany, the impact of international politics, and the stark differences between those living in East and West Berlin as the Cold War plays out - and there is a lovely glimpse back to the heyday of the Berlin club scene. But this is not just about the past, because there are also fascinating threads here about women's rights, and changes in attitudes towards sex with the wider availability of the contraceptive pill. 

This is the kind of book that draws you in gradually. The way the gritty 1940's-esque noir, gum shoe elements of a quirky missing person investigation, and a complicated murder mystery, blend with the social changes of the 1960's is fascinating. Suddenly, you find yourself totally immersed in the twists and turns of Printz's novel, which will send you down rabbit holes about the events of 1961. There are moments when the use of language is a little mindboggling for those of us unused to the conventions of German speech, but they do not get in the way of the story, and Sofia does her best to make clear where the flipping between formal and more familiar speech is significant as part of her excellent translation.

I really enjoyed the darkness that lurks beneath the lighter tones of this story, especially the chill that pervades the ending - an ending which leaves you with unanswered questions that I sincerely hope will be addressed in the next book in the series!

Nightingale & Co is available to buy now in ebook, and will be published in paperback on 1st February 2025.

Thank you to Corylus Books for providing me with an ecopy of this book in return for an honest review, and to Ewa Sherman for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Charlotte Printz is the pseudonym of a successful former TV editor with a penchant for writing gripping historical novels and screenplays.

She is one of the founders of the Munich Writing Academy.

About the translator:

Marina Sofia is a translator, reviewer, writer and blogger, as well as a third culture kid, who grew up trilingual in Romanian, German and English. 

This is her first translation of a German crime novel to be
published by Corylus Books.

The Troubled Deep (Cam Killick Norfolk Mysteries Book One) by Rob Parker

 

The Troubled Deep (Cam Killick Norfolk Mysteries Book One) by Rob Parker.

Published 16th January 2025 by Bloomsbury Raven.

From the cover of the book:

Nobody ever knew what happened to the Brindleys. One summer they were there - flashy, loud and beautiful - and then they were gone. A mother, father and two children, vanished into the East Anglian night.

Some said the family never made it home from the party; their speeding car thrown off the tracks and the four of them silently buried in the marshes. Others said they had simply moved on. For over thirty years, the case remained as cold as the freezing waterways of the Norfolk broads.

Until Cam Killick found the car.

An ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick's PTSD has made the return to civilian life a living nightmare. The only place he can find peace is underwater, where the world is muffled to white noise. As a cold case diver it is his job to scour the waterways of the country for the lost, the submerged, the drowned, laying their stories to rest alongside them.

Except when Cam levers open the doors to the Brindley car on the lake bed where he found it, all four bodies are missing. And Cam will soon learn that some secrets, once submerged, are better off staying that way.

A gripping, propulsive and atmospheric crime thriller perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves, Peter James and Elly Griffiths. Your new crime obsession starts here...

***********

Nearly forty years ago, the Brindley family disappeared after leaving a glamorous house party in the Norfolk Broads. The wealthy couple and their two children were never seen again. The police pronounced the case closed, after a woefully brief investigation, and interest in their possible whereabouts waned. Until ex-marine and ex-SBS officer, Cam Killick decided to investigate the cold case himself, searching the depths of the East Anglia's remote waterways in search of the Jaguar that never made it back to Brindley Hall. 

The search is a talisman for the solitary Killick, a man who feels safest alone in the company his dog, Nala. The hours he spends in the water bring him peace from the PTSD that plagues him, but when he finally discovers what he has been looking for all this time, a lot of unwelcome attention comes his way. Unexpectedly, the car is empty, and no one seems keen to delve into exactly what happened to the Brindley family, except a single copper who shares Killick's passion for digging up the truth - DS Claire Rogers, who has been told in no uncertain terms that she must ask no questions. Killick needs answers, and this is about to make him the target for some very dangerous men who would prefer their secrets did not come to light... 

I have been a fan of Parker's writing from almost the very beginning of his career, consuming everything he has written from the action-packed Ben Bracken Series, his gritty gangland Thirty Miles Trilogy, and his standalone novels as well. This is the first part of a brand new series, following the cold case investigations of a very unlikely sleuth - diver Cam Killick, who is haunted by the ghosts of the things he has seen in his former career as an ex-marine and SBS Officer.  

The Norfolk Broads is an area Parker has written about before. I was delighted with the nods to his literary past with the mention of Killick being involved in a salvage operation in the vicinity of The Penny Black, which was the venue for a shoot-out of stunning proportions in the Ben Bracken thriller of the same name. The way Parker connects his books like this always makes me smile, so hurray for a new series in the same world! 

The novel unfurls through the gripping adventures of Killick, both above and below the water (solid research on the diving aspects here); with heart-rending flashbacks to 1987 through the eyes of young Hannah Brindley, the daughter of the family. There are thrills, spills, bad guys a-plenty, enough action to make authors like Lee Child take a moment (as I have come to expect from Parker), and a mystery that really keeps you guessing. 

This is powerful storytelling, with beautifully drawn characters that stir your emotions, and the way this book grips you also has a lot to do with the care and attention he gives to his psychologically damaged hero. Parker approaches PTSD with insight and sensitivity, at no time trivialising the toll it takes on Killick, or his journey back to some semblance of normal life. He builds a lovely team around Killick too, who I am really looking forward to reading more about as the series unfolds - it was great to have a strong, older female character in DS Claire Rogers; the alien obsessed journalists Gupta and Ferris are a joy; and I hope to see more of wily old Johnjo Tabernacle and his daughter Jess (who prove to be a lot more intriguing that it first appears). And of course, there is the delightful Nala, who you will fall in love with.

The fingerprints of an accomplished crime writer are all over this book. It is bursting with the experience and maturity Parker has garnered over his career, with entertaining echoes of everything that has come before, woven into an opening gambit in a series with the legs to run and run. It is also a stonking page-turner that begs to be read in a single sitting - which I most certainly did. More please, Rob!

The Troubled Deep is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Raven for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Rob Parker lives near Warrington, UK. The author of the Ben Bracken thrillers, the Thirty Miles Trilogy and the standalones Crook’s Hollow and Blackstoke.

​Rob writes full time, as well as organising and attending various author events across the UK. Passionate about inspiring a love of the written word in young people, he spends a lot of time in schools across the North West, encouraging literacy, storytelling and creative-writing. ​He is also a co-host of the For Your Reconsideration film podcast, and a regular voice on both the Blood Brothers crime book podcast and the Really, 007! podcast.

Midnight In Paris by Gillian Harvey

 

Midnight in Paris by Gillian Harvey.

Published 14th January 2025 by Boldwood Books.

From the cover of the book:

Ten years. Two people. One last visit…

Sophie and Tom first visited Paris together as students. During their weekend away in the world’s most romantic city, falling in love – with the place, and each other – was simply inevitable.

They resolved to return every summer and kept their word, until something happened that changed their world forever.

Five years on, Sophie’s travelling to Paris alone to meet Tom again in their special place, on the Pont du Carrousel at midnight.

Because life has torn them apart. And now Sophie has something to tell Tom. Something that will change everything…

The most heart-breaking, uplifting and powerful novel you’ll read all year. Perfect for fans of David Nicholls, Kristin Hannah and The Notebook.

***********

Tom and Sophie first travelled to Paris when they were students. Despite being very different people, they fell in love while visiting the sites and ambling along the banks of the Seine. They vowed to return each year to experience its magic together, but a twist of fate eventually tore them apart. 

Five years later, Sophie is returning to Paris for one more time, hoping Tom will be there so they can say goodbye in the place that became their own - on the Pont du Carrousel, at midnight. She is marrying Tom's best friend Will, and knows in her heart that she will never be able to move on until she draws a line under the past, no matter how hard it will be...

The story unravels through the perspective of Sophie, moving between the present and the past to follow the history of her relationship with Tom, from their meeting as students to the time when she must decide the best way to face the future. Their annual trips to Paris are central to the novel, especially the changing nature of their visits over the years. Harvey does an incredible job of connecting significant places in the city to the slow-burn development in their love story - most importantly when it comes to what the Pont du Carrousel means to them both (with a lovely little aside to the Mona Lisa). 

I found myself gradually being drawn into Sophie and Tom's tale, weaving through the ups and downs of an unlikely couple who somehow work, as they negotiate love, marriage, family ties, close friendships, and the expectations that weigh heavily on their relationship. It is clear that they are destined to part from the way Harvey cleverly wields the timelines, but I was left reeling when she eventually showed her hand... from this point on I was unable to look away.

This is not like anything I have read from Harvey before. She has a talent for gently incorporating deeper themes into relatable tales about life, but this is something new, showing an impressive maturity in the writing, and the way the storylines come together. This is so much more than a light-hearted story, and although there are touches of humour, the emotional fall-out from Sophie and Tom's story gives your heart a proper pounding. There is a fabulous supporting cast, and Will's part in the over-all picture is pretty special too. I sobbed almost continuously through the entire second half of this book, culminating in a full-on blubber-fest at the uplifting ending. Make sure you have the tissues handy, because you are going to need them!

Midnight in Paris is available to buy now in hardcover, paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Boldwood Books for providing me with an ecopy of this book in return for and honest review, and to Rachel's Random Resources for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Gillian Harvey is a freelance journalist.

She has lived in Limousin, France for the past twelve years, from where she derives the inspiration and settings for her books such as A Year at the French Farmhouse and A Month in Provence.

A Serial Killer's Guide To Marriage by Asia Mackay

 

A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay.

Published 14th January 2025 by Wildfire.

From the cover of the book:

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they're ex-serial killers.

They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to kill. Not many power couples know how to get away with murder.

Then Hazel fell pregnant and they gave it all up for life in the suburbs; dinner parties instead of body disposal.

But recently Hazel has started to feel that itch again. When she kills someone behind Fox's back and brings the police to their door, she must do anything she can to protect her family.

This could save their marriage - unless it kills them first.

***********

Golden couple, Hazel and Fox are living the good life in leafy Berkshire with their young daughter Bibi. As Fox heads into London to follow a high-flying career in finance, leaving artist Hazel at home to fulfil the role of yummy mummy, you would not think there was anything to mark them out among their equally affluent neighbours... but you would be wrong.

For Hazel and Fox were once successful serial killers, haunting the glamorous locations where Europe's elite gathered, on a crusade to rid the world of 'bad men'. It was a lifestyle they enjoyed to the max, but all that changed when Hazel fell pregnant. Giving everything up to become parents seemed the obvious choice, but swapping a life of living on the edge for the routine of domestic felicity is beginning to pall, despite the overwhelming love they feel for Bibi - especially for Hazel.  

When Hazel breaks their non-killing pact by stabbing a man who attacks her when she is out jogging, she is unable to tell Fox what she has done. She is sure she can fix this without his help, but the strain begins to tell on their marriage. It does not help that Fox has secrets of his own that he is desperate to keep from Hazel...

A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage is an absolutely glorious ride of a thriller, that mixes fast-paced plot and biting humour to produce a book that demands to be read in a single sitting - which is exactly what I did!

The story unfurls in narratives from married couple Hazel and Fox as they gamely try to follow the path of reformed serial killers, by masquerading as an aspirational couple with a young daughter in staid suburbia. These narratives are periodically broken up by flash-backs to their former lives, before and after their meeting, to slickly fill in all the backstory you need. It is clear from the outset that Hazel is struggling with this life, even though she adores her daughter, and is missing the thrills that fired her artistic soul. Unable to paint, the frustration within her threatens to burst free - which it eventually does in a violent outburst that drives the delicious story.

Mackay weaves a intricate plot that has Hazel scrambling to keep her secret from Fox, while raging against the strictures of her boring life. Hazel's solution to the mess she is in is to commit to an original plan to keep herself and her family safe from the consequences of her actions - actions made even more complicated by a choice she does not realise is a dangerous one until it is too late. As the twists and turns play out, Mackay reveals that things are not quite as rosy as they appear to be for Fox either - his past life as part of a dysfunctional American high-society family is about to derail his carefully curated existence. He has secrets he is keeping from Hazel in turn, and their marriage goes into freefall as the cracks begin to show in their relationship. Soon they are eyeing each other with suspicion, fuelled by misunderstandings - not a good place to be when you are both consummate killers...

This was enormous fun. The combination of seductive serial killer caper and tense domestic drama is perfectly pitched, with just the right amount of back story to explain the motivation of the characters. This is definitely going to be kill-or-cure, and Mackay keeps you dangling about what the outcome will be, before pulling off the kind of sexy ending that has you punching the air with glee. She does an excellent job echoing her themes of violence against women, killer instinct, family, and justice throughout too.

I loved it, and am really looking forward to the promised TV drama!

A Serial Killer's Guide to Marriage is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Wildfire for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Asia studied Anthropology at Durham University, and began her career in television. She moved to China, presented and produced lifestyle programmes in Shanghai before returning to London where she worked with the likes of Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, and subsequently completed a Faber Academy course.

Her debut novel Killing It was the First Runner Up in Richard and Judy's Search for a Bestseller competition and First Runner Up for the Comedy Women In Print prize. 

sia lives in London with her husband, four young children and two dogs - she never succeeds in calling any of them by the right name. She is always very very tired.

Dark Days (Apocalypse Z Book Two) by Manel Loureiro

 

Dark Days (Apocalypse Z Book Two by Manel Loureiro.

Released 8th October 2013 by Brilliance Audio.

Translated by Pamela Carmel.

Narrated by Nick Podehl.

7 hours and 41 minutes listening time.

From the cover:

As the dead prey on the living…

The end of the world has come not with a bang or a whimper, but with the guttural snarl of walking corpses hungry for human flesh. The "lucky" survivors flee an unstoppable virus spreading death and societal collapse across the globe.

The living prey on one another….

As the rules of civilization crumble, a lawyer, a pilot, and a nurse become comrades-in-arms in the fight against extinction. But not every enemy wears a rotting face, and anyone who doesn’t have your back just might have your head. Humankind’s twilight is at hand, and these are indeed...dark days.

***********

Our little band of survivors - the unnamed lawyer, the Ukrainian pilot Prit, seventeen-year-old Lucia, the nun Sister Cecelia, and Lucullus the cat - have managed to escaped from northern Spain, in a salvaged helicopter, after numerous unpleasant incidents battling the tide of zombies produced by the unstoppable pandemic unleashed upon the world.

But their quest to find refuge in the Canary Islands drops them right into the centre of a situation much more complex than expected. After an eventful quarantine period, they are confronted with the truth that life here is not going to be easy - resources are growing scarce, and political unrest constantly threatens to break out into open civil war. But at least they are safe from the undead... or are they?

The lawyer and Prit find themselves reluctantly heading back to Spain as part of a military operation to gather medicines in Madrid, while the others remain in Tenerife to facing problems of their own...

Dark Days picks up the story of the unnamed lawyer and his little band of friends almost seamlessly from the ending of book one, The Beginning of the End. They hoped to find refuge in the Canary Islands, but sanctuary brings with it a whole host of new challenges they had not anticipated.

The story unfurls mostly from the gripping journal entries of the lawyer from Pontevedra, as before, but in a twist on the format there are supplementary narratives from the point of view of Lucia (now in a relationship with the lawyer, despite an age-gap that is a little uncomfortable), as well as from a corrupt guard with a grudge. Loureiro also spices things up with a rather unsettling glimpse into the thought processes of the undead. The addition of a concise summary at the beginning of the book gives a welcome over-view of the rise of the undead and fall of civilisation too, and this is backed up by more detail about the infected as the story develops.

I must admit, I did miss the intensity of a single narrative that keeps you constantly on the edge-of-your-seat, however, the way the story diverges does mean you need more than one perspective to keep you on top of everything going on in parallel in Tenerife and in Madrid - and to get into the nitty gritty of the themes the story throws up in terms of survival in the longer term.  

While I do not think this is quite as fresh and compelling as book one, Nick Podehl's narration is just as enjoyable, as is the translation by Pamela Carmel. The flow of the story is more fragmented, given the split narrative, but there is more than enough action and excitement to keep you invested, especially once the lawyer and Prit are back in the thick of their battles with the undead at the same time as things take a menacing turn for Lucia in Tenerife. And there is a jaw-dropping cliff-hanger that draws you into the final part of the trilogy, The Wrath of the Just. Onwards to book three I go to discover the fate that awaits these characters... and the world.

Dark Days is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. Ebook and audio currently included with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

About the author:

An international bestselling author, Manel Loureiro was born in Pontevedra, Spain, and studied law at Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. After graduation, he worked in television, both on-screen (appearing on Television de Galicia) and behind-the-scenes as a writer. Apocalypse Z, his first novel, began as a popular blog before its publication, eventually becoming a bestseller in several countries, including Spain, Italy, and Brazil. Manel has written three novels in the Apocalypse Z series. He currently resides in Pontevedra, Spain, where, in addition to writing, he is still a practicing lawyer.

Into Thin Air (The Arctic Mysteries Book One) by Ørjan Karlsson

 

Into Thin Air (The Arctic Mysteries Book One) by Ørjan Karlsson

Translated by Ian Giles.

Published 16th January 2025 by Orenda Books.

From the cover of the book:

In Norway’s frozen north, it’s not just secrets that are buried…

When nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen disappears during a run in a popular hiking area in Bodø, Northern Norway, suspicion quickly falls on her boyfriend. For investigator Jakob Weber, the case seems clear-cut, almost unexceptional, even though there is some suggestion that Iselin lived parts of her life beneath the radar of both family and friends.

But events take a dramatic turn when another woman disappears in similar circumstances – this time on the island of Røst, miles off the Norwegian coast, in the wild ocean.

Rumours that a killer is on the loose begin to spread, terrifying the local population and leading to wild conspiracies. But then Jakob discovers that this isn’t the first time that young women have vanished without a trace in the region, and it becomes clear that someone is hiding something … and another murderous spree may have just begun…

***********

In Bodø, Norland, veteran detective Jakob Weber is struggling to process the overwhelming sense of loss he feels at the death of his wife. In many ways he is refusing to accept that change is inevitable, but his work life gets a shake up when young Noora Yun Sande transfers from Kripos in Oslo, to replace his, now retired, partner. They have little time to get to know each other before they are thrown into a complex investigation. 

Nineteen-year-old Iselin Hanssen goes missing while hiking in the wilds around Bodø. Suspicion falls in her boyfriend, son of a local big-wig, but Jakob and Noora's investigation is thrown into disarray when the body of another young woman goes missing on the island of Røst, miles off the Norwegian coast... and then there is the cold case that Jakob has been preoccupied with. Is there a serial killer at work in Norway's frozen north?

It is always a delight to be there at the beginning of a new series, and the partnership forged between this tight team of characters indicates great promise for a a series that has real legs too!

The story unfolds through several perspectives: primarily Jakob, Noora and the small team in Bodø as they go about their investigation, supplemented by narratives from the missing Iselin, and a number of characters whose points of view in the menacing proceedings drive the action forward. There is a lot of darkness here, of the most unsettling kind, focusing on violence towards women, which provides solid Nordic noir grit, and Karlsson uses the Norland location to absolute perfection when it comes to upping the chill factor - especially by playing with weather, landscape, and the eerie atmosphere of the midnight sun. 

Ian Giles' translation flows beautifully, making Karlsson's plot into one which keeps you hanging breathlessly on the twists and turns of the story, and the characterisation is a joy. I loved the developing relationship between Jakob and Noora, and the way their own emotional turmoil reveals itself. The police procedural and personal stories weave together so well, incorporating some lovely themes too - particularly when it comes to the legacy of controlling, and abusive relationships. And as for Jakob's subtle flirtation with the press... so good!

This is a first instalment that whets your appetite, with threads hanging to hook you into book two, and I can see these characters becoming fixtures in my life. If you like the way Jorn Lier Horst spins his Norwegian magic then this will definitely be for you. More please! 

Into Thin Air is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. You can support indie publishing by buying direct from Orenda Books HERE.

About the author:

Ørjan N. Karlsson grew up in Bodø. A sociologist by trade, he received officer training in the army and has taken part in overseas missions. He has worked in the Defence Ministry and is now a departmental manager in the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection. 

He has written a large number of thrillers, sci-fi novels and crime novels for adults.

About the translator:

Ian Giles has a PhD in Scandinavian literature from the University of Edinburgh. Past translations include novels by crime and thriller luminaries such as Arne Dahl, Carin Gerhardsen, Michael Katz Krefeld, David Lagercrantz, Camilla Läckberg and Gustaf Skördeman. His translation of Andreas Norman’s Into a Raging Blaze was shortlisted for the 2015 CWA International Dagger.

 

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

 

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave.

Published 2nd January 2025 by Century.

From the cover of the book:

One beautiful Californian evening, a wealthy businessman falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top house onto the rocks below.

A tragic accident? Or murder?

Nora and her half-brother Sam suspect it may be the latter, and team up to uncover the truth of what really happened that night.

But their relationship has never been easy, and it is about to be tested to the limit as they start to question how well either of them really knew their elusive father.

Unravelling his mysterious past takes them back to a world they knew nothing about, to a tangled love affair and a web of relationships that other people would far rather stay buried...

Filled with passion, intrigue, lies, and dark, dark family secrets, The Night We Lost Him is a page turning mystery you won’t ever want to put down.

***********

When wealthy businessman, Liam Noone, falls to his death from his secluded cliff-top home in California, his demise is ruled to be accidental by the police. However, his son Sam thinks his father was not alone that night and suspects foul play. He contacts his half-sister, architect Nora, confiding his concerns and co-opts her into his quest to discover exactly what happened to their father.

Liam has always kept different parts of his life compartmentalised, including the offspring from his multiple marriages. Nora and Sam barely know each other and their relationship is not easy, which makes Nora reluctant to get involved. However, once they begin to delve into the circumstances of their father's death, secrets about his personal and professional lives begin to emerge. Nora is soon convinced that Sam might be right.

The story unravels in two compelling timelines, following on from an intriguing prologue that hints at murder. The first is from the point of view of Nora, following the course of her and Sam's quest for the truth, and the details of her own romantic dilemmas; and the second gives a glimpse into the history of their father's hidden relationship, from the moment he and his mysterious lover meet during their college days, until shortly before his death.

Pretty quickly it becomes clear that this is going to be more than your average murder-mystery, as Dave manages to combine a page-turning thriller with oodles of lovely storylines around the complicated relationships in the Noone family, and there is a lot of family baggage to be worked through alongside the nicely wrought mystery elements. It is a combination that works strikingly well, with all the little meanderings in the personal relationships adding welcome character development, and emotional texture, to the suspenseful plot. 

Dave knows how to keep you guessing, with clever misdirection throughout the story that has you looking at practically everyone with a suspicious eye. She divulges the truth ever so gradually via both timelines, dropping her reveals with perfect timing. She packs the book with delicious themes too that weave in threads of dysfunctional families, messy romantic relationships, sibling rivalry, driving ambition, expectation, loss, and enduring love that resound through every part of the book. I also really enjoyed the echoing theme of houses/design/the built environment, and what makes a home.

This book completely hooked me. Dave's writing glides engagingly across the page, and I could not rest until I had followed every single twist and turn on the way to the very satisfying ending. What a cracker!

The Night We Lost Him is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Century for sending me a proof copy of this book in return for an honest review.

About the author:

Laura Dave is the global number one bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me, Eight Hundred Grapes and other novels. Her work has been published in thirty-eight countries.

The Last Thing He Told Me is soon to be a limited series for Apple TV+.

She resides in Santa Monica.

The Beginning Of The End (Apocalypse Z Book One) by Manel Loureiro

 

The Beginning Of The End (Apocalypse Z Book One) by Manel Loureiro.

Released 10th November 2012 by Brilliance Audio.

Translated by Pamela Carmel.

Narrated by Nick Podehl.

11 hours and 30 minutes listening time.

From the cover:

The dead rise…

A mysterious incident in Russia, a blip buried in the news - it’s the only warning humanity receives that civilization will soon be destroyed by a single, voracious virus that creates monsters of men.

Humanity falls…

A lawyer, still grieving over the death of his young wife, begins to write as a form of therapy. But he never expected that his anonymous blog and journal would ultimately record humanity’s last days.

The end of the world has begun…

Governments scramble to stop the zombie virus, people panic, so-called Safe Havens are established, the world erupts into chaos; soon it’s every man, woman, and child for themselves. Armed only with makeshift weapons and the will to live, this survivor will give mankind one last chance against…Apocalypse Z.

***********

A mysterious incident in Russia unleashes a deadly virus on the planet. At first news is sketchy, clouded by the desire for governments to keep the truth from causing wide-spread panic. However, in a matter of weeks, it becomes apparent that this pandemic is not only unstoppable, but is rapidly turning people into a frenzied army of the undead with one singular purpose - to infect the rest of humanity.

A young lawyer, living quietly in the north of Spain with his Persian cat, Lucullus, is battling with overwhelming grief after the death of his wife. Trying to make sense of what is happening in the world, he begins an on-line blog, which turns into a journal, charting his battle to survive - in the company of his beloved cat.

In a twist on the apocalypse tale, this is told entirely through the blog/journal entries of the unnamed lawyer protagonist, which makes it perfect to experience as an audio book - particularly given the absolutely brilliant narration by Nick Podehl, which brings such an intensity to the material.

As civilisation falls apart around him, the diary entries of the lawyer take you from the early days of uncertainty as he tries to piece together information, and misinformation, about what the mysterious events in Russia mean for the world as he knows it, all the way through his perilous adventures in the company of his cat, Lucullus - who is quite a character in his own right.  I think it is true to say that given our experience of the last few years, any pandemic tale now brings with it an added dimension of palpable fear, and even though this was written well before Covid-19, parts of this novel feel unsettlingly real.

The fear of spoilers prevents me from revealing too much about what happens, but suffice to say there are plenty of gruesome encounters with undead in various stages of bodily dismemberment, and it is not looking good for the survival of the species as the months go by, nor is it easy to tell if the desperate, dwindling remnants of the uninfected are going to be your friends or your enemies.

Curiously, for all the nightmarish content that comes with any story of this kind, this is not your average zombie tale. Seeing events through the traumatised eyes of the lawyer adds an emotional texture that is lacking in the more gung-ho apocalypse stories. I really enjoyed that he is an ordinary guy that has to find novel ways to stay alive, and protect his furry friend, and his reflections upon the fate of family, friends, and the future of humanity are very poignant. The Spanish setting is incredibly fresh and exciting too, as it makes a nice departure from the well-worn backdrop of North America (it is great if you know the area around Vigo, as it is the focus of the action). 

This kept me gripped all the way through, and the translation by Pamela Carmel flows well from one heart-pounding scene to the next. Having seen the movie adaptation recently, I was looking forward to finding out how different the original book was. Not surprisingly, the book is better on every level, but the movie does a good job of maintaining the feel and direction of this first part of the trilogy, so I recommend a watch if you have not seen it (then read the book, or listen to the gripping audio).

This was so good that I am moving straight on to book two, Dark Days. I cannot wait to find out what happens next!

The Beginning of the End is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats. Ebook and audio currently included with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.

About the author:

An international bestselling author, Manel Loureiro was born in Pontevedra, Spain, and studied law at Universidad de Santiago de Compostela. After graduation, he worked in television, both on-screen (appearing on Television de Galicia) and behind-the-scenes as a writer. Apocalypse Z, his first novel, began as a popular blog before its publication, eventually becoming a bestseller in several countries, including Spain, Italy, and Brazil. Manel has written three novels in the Apocalypse Z series. He currently resides in Pontevedra, Spain, where, in addition to writing, he is still a practicing lawyer.

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (Read Christie 2025)

 

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie.

This edition published 22nd June 2023 by Harper Collins.

Originally published in 1942.

From the cover of the book:

Beautiful Caroline Crale was convicted of poisoning her husband, yet there were five other suspects: Philip Blake (the stockbroker) who went to market; Meredith Blake (the amateur herbalist) who stayed at home; Elsa Greer (the three-time divorcee) who had roast beef; Cecilia Williams (the devoted governess) who had none; and Angela Warren (the disfigured sister) who cried ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home.

It is sixteen years later, but Hercule Poirot just can’t get that nursery rhyme out of his mind…

***********

When beautiful Caroline Crail was convicted of killing her husband, Amyas, sixteen years ago, it seemed an open and shut case. At the time, everyone believed her guilty of poisoning her famous artist husband in a fit of jealousy, over his affair with young heiress Elsa Greer, who was modelling for him. Caroline's claim that Amyas had committed suicide was never treated with credibility, and she did not offer any other defence.

Years later, Caroline and Amyas' daughter Carla comes of age and learns the full story of her family history. Although she remembers little of the tragic events themselves, a letter left for her by her late mother calls the verdict into question. Carla is compelled to discover the truth. She consults Hercule Poirot, asking him to look into the case, and he sets his little grey cells to work.

After quizzing the legal team and police involved with the Crail case, Poirot discovers that there were five other potential suspects present when Amyas died. Something about these five suspects calls to mind the nursery rhyme about little pigs to our famous Belgian, as they fit into the porcine roles of the song rather well - Amyas' best friend Philip Blake, the stockbroker, is the pig who went to market; Philip's brother Meredith, a dabbler in herbal potions, is the pig who stayed at home; Elsa Greer, the now three times divorced ex-lover of Amyas, is the pig who ate roast beef; Cecilia Williams the governess of Caroline's half-sister Angela, is the pig who had none; and finally, Angela (who was disfigured as a child by Caroline) is the little pig who cried' wee wee wee' all the way home.

Given the length of time that has passed, Poirot knows this is going to be all about the 'psychologies'. He gathers the information he needs by interviewing each of the five alternative suspects, and asks them to write an account about what they remember about the events surrounding Amyas' death. To Carla, these narratives reveal frustratingly little, but to Poirot they reveal all...

Five Little Pigs is one of my favourite Poirot mysteries. His little grey cells are tested by an investigation in which he has to feel his way entirely in retrospect, by taking note of the emotional responses of the people present at the time of the murder, and sifting through their contradictory accounts. Poirot pulls off a blinder by picking out the inconsistencies in their testimonies to put the pieces of the puzzle together in quite a different way to the one that has been accepted as the truth.

The pace is deliciously slow-burn, and everything comes together in a classic gathering of the suspects when Poirot reveals all in his characteristically round-about way, casting the red herrings aside, and finally pointing the finger at the real murderer of Amyas Crail. Voila!

This is a superbly constructed Christie murder mystery in which betrayal and guilt play central roles. Every time I read it I am in awe of her genius as a storyteller, and this is also one of her books that explores a wealth of intriguing themes. She delves beautifully into the perceived differences between the male and female characters, especially in terms of how experience, age, and class affect behaviour. But, best of all, she examines temperament with such insight, particularly when it comes to the reckless and hurtful actions that are excused by those deemed to be great artists.

What a brilliant choice to kick off #ReadChristie2025, with its inspired theme of Characters and Careers, as it fits the first brief of 'Artists' to perfection!

I revisited this gem via the audio book, narrated by my favourite Hugh Fraser.

Five Little Pigs is available to buy now in multiple formats. 

About the author:

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.