Rush of Blood by Mark Billingham

Billingham plots like a mad scientist, It's like driving down a long and curvy road with 1000m drops at either side. and wearing a blindfold at the same time.

Three British couples are on holiday when a young girl at their holiday destination goes missing. At first the enquiries are just routine and then as the net is drawn closer the reader realises that one of the six of them must be the guilty party.

The six of them start meeting up when they return to the UK in an attempt to cultivate their blossoming friendships. Of course the reality is that holiday friendships and romances are usually best left where they started in the first place.

As the story unfolds the reader is introduced to the possible suspects and their supposed alibis, whilst a zealous UK police officer uses the disappearance to make a name for herself. The US police are reluctant to listen to her extensive research until there is an update on the missing girl.

I really liked the way Billingham plays with the stereotypical assumptions and presumptions of his readers. I include mine in that statement. I wouldn't be surprised if most readers thought the same thing during the process of elimination. Let's just say, the conclusion was quite the revelation.

Buy Rush of Blood at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @MarkBillingham or visit markbillingham.com

The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan

This book sort of reads a wee bit like a TV series (home-front setting), with the reader discovering a little bit more about each character each week. It is a comfortable read, despite all the drama.

The trials and tribulations of the choir members become inconsequential when they get together and sing for Britain.

Singing for Britain might seem like an exaggeration, however in times of war when the country is fighting to survive it probably feels as if they are.

There are a lot of different character story-lines connected via the occasional sing-song. The choir becomes the busy traffic junction for all the members. It is something consistent during a time of fear, worry and turbulence.

I think the author should have emphasized the choir more and the moments of pure harmony between the singers. Those few minutes of joy and happiness struggle to stay afloat in the sheer volume of sub-plots. It was a little disjointed, perhaps because it needed more focus on one boat in a sea of ships.

Buy The Chilbury Ladies' Choir at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @JenniferiRyan  or @HarperCollinsUK on Twitter.

Written in Bones by James Oswald

I still think you shouldn't rule out dragons completely. I'm with the smart kid, if it looks like a dragon-kill it probably is one. Just Saying.

Aside from the possible involvement of fiery scaled flying creatures, the story offers an interesting mixture of crime and something with an undertone of the occult.

Oswald has a tongue in cheek humour, the kind of humour that makes you smirk as you read. It's very subtle and it doesn't disturb the serious intent of the plot.

The opening scene is an excellent example of what the author is capable of. You can almost hear the blood dripping and smell the fear. It is an unusual and very violent crime.

There is a strange undercurrent of something evil and supernatural woven into the fabric of what appears to be the culmination of an internal feud between criminals. The author toys with the unexplained element in a way that makes the reader think it could possibly just be an exaggeration by the main character.

Is it his imagination or stress induced hallucinations? Then again if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it probably is some kind of duck.

Hopefully McLean will encounter his nemesis in the next book and the strange entity will be explored a wee it more.

Buy Written in Bones at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

The Spider Network by David Enrich

Enrich has collaborated with and interviewed Tom Hayes quite extensively for this book. So it's not surprising that the book is slightly slanted in his favour, especially when it comes to the mitigating circumstances for his actions.

Readers should note that Hayes launched an appeal against his conviction in January 2017, and his defence is built on the grounds that he believes he did not have a fair trial. In his previous trial the judge wouldn't allow his Asperger's diagnosis to be taken into account or presented. His expert witness argues that the Asperger's syndrome would explain his inability to see his conduct as dishonest or that others could perceive his conduct to be dishonest.

It is also worth noting that Hayes wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's until before his trial, so it kind of begs the question whether this is just a convenient excuse and/or basis for his diminished capacity of guilt.

Of course the other side of the coin is the fact that Hayes, his colleagues and indeed the entire financial industry functioned and worked in an environment with little or no restrictions or repercussions. Most of the dealings we now consider to be criminal were not considered to be so at the time they began using them. A perfect example of this is insider trading, which was once, not many decades ago. considered to be normal wink wink nudge nudge dealing between traders and brokers.

I think the Spider Network is an inside window into the world of big finance and the insidious nature of those at the top. The Libor rate is an easily manipulated money sucking scam created by rather greedy, but extremely clever men with masses of hypothetical money at their fingertips and no thought to the lives they might, and certainly did, destroy.

It has been noted that there are plenty of sociopaths in the world of big business and finance. They are capable of making ruthless decisions without being hindered by empathy and compassion. They don't consider the moral implications or the little man at the bottom of the pyramid.

Whilst the story of who, how and what is fascinating it also important to remember all the people who have fallen prey to the Libor rate game of derivatives.

On a side note I would like to add that despite Enrich giving the reader an inkling of who Hayes was and is, especially in regards to his ASD and possible vulnerabilities, the picture isn't complete. The complexity of the case against him and why he is appealing isn't delved into as minutely. Enrich does leave one with food for thought though, especially if you think out of the box. Was Hayes really the spinning spider or just part of the silky web, which was considered disposable?

Buy The Spider Network at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Blog-Tour: Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski

I am especially excited to take part in the Blog-Tour for Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski today. It is an innovative read you won't want to miss. Aside from my review, I also have a great guest post, My Writing Day by Matt Wesolowski, to share with you.

About the Author
Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor and leads Cuckoo Young Writers creative writing workshops for young people in association with New Writing North. Matt started his writing career in horror and his short horror fiction has been published in Ethereal Tales magazine, Midnight Movie Creature Feature anthology, 22 More Quick Shivers anthology and many more. His debut novella The Black Land, a horror set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013 and a new novella set in the forests of Sweden will be available shortly. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. He is currently working on his second crime novel Ashes, which involves black metal and Icelandic sorcery.

Follow @ConcreteKraken or @Orendabooks on Facebook or visit him at mjwesolowskiauthor.wordpress.com
Buy Six Stories here

About the book
One death. Six stories. Which one is true?
1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.
2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame … As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth. A chilling, unpredictable and startling thriller, Six Stories is also a classic murder mystery with a modern twist, and a devastating ending.

Guest post by Matt Wesolowski

My Writing Day
To the disbelief (and jealousy of my writing peers) there was once a time in my life when my writing day looked like this:
Up at 7.30 - 5k run, listening to an audio book.
8.30 Breakfast, hang with the family.
9am -2pm  - uninterrupted, glorious writing, lunch interspersed with cups of green tea.
2pm - 5pm - sit in the conservatory with a mug of more green tea and disappear into a book.
Yes, this was genuinely my writing day, albeit for just under a year. And so much got done! Two novels, blog posts and a load of short fiction.
Then life got in the way. Change of family circumstance, job, move of house, move of job. The structure of the bygone era is now a glorious and ancient memory.
My day job's hours are sporadic and are in a constant state of flux. I live alone now and have food to make, a cat and child to maintain as well as my own constant cleaning compulsions.
An idyll of a full writing and reading day is a luxury. Unless you are in the position to write full-time, then it's mostly unrealistic. I sincerely believe that when you want to write, if you really want to write, you have to make time. I often wonder why so many people say they 'don't have time' to read but can sit, staring at social media on a phone for hours.
Writing is like any job, if you want to be any good at it, you have to do lots of it and you have to do it even on the days you don't want to. For me, some days are plain sailing on a sunny sea of fiction and some days (more often) are quite simply not.
I often liken writing to sawing through wood. There are easy bits where the teeth of the saw glide through and there are knots, great big tough twists of dead branch where the saw won't catch, let alone cut.
Personally, I work to a realistic daily word count. If I have a significant part of the day without work then I aim for 2000 words. Sometimes it's 2000 words of rubbish, but hey, we all have bad days at work. For me, the most important thing is to get something done, to keep my mind used to writing, at least something every day.
So now, a typical day looks like this:
7am - feed the cat, get my son ready for school, make breakfast, school run.
9am - A combination of: cleaning/cooking/writing/reading/working.
3pm - School run, hang out with the boy, eat tea together, do homework, play Lego.
8pm - Writing or kickboxing.
10pm - Reading.
11pm Sleep.
Of course there are variations, as a single parent, I only have my son for half the week so there is more time when he's not here but a lot of that time is spent on the week's cooking and cleaning, making sure when he is here, that I am available.
Then there's that thing where you see your friends and loved ones and do social stuff. Yeah, that sometimes happens too!
Above all, the drive to write inside me never diminishes, I can't even sit in front of the television without a notebook and a pen to hand; I listen to an audio book whilst cleaning and true crime podcasts while I'm cooking.
 But that's just me, I'm not any better or worse than anyone else and everyone does things their own way. I think if you have a dream, you cannot sit back and wait for it to land in your lap, you have to chase it until you feel your own blood squelching in your

Review
The story is set-up as a series of podcasts by someone who investigates cold cases. The reader experiences the podcasts via written transcripts of interviews with the suspects. The cold case in question is the disappearance of teenager Tom Jeffries, and the subsequent discovery of his body a year later. Nearly all the suspects were also teenagers at the time the crime took place.

It might sound a little cold or clinical for a fictional book setting, however that couldn't be further from the truth. One of the aspects of the story is the way the podcast listeners are captivated by the intrigue, mystery and gruesome details of the cold case. The followers play an integral part in the story, despite being an anonymous and unseen entity.

It seems more than likely that the teens involved in the case, who were also the last ones to see and interact with Tom, are also the people with the answers to all the questions. Is one of them lying? Did one of them inadvertently see more than they think they saw?

During the interviews the reader hears about the secrets, the fights and all of those tiny details the police never uncovered. The kind of details that would have led them straight to the killer.

Twenty years after the murder none of the people involved want to muddy the waters, get anyone in trouble or possibly reveal themselves as a culprit.

Although I figured out the who and the twist I have to admit I didn't see the why coming. It is a really well-thought out crime. The author explores the complexities of social interactions and hierarchy issues between teenagers, and the implications for individuals in group situations.

Six Stories is an innovative, captivating and creative read. Wesolowski channels new technology and important social issues of our time, whilst integrating a nefarious crime into the mix. I think we'll be hearing a lot more from this particular author in the years to come.

Buy Six Stories at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney

I like the lead-in to the book. It's catchy, it makes you wonder and more importantly it makes you want to read beyond the memorable intro. However the book should have probably simply been called Malevolence. Why? Because it packs a heavy punch of malice.

There is just so much to talk about when it comes to reviewing this book. I want to give it the attention it deserves without giving away all the twists and turns. I will try to just focus on the parts that left the strongest impression on me.

One of those has got to be the living dead aspect of being in a coma. Just imagine being able to hear and feel everything around and yet being completely unable to open your eyes, move, speak or react at all. Leaving you vulnerable, panicked and scared.

What a horror scenario, a complete lack of control, whilst being aware of everything the entire time. On top of that Amber can't remember how she ended up in hospital. She remembers pieces and fragments, enough to confuse her and make her frightened. At this point in time she doesn't know who to trust, because this wasn't just an accident or was it?

The author takes us in and out of the past and present. It's a constant spiral of childhood flashbacks, recent memories and interactions in the present. When I say interactions, what I mean is Amber hears and everyone else interacts around her, over her and with her physical body.

Amber suffers from OCD, anxiety and a general mistrust of the people around her. She finds it hard to fit in and make friends. She does however have a really strong sense of survival, sometimes to the detriment of others. She believes her sister is  a wee bit too flirty with her husband and in turn her husband seems very comfortable with Claire, then again it could just be her over-active imagination.

I could go on and on about the superb twists in the plot and about who the real culprit is, but the truth is there is no black or white answer. Where one thread of guilt, anger and fear ends another one connects immediately, which is why the reader is left in a constant state of uncertainty.

Feeney writes a wicked tale and I hope this is the first of many to come. It is enthralling, rancorous and controversial. Why is it controversial? Read it and find out.

Buy Sometimes I Lie at Amazon UK or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.

Follow @alicewriterland @HQStories on Twitter, Facebook: AliceFeeneyAuthor/  or visit  alicefeeney.com

The Awakening by Amanda Stevens

The Graveyard Queen series by Amanda Stevens hasn't really garnered the attention it deserves over the years. I think her books sail a little under the radar.

It is a solid paranormal urban fantasy series. Stevens delivers strong characters and an interesting plot.

Amelia seems a little more susceptible to the ghosts and the evil spirits this time. Her heartbreak might be weakening her high wall of protection. She also appears to be more afraid in general. Her tough exterior is crumbling slowly like a wall of sand.

She is haunted by a young ghost and the signs of impending doom. Someone close to her is in danger, someone is going to die.

I do think The Awakening is one of the weaker books of the series. Perhaps weak is the wrong word. Hmm, the author, or rather Amelia, does a lot of contemplating in this book, so it's a slower and less eventful, as opposed to the usual action packed read.

It's unfortunately the last in the series, which might explain the nostalgic air about it. I wasn't ready to say goodbye, which is probably the real reason I found this slightly underwhelming. It just feels a little premature, but I can understand wanting to end on a high note.

I would recommend reading from the start of the series to get the full flavour and the complete back-story, although this can be read as a standalone novel.

Buy The Awakening at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer.