Don’t be fooled by the title or the cover. This is not one of those spicy Fifty Shades of Grey type books. It’s a psychological thriller that explores the alternative sex scene through the eyes of a, as the book describes her, very vanilla woman.
Sarah is a middle aged teacher, married with son in university.
Who, whilst she is away with her husband, she receives the shocking news that Simon, her twin brother, has died suddenly.
She knew Simon had been struggling. Recently divorced he had gambling issues and had spent a lot of money in online chat rooms.
What she wasn’t prepared for was the apparent dive her brother had taken in to in the Brighton BDSM scene.
A lot of his antics are alluded to without going into gratuitous detail.
The other surprise is that he had changed his Will to leave everything to his dominatrix Angel.
The book describes Sarah’s journey of discovery whilst carrying out her role of executor of the Will.
Discovering the depths of his drug use, his gambling addiction and his use of Dominatrixes.
She finds that Angel was actually trying to help Simon by taking control of his finances, a fact that totally throws her off guard, as does the friendship she develops with her
Ultimately she just wants to find the truth about her brother, finish off her role as executor, and scatter his ashes.
What she actually does is find herself being pulled into the world he occupied. Becoming obsessed in her commitment to her brother she finds herself losing friends and family.
Where will the descent end, and will she succumb to some of the temptations that come her way.
For me this was a good quick read. The was no need to think too deeply about the plot. Thankfully it wasn’t one of those books that had me going to Google every few chapters. It was the very definition of bubblegum for the brain. A nice distraction.
Pages: 322. Publisher: Broodlero. Available on Kindle Unlimited
Before I start on the content of the book I’ve just got to comment on the quality of it.
It’s been a while since I held a book that was so aesthetically pleasing, and made of such good quality materials.
The paper quality is really nice, the text is printed in a lovely format, and the two sections of pictures are plentiful and have quality images.
I don’t think I’d realised how badly presented books have become until I picked up this quality product.
So what about the content.
I’ve been a fan of Nigel Owens for years, since well before his one liners and comeback responses started to go viral.
This is a second autobiography by Nigel, Halftime being the first. This book pretty much starts at the darkest time in his life. It’s no secret that he had attempted suicide, and that he’d been very nearly successful. In this book he lays out how he got to that point.
He also details the struggles he had with coming out. Announcing to the world that you are gay can be tough at any time, but within the world of professional sport, particularly one seen to be so alpha male macho, it must have been terrifying.
The reaction from the general population, and in particular the rugby fraternity was fantastic, apart from the odd moron.
The descriptions of some of the memorable moments in his career are an absolute must read for any sports fans.
It’s a measure of the man that he speaks as fondly of refereeing matches in his local Llanelli and District League, as much as he does of refereeing massive internationals between the top countries in the world.
His progress through officiating rugby games sees him taking charge of the World Cup Final in 2015 between New Zealand and Australia. The man with the best seat in the house gives a great account of this, and many other games, most rugby fans would have dreamed to have been in the crowd for.
His self analysis is humbling. Where many would have considered they had done a great job Nigel looks at the one or two decisions he, and his team of officials got wrong.
He’s at pains to point out that the one referee we see is not alone in running the game, touch judges, fourth officials and the TMO, all get credit, and the occasional tongue in cheek jibe. Step forward Wayne Barnes.
He talks about the isolation of the officiating teams during world cups, the elimination of the referees, not always being put down to their performance, but also the success of their home nation. A referee can’t officiate in a game in which their own country play, but also, and as a direct result of a championship he refereed in, they can’t officiate in a game that could have an influence on their home teams progression.
Imagine being the best in the world at what you do, but never been able to reach the pinnacle of your profession because you come from country that keeps getting to the World Cup final. I’m tempted here to say thank god Nigel Owens is Welsh, but as my wife is from Llanelli I might let that slide.
Perhaps the hardest thing to do when you enjoy the job you do, especially when you do it so well, is to know when to quit.
Nigel covers this in the later chapters of the book. A decision that was so nearly taken out of his hands. I recently heard another sportsman say that people at the top of their game are the first to know when they are losing that edge, that extra yard of speed, that extra ounce of strength, but they are the last to admit it.
Nigel seems to be the opposite to this. Towards the end of his career he was slowing down, even though he was in great physical shape. The trouble was rugby was changing, and even the pack were now, in the majority, becoming racing snakes built like brick outhouses.
He didn’t step back and think he couldn’t keep up. He sought help and changed the way he reffed the game. Took up different positions on the pitch, and extended his reign as one of, if not the top Rugby Union Referees right up till the end.
What did he do when he retired, not only is he running a farm with his partner, he has a media presence, and why not he has a great personality.
But the things he mentions right at the end of the book, almost as a few throwaway comments, about how he is helping the next generation of Welsh Rugby Officials will guarantee his legacy.
And whilst the rest of the WRU seems to be in disarray at least we will know the the future of the officiating is in good hands.
Max Boyce used to sing about the The Outside Half Factory buried in the Valleys of West Wales. With Nigel Owens on the production line I’m sure it’s about to reopen producing the men and women in the middle, giving us great match officials who can run a game with a smile on their faces whilst commanding full respect from the players and fans alike.
A brilliant read
My wife got me this book for Christmas and Nigel had put an inscription inside the cover.
It will take pride of place amongst my growing collection of books with inscriptions.
Adverts for this book kept appearing on my timelines, and after reading the gumph, and some reviews on Amazon I decided to give it a go.
I wasn’t disappointed, at first.
I read on a kindle so page numbers don’t really mean anything but at 85% into the book things started to go rapidly downhill.
The pretext of the book is that a woman, Hannah Herbst, has confessed to killing her family; her husband and their son, and her step daughter.
She is a consultant that works for the Police examining facial expressions and reading lie tells.
The problem is she cannot look at her own face in the mirror, scared of what she might see in her own personality.
It is a real problem when she wakes up with short term memory loss having suffered a self inflicted knife injury following the attack.
She’s been arrested and has made a full confession, on video.
The man showing her the video of her confession is also a serial killer, and he has taken Hannah hostage when he escaped.
All this might sound very confusing but it’s actually the backdrop to a really good story, up until that last 15% of the book.
It becomes evident quite early on that Hannah probably didn’t carry out the attack that left her husband and step daughter dead and her son missing presumed taken and killed.
But that last 15% basically shifts through every character named in the book being identified as the killer only for each hypothesis to be wiped out by the next.
Each is more fanciful than the previous and as a reader I was left giddy by the amount of twist and turns the last few chapters took.
I don’t do star rating but if I did, the first 85% would be a 5 star rating, the last 15% a generous two star.
There’s a picture on the cover of this book. Three men, with their backs to the viewer, standing on an open road with an arm, extending towards them from a car, a hand holding a white envelope.
The three men are instantly recognisable, even though the picture is a simplistic watercolour with no facial features.
As recognisable as the men is the identity of the TV series that they starred in.
I struggle to think of any other TV trio, or TV series that could be so simplistically represented, yet so easily recognised.
The majority of people who will make the connection will be middle aged men, there will also be many younger men and women who know exactly what the contents of this book is going to look at without reading the dust jacket, and anybody who does will want to read this account of Jeremy, Richard, and James and their time on Top Gear and Grand Tour, as told by a man that was with them through it all. Thick and thin.
Andy Wilman was a school friend of Jeremy’s, at a private school that was on its last legs. Neither were what you might call part of the popular gang. Each had their own uniqueness that set them apart. But they became firm friends.
There is no doubt that Wilmans career was guided, if not pulled along by Clarkson. So when Top Gear was shelved in the early 2000’s it was no surprise that Clarkson turned to Wilman to help get it back on its feet, even if he had little or no experience as a TV producer. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2002 the Clarkson and Hammond era started, May joined in the second series of the reconstituted of Top Gear.
The book covers how Wilman and Clarkson planned the formula of the new version of Top Gear over a pint in a London pub, a recurring theme throughout.
How they decided, after very nearly turning him away, that Richard Hammond should be one of the presenters. Why they decided to replace the original third presenter, Jason Dawe with James May in the second series, the decision that led to the formulation of the trio that remained together for two decades.
It’s recounts the ideas that led to the birth of the Stig, and the reasons why the Stigs character was changed, including how and why Ben Collins fell out with the production team.
It looks at the way all of the favourite sections of the programs were initially thought up, often by accident, or happy coincidence.
Talking of accidents it gives a producers view of both of Hammonds big crashes, the rocket car that nearly killed him, and rolling a performance car down a Swiss Hill, which also nearly finished him off.
James May’s crash in a Scandinavian tunnel is also covered, and how it was one of the factors that started the decision to bring the series to and end.
The end of the trios career presenting Top Gear, following Clarkson’s altercation with a member of the production team is quickly followed by the process of moving to Amazon and the invention of Grand Tour.
The book covers the big shows that we all remember, the Specials. Where the three have motoring, and occasional nautical adventures.
The most telling, and revealing part of the book is the section on the Patagonia Special, the angry mob of Argentinian Veterans and locals that brought filming to an end and drove the film crews out of Argentina. The three presenters and a few of the crew escaped by plane but Wilman and the majority of the crew fled by road, escaping over a river into Chilli. A journey that they very nearly didn’t get out of in one piece.
As witty and informative as this book is, and there are quite a few laugh out loud moments, I also found it a bit of a tease.
It’s not a short book, at just over 400 pages, but and it covers over two decades of two of the best, and sometimes controversial television programs, mentioning everything a viewer would remember.
But for me it doesn’t go deep enough into some of the big things that happened.
Wilman wasn’t there when Clarkson had his altercation. But it’s almost brushed over, an actual account of what really happened would have been really good.
The three crashes are mentioned, but the rocket car crash, and its aftermath warrant only half a dozen pages, the other two even less.
I think a whole series of books could be written on the Top Gear Specials but again only quick mention is made of each.
Andy Wilman was in an envious position that has seen him at the heart of two of the most successful TV franchises of the 21st century. For me, as good as this book is. I’d really have liked a lot more.
Modern crime fiction seems to be following an all too familiar formula with many of the stories being very samey.
I recently resorted to rereading one of James Elroy’s books, classic crime fiction set in the 1960s, and having enjoyed it and looked for inspiration on Amazon.
The name Ed McBain came up and I remembered people reading his books when I was on the ships in the late 70s. I don’t know why I never picked one up then.
I’m sort of glad I didn’t because now I’ve found a rich vane of new books to make my way through.
Cop Hater is the first in a very long series, of over 50 books in the 97th Precinct series set in the fictional city of Isola, which is very obviously New York.
Written and set in the mid 1950s it’s an excellent study of not only policing in that era, but also of how people lived, their styles and attitudes. The language used, the thoughts and behaviour are very much of that era.
The city is no stranger to serious crime but when the Detectives end up investigating the murder of one of their own no stone is going to be left unturned.
The way they pull in known criminals, and the quick back stories associated with each, are mesmerising.
A second detective is killed and some forensic evidence is left. The Criminologists, Crime Scientist of the day are the early forerunners of today’s Crime Scene Investigators, but have little proven science to help them.
Blood matched only by types, no national shoe database, finger prints sent to the FBI for analysis, and DNA is decades away, as is CCTV, and personal phone data which so much of today’s policing relies on.
So who is killing detectives, and why. There are some nice observations and twists in this plot. There is the still, and ever present, hinderance of the journalist trying to get the “scoop” on the story. The reliance of information from an informer, who I hope has numerous appearances during the series, an early Huggy Bear, type character.
But the big draw is the cast of police officers, their professional and personal lives giving great depth to each character.
One of my favourite tactics that writers employ is to kill of protagonists or main characters in series. It means that the reader is always on the edge of the seat, as no one is safe. McBain sets his stall out early and kept me right on the very edge of the seat.
I won’t be reading all fifty plus books in one binge, but much like Elroy, McBain’s stories are now going to be my default books when I’m looking for a good, no holds barred, original, none woke story to read.
Pages: 226. Publisher: Thomas & Mercer Included in Kindleunlimited
A clever thriller that had me convinced I knew who the killer was, until I didn’t, and then I realised just how dark this story is.
Reclusive author Aiden Cullen hasn’t left his house for years.
The day his first book was published should have been a huge celebration, but it was the day that changed his life for the wrong reason.
Stabbed multiple times and left for dead the previously shy man, who was leading a normal life, turned into a recluse during his rehabilitation. Now he never leaves his home.
Writing from home he has become a successful author writing murder based crime thrillers.
His life is turned upside down when a murder is committed close to the rear of his house. He has to answer the door to the police, he has to let strangers into his house, even if they are Police Officers, and that really freaks him out.
When he becomes aware of other crimes, all of which are frighteningly similar to the murders in his books he has to tell the police.
Then strange things start to happen in his house.
The list of suspects is short and the top of the list is Aidens best friend and occasional lodger, Luke.
Aiden fights the police’s assumption it’s Luke, it can’t be, it’s his best and only friend.
This is a cracking story written by a brilliant story teller.
I’ve struggled with how to describe it, and I don’t think this does it justice but, if Stephen King wrote Cosy Crime, this is what he’d come up with.
The cosy part first, it’s set predominantly in a nice country family home.
The Stephen King bit. The story is a psychological mind twister.
To be honest, as good as the story is from the start, it’s not until the killer is revealed that I realised just how good the whole plot was, and it elevated my enjoyment of the book even further.
I’ve been with this series from the start and with the exception of one of the books I’ve loved them all.
This is book 8 and quite possibly the best so far.
The hallmarked man in the headline is the body of a man found in a silver vault. His hands, ears and…….well other body parts are either missing or have been deformed.
Each of the missing or deformed parts could have been used to identify him but have been conveniently removed. Coincidentally several men could be the victim, all of which would have been identified by one of the missing, mutilated parts.
The police are convinced they’ve identified who the man is but his, but haven’t said they are 100% sure it is who they say.
The “alleged” victim has left behind a girlfriend and a baby. She wants to be sure it is him, because she can’t bear the thought that he’d just upped and left her and the baby.
It’s the girlfriend who employs Strike and Robin’s agency to prove that it was him in the vault.
The more the detectives investigate the more they become convinced that the body is not the woman’s boyfriend.
The victim had been killed during a silver heist. The police haven’t had any success in finding the perpetrators or whether the victim was part of the gang or just somebody who got in the way.
By digging deeper Strike and Robin start to uncover a very complex plot which makes up the main crime in this book.
The plot is excellent.
The other hook in this book is the ongoing will-they-won’t-they between Strike and Robin.
I would usually say this was tedious and irritating, usually. But I’m that engaged with these characters that I think it was actually this part of the book that kept me reading late into the night.
When I wrote about Ink Black Heart, the book I really didn’t like, I called the blog, Ink Black Heart. An Honest Review By A Fan, because I really didn’t want to sound like one of those haters who jump on the band wagon.
In the spirit of balance I should really say, as an honest review from a fan, this book is really good
It follows Galbraith’s usual formula. The agency is busy and the other investigations are a nice distraction from the main plot.
The main investigation is basically tagged onto an ongoing, or recently closed Police investigation, that realistically gives Strike and Robin the legal ability to take on the investigation.
Galbraith is very clever at pitching the story believably on the fringe of a proper criminal investigation
And of course there’s the ongoing Strike and Robin relationship. He, with his past has finally admitted he’s in love with his business partner Robin, but she’s in a steady, and growing relationship with with a senior Police Detective.
But, although she looks happy on the outside, in reality it’s not all happy families and roses.
As readers we begin to hear her doubt in her own mind. We begin to hear the inward battle she’s having with herself about the way she actually feels about Strike.
This book will have fans of the series on the edge of their seat for more reasons than one.
In one of my very first book blogs I said I didn’t like authors that published a book every 6 months or so. Well this series by Angela Marsons is the proof that I was very wrong to say that.
This series is the one I look forward to reading as soon as the book is available to me.
22 books in and this one is so original that I had no idea that this type of crime existed, but now that I’ve read about it I’m sure that was down to my own naivety.
In this book Stone and her team are seconded to another force, overtly to help with the search for a missing boy, covertly to hunt out bad practices, and a bad apple, in the major investigation team.
The investigation into the missing boy has been run badly and Stone and her team start to identify major issues within the other force.
The clash of personalities isn’t just based on the policing methods and it’s a fascinating read to see how the influence of one or two people can affect a whole team.
That alone as a story would have been brilliant, but throw in the actual crime they are there to investigate and you have one of the best crime books I’ve read for a long time.
Boys going missing around the country. Some of them are a bit rough around the edges and not unknown to the Police, but just because they’ve got a history, and have “run away from home” before, shouldn’t mean they should be treated flippantly.
When Stones team uncover a link it almost unthinkable about what these boys are going through.
The hard part for the team is proving it, and then finding out not only who is responsible, but where they are keeping the boys.
When it becomes evident that at least one of the boys has died, in a horrible manner, the investigation becomes even more highly charged.
And with the investigation getting off to a bad start in the other force Stone is playing catch up from the start.
There are not many books that sit this far into a crime series that I would recommend as a standalone story, but this one is a must read and can be read as a one off.
If anybody hasn’t read any of the others in the series, but picks this one up I’m sure they’ll go back to the beginning and start from book one. I’m almost jealous of the fact I can’t start over and read them all for the first time again.
I’m not the demographic for this book, but this genre is becoming my “dirty secret”
And of the few books I’ve read in this genre, this one is by far the best.
A great story, with characters it’s easy to engage with.
At times it’s Steven King dark, reminiscent of scenes from It.
At times it’s spicy, but not too graphic.
But over all it’s the story that grabbed me.
I can’t put my finger on what kept me gripped, but I really did read this in as few a sittings as my everyday life would allow.
And the first thing I did when I finished it, was click the link to download the next.
An island divided into eight kingdoms, the southern most of which is occupied by mortal humans. The upper kingdoms named after the four seasons, dawn, day and night are ruled by immortal High Faes.
The wall separating the humans from the Faes runs between their land and the Spring Court. The wall is supposed to keep the humans out of Spring, and magical beings away from the humans
So when Freyer, a young woman, kills a wolf whilst out hunting the last thing she thinks is that she has killed an immortal.
Unfortunately for her she must repay its life by sacrificing her own.
The choice, die a horrific and painful death, or live the rest of her life in the autumn court.
Choosing to live she is taken to a mansion that is lived in by Tamlin, and to her surprise it’s not as bad as she thought……..at first.
She is soon caught up in a war that rages between most of the immortals.
Amaranath is a cold killer. She has control over all of the Faes and their ruling families and seeks the love of Tamlin.
Her hold over him is about to become complete after she allowed him decades to break her curse, a curse that has removed most of his magic, along with that of many of the immortals.
All he had to do was fall in love with a mortal who had killed an immortal, and have her say she loved him.
Freyer missed her opportunity and when it’s too late has to find a way to rectify the matter, but it will be a fight to the death.
I mentioned Stephen Kings It at the start of the review. At times this book is just as dark, and for very similar reasons.
It’s easy to compare fantasy books with the works of J K Rowling, but in this case the comparison is valid. Except Maas book is much more adult.
The psychological intensity is breathtaking.
The murder and mayhem scenes are both graphic and intense.
The spice, and yes there is some, is needed in the context of the story, and although not as graphic as some books I’ve read in this genre, it is full on.
I can’t wait to read the next book.
Pages 429. Publisher Bloomsbury. Series length Book 1 of 5 Audiobook length 16 hours 7 minutes. Narrator Jennifer Ikeda
I used to worry about long series losing there impact or running out of ideas. The Lottie Parker series by Patricia Gibney is one I really don’t have to worry about
Every new addition to the series jut seems to get better, and the bar was high from the start.
I read this book as a recent story about the discovery of a lot of human remains, those of young children, was found in an old school in Ireland, run by the church for unmarried women and their babies
This not only brought a credibility to an already brilliant book, but somehow underlined everything about the story.
When two, seemingly unrelated murders take place, both involving young women with sad stories that include attending the Sisters of Forgiveness Convent Lottie Parker can’t help but get involved but the emotional attachment to this casenearly unhinges her.
Emotionally she has always struggled to keep her family, and partner, separated from her work. Although that’s hard when you’re in a relationship with another Officer.
But the one has always been a refuse from the other.
This case seems like its make or break for her career and her relationships
Lottie will do anything to get justice, and in this case get news of the women’s demise to any family that they might have.
All the time the threat of another murder hangs over her and her team.
This is a timely and very suspenseful story, told by one of the best crime fiction writers on the shelves at the moment
It’s also one of those books I would only pick up if you’ve got nothing else to do for a couple of days because once you start it you are not going to want to put it down.
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