The Long Weekend - Gilly Macmillan

Where to start...

OK, so the idea of a long weekend away, to what could only be best described as a remote and desolate location, with a group of friends may sound nice (if your that way inclined), or could just as easily be your worst nightmare come true.

This follows in the main part three women, who make their way to a remote barn, their three relevant others find themselves otherwise engaged and promise to be there the following day.

A present, and warning left for when they arrive sparks the events off quite nicely.

An impending storm, shapes the plot. Mostly covering the evening alone, and the time spent covering the murders. You find yourself, being transported from one location to another without it washing around in your head. At times, you can get lost between characters as the pace is non-stop.

All in all, I found this to be a great read, and one that only took a couple of sittings to finish.

Status: Complete

Rating 4.7/5.0

Seven Mercies - Elizabeth May / Laura Lam

I found it very hard to get into this book. Infact it became my first DNF in about six months.

 

The introductory chapters introduced the femme fatale crew. The outlining  was cumbersome, and I found it flat.

 

Being the second installment of the series, I hope that the original was a lot better. It does work as a standalone as the crew is all introduced at the start.

 

Really not for me, and I've read a lot of sci-fi over the years.

 

Status: DNF.

Rating: 2.5/5.0

 

How High we go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu

 

This book goes full circle on itself.

The finding of an acient virus, in siberia. One that should never have been uncovered. But due to global warming and the thaw of the permafrost.

 

Post pandemic, a global plague that has killed off most of the population.

A space race to find the next goldilocks planet, capable of supporting human life. Some 60,000 years in the future. With seeds for new planets. Without going more indepth, it would give to much away.

Really didn't know what to expect, when I picked this up. The cast, and the plotline interweave seamlessly. What I thought was going to be difficult to read, infact passed easily. With me losing slightly more time than I had allowed for.

 

I seem to have developed quite a liking for Japanese authors. The more I come across, my TBR list grows.

Status: Complete

Rating: 4.4/5.0

The Book of Sand - Theo Clare

 A journey, into the not so unknown. Lives that have crossed paths on many different plains. Family bonds that bind.

The cirque, an unforgiving desolate land. Cities of the Earth, unexplainably 'close' to each other. The past and present a blur. Lives crossed, memories continued.

The time between the 'grey' precious.

A tale on so many different levels, entwined beautifully. The cast of characters differ on so many levels, yet come together as a single family unit.

The quest, to find a somewhat very well hidden item, to carry finish their journey.

This reminds me of a very compacted take on one of my all time favourite series. The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King.

Does the quest ever end, or do we just return to the beginning and start with a clean slate?

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.7/5.0

Nightmare Alley - William L. Gresham

 Welcome to the ten in one travelling freak-show.

Stan a young magician, honing his carny skills. Falls in with the clairvoyant, after accidentally killing off the other half of the show. Learning how to work the crowd, and pass on elicit information through a series of predesigned  tells. 

 

Stan has learnt all he could from the carny circuit, and deeides to go it 'alone'. Leaving with Molly, who was front and centre for a short while. They start by conning an old lady out of her house.

Stan decides to 'rig' the house. Becomes a Spiritual Priest and starts over on his own. Looking for that one big 'mark' that will set him up for life.

The book, is well written, and the characters are strong and well defined. The plot is believable, and the whole thing flows effortlessly. You are drawn into Stan's fight for money, and his charisma, as he can talk himself out if most situations.

Well worth a read as it documents post the stock market crash of the late 1920's

Status: Completed

Rating 4.6/5.0

This Charming Man - C. K. McDonnell

The second installment of The Stranger Times. This Charming Man continues from where the first installment finished (no surprise there I guess).

We join the gang about a month on, with a week to printing and no viable content.

Vampires do not exist, everyone knows that including those in charge. So when they start running amoock in Manchester, heads start turning. And, questions are being asked (and not the easy ones to answer).

Manchester police are very close to opening tbeir own x-files department. With the apparent upturn in inexplainable goings on. And they are getting more bizzare.

As the builders have been in at Stranger Times HQ, a trap laid, but discovered. A man on a barge whom can't touch dry land (or the water surrounding said boat as he found out). Who can tell no lies, a talking dog that isn't owned. A haunted cinema and an apparition hell bent on destroying man (not wo) kind.

A tale, of friendship and virginity. Who would have known that this edition of the Times was going to be so high in content.

Condiment for the book - (stake with) garlic mayo

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.8/5.0

Buried Lies - Jenny O'Brien

I found that this was a nice and easy read, with likeable characters and a plot line that seemed to flow effortlessly. 

 This is the 5th (and my first), in the Gabby Darin series. Do you need to have partaken in the others? The easy answer to that is no. The characters are well rounded, as they should be this far into a series. 

 

Set around Llandudno, and Conwy mostly. 

 

It follows Hannah Thomas, a nurse with a fiance, and a young son. With a jaded past, which has caught up with her.

A break to a spa, with a friend. returning home after a weekend away. To find her fiance dead in his car, apparently by his own hand, and her son missing.

That is as much as I am going to let on.

What lies ahead, the investigation, the private lives and the entwinement of them all.

I read this in two sittings of just over 90 mins each. It really is that easy of a read, and not in a bad way. This was my first book by this author, and I will be looking into her other works.

Status: Completed.

Rating: 4.6/5.0

The Day of the Serpent - Cassandra Clark

 

Not really being one for historical fiction, I found myself being unusually drawn to this.

I  won't lie, it seemed to take an age to read. Almost two weeks from cover to cover. But, I kept finding myself reuturning to it, even if infrequently.

Take one friar, a group of highly trained archers, a disposed (assumed dead) king. And one of the most natural driving forces, revenge.

A tale of men on foot, a fanatical arch-bishop and a wannabe king on a massive power trip driven by madness.

We follow, the friar and the bowmen. Travelling from Pontefract Castle to London, with the assumed dead body of the de-throned King Richard. Following a spate of killings, the travelling party is alert. With their paymaster up in arms about the killing of his men.

The friar is entrusted, to find the person who has commited these crimes. Having alreday fallen in with the bowmen, he suspects them, but never outs them. Friendship holds his tongue.

Chauser, make appearances in the tale, trying to smuggle out his own tales to preserve them for future times.

Like I said, I found it to be a slow read, but read it I did, and it evaded the DNF pile. So it had qualities enough for me to finish it.

Satatus: Completed

Rating: 3.8/5.0

#NetGalley #TheDayOfTheSerpent #CassandraClark #HistoricalFiction #BrothersInArms

This Charming Man - C K McDonnell

 

This is a first for me.

You are number two in the TBR queue, please hold till a reader becomes available. Your book is important to me.

An ARC was made available by Random House for this the second in the Stranger Times.

If you are intrested, there is a review for the original book on this blog. But you'd have to look for yourself, as the person who does links is out to lunch.

The Villain - Oris Hunt

 

A lady of the night, found dead in a public park. Her final movemnts carefullly traced and tracked. A killer known, but proof, not there.

We follow Cord and Force. Two police investigators, as they piece together the movements of a killer of whom they are certain that they know the identity of. 

The number of dead slwoly starts to rise, as clues start to comer together. The witnesses, vanish in plain sight into body bags as they are permenantly removed from being able to identitify the killer.

The only persomn to give a positive ID, the madam from an exclusive brothel. Dead. A reporter on the more make believe side of tihngs who has a passing interest in proceedings dead.

  What starts out as a mystery, turns into a modern day Romeo & Juliette played out along the lines of the massacre of the Russian royal family in the early part of the 20th Century.

 

Pieced together in a patchwork of findings, the smallest detail of which are all found in earlier parts, a police cover up of the highest degree.

 

Slow to start, but gradually builds in pace, until you reach the brick wall of an ending.

 

Status: Complete

 

Rating 4.7/5.0

Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton

 

 

 Mickey is unusual, he is a voulenteer, in a role that nobody in their right mind would accept. He is an expendable. He is a clone of his former self, on his seventh cycle. 

 

Only in place to do the jobs that may involve loss of life. You see life is important in space, just as it is everywhere else. The only difference they have his memory on file, uploaded regularly. Just incase of death you see. He will have his memories and still know most of what he knew. Replecated.

 

Assumed dead. Duplicated. His life neve to be the same again. Wrestling with his other self of food, women and just what did happen to him.

A Sci-Fi adventure in the truest sense, just warped, comical  and immensley enjoyable.

 

A rip-rollocking ride across the skyskcape. To a planet of 'habital' consistancy.

 

You find yourself drawn into the character, alost to the point where you feel for him. Capturing the idoesyncrasies of life as one of the oft overlooked.

A truely enjoyable page turner of a read.

4.5/5.0

Graveneye - Sloane Leong (artist Anna Bowles)

 

Not read a graphic novel in quite some time. This one did not disappoint in the slightest. With artwork from Anna Bowles (debut).

A tale of blood, lust, love and hunting. Obsession.

Released on 30/11/2021.

A must for a tale of feral animals and humans.

4 out of 5 for this one.

The Fuck-It List - John NIVEN

 

 

One man. One illness. One list. One question, just how far would you go?

Some of the best satire that I have read in quite somw time.

Trump re-elected in 2020 his daughter in his place in 2024. It is now 2026 and Frank has a grudge to bear. With an enormus chip on his shoulder. He sets off on one almighty road trip.§ne over the age of 16 to bear arms.

With school masacres at an all time high. Mass shootings not far behind.

A list, 5 names. All with a valid reason to be there. Going right to the very top of the pile.

A fast paced, page turner that leaves you flying by the seat of your pants. A really enjoyable read.

 

4.0 out of 5.0

Joyland - Stephen King

                                                                           Mr King sir,

Oh captain, My captain...

There has always been something more urgent, more pressing.

I should be ashamed of myself leaving this to gather dust.

A joy to read, no breaks it just flows from beginning to end. Is there nothing that this man can't turn his hand to?

Early 70's static carnival. A summer job that brought together friends, and unearthed a series of murders of young girls.

Tied to the King-a-Verse via one of his favourites, the seeing/sight that you find in the shining, the dark tower to name but a few.

Compelling it draws you in, the style and content may not be normal. But, this is one of a hell of a slam dunk.

Give it a try, where the air is rare

 

Orange City - Lee Goldberg

Dystopia never tasted so good.

As far as management goes, the man, is pretty high up. To match his height, he is also a Grade A Sociopath.

Trying to run a Statuesque city, he toys with its citizens as the whim passes over him.

He got his kicks drugging and amputating at free will.

His greatest feet, hadn't even been released and there was massive demand for it. What was it? Simplicity, soda pop.

Different flavours, different moods, always thirsty for them.

One man's journey, against tyranny.

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.2/5.0

This Golden Flame - Emily Victoria

 Days of future past.

An age of technology, that we are yet to see, entwined with wooden ships and pirates. A language that controls almost everything, commands held in runes. Controlling the masses, through a mere bracelet which ties them to wherever they are.

I would like to say that had managed to get from cover to cover. However, I got just over half way through it, which took me as long as it did to read my two previous books combined.

It's not like its a bad story, it isn't. The storyline wasn't bad. With well formed characters. Reading it really should have been so much easier. I just lost the will to carry on to its conclusion.

Status: Abandoned

Rating:3.0/5.0

Serpentie - Johnathan Kellerman

Well it must be a good 15 years since my last encounter with the dynamic duo of Delaware and Sturgis.

A woman in her early 40's, looking for answers to questions that reside in a cold case file. Her mother, dead? What happened around the time of her disappearance?

A head on charge through the decadence of the late 70's and early 80's being investigated in the here and now.

I went into this thinking thatit was going to be a let down and disappointment.

How wrong was I?

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.5/5.0
 

The Shadow Man - Helen Fields

 Engrossing.

Murder, diseases (that I had never even heard of), kidnap and a UK US collaboration.

Fast paced, thoroughly planned and more than a little unnerving. You really should try closing the curtains once in a while.

You've got to read this, if nothing else for quite some time.

Helen Fields is fast becoming one of those authors where I'd buy on name over anything else.

 

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.8/5.0

Dead Money - Srinath Adiga

What's the one thing they say you can't take with you if you die?

What if you could?

Ladies and Gentlemen, from the Bank of Eternity, I give you... Afterlife Dollars.

Spawned as an idea from a city trader, who was trying to get back the considerable amount of money that he had lost of a gangsters. Using Chinese fables and old stories of leaving money for the ferryman to take you to the other side.

Afterlife Dollars came into being. A load of unethical shit, and lie after lie a backstory evolved.

What was being sold? Nothing, a belief. Did it not matter? No. People thought they were investing in money that was going to be available to them when they died. They knew that they would not see anything till they were dead. The perfect fleece.

Then came Europe, a trader who had, had enough. Warnings made and ignored and a folio being built that would be more than profitable when the crash eventually came. With far right politics thrown in for good measure.

From something I thought that I wasn't going to enjoy to being engrossed within half an hour. Not my usual thing, but good just the same.

Status: Completed

Rating: 4.4/5.0
 

Shiver - Allie Reynolds

 A possibility of two shorter novellas. Two stories, a decade apart, friends and rivals. The snowboarding set, in their heyday, when nearly everything done was groundbreaking. 

The rich that, don't worry, the sponsored who manage by video and photo shoots and the poor that work three jobs throughout the closed season to be able participate.

Following a group of friends, with the ups downs, downright dirt and the death or thought of murder of one of their own. Regrouped at the last place that they were all together. Here's where the fun begins, played with, manipulated and left to stew.

A debut, that has you wondering just what was going to happen next,a good old fashioned 'who dunnit'.

Status: Completed

Rating:    4.3/5.0