It's final - DRUMROLL - my favourite for 2024 is: BLACK CAKE by Charmaine Wilkerson

 

Title: BLACK CAKE

Author:  Charmaine Wilkerson

Read: September 2024

My Rating: all the stars! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

We can’t choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett’s death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking tale Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their lineage and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor’s true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right”? Will their mother’s revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.

 

My musings:

 

Oh my aching heart! How I loved this book – such an emotional, well-written story about family and belonging, one I will remember for a long time to come. Reviews for favourite books are the hardest to write, but I will try to put into words how this story affected me. I will go as far as to say that it was my favourite book for 2024!

 

I love stories about family secrets and sibling relationships, so was instantly intrigued by Eleanor Bennett’s deathbed message to her children. Over an eight-hour recording, she confides aspects of her past that will change Byron and Benny’s lives in ways they could never have anticipated.

 

Wilkerson knows how to bring her characters to life, and it didn’t take long for them to worm their way into my mind and my heart. They all felt so real to me! There was so much to unwrap here: strong women, love, race, culture, belonging, sexuality, family dysfunction, and lots of secrets, all handled sensitively and with lots of heart. At the end, I felt happy and in tears at the same time, realising that these wonderful characters will stay in my mind for a while yet.

 

BLACK CAKE is a book to savour slowly and deliberately, getting to know the background of each character and what drives them. Like the cake the book is named after, this is a rich and flavoursome story steeped in love and a multitude of flavours that all blend together to form an amazing whole. Set against the atmospheric backdrop of a small Caribbean island, there was an element of armchair travel as well that made me want to jump on a plane and go there.

 

I’m really lost for words here – if only my heart could speak and express how much this book affected me. A truly wonderful story, very highly recommended!

Book Review: THE FROZEN RIVER by Ariel Lawhon

 

Title: THE FROZEN RIVER

Author:  Ariel Lawhon

Read: August 2024

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description (Goodreads):

 

A gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.

Maine, 1789: When the Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As a midwife and healer, she is privy to much of what goes on behind closed doors in Hallowell. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, crime and debacle that unfolds in the close-knit community. Months earlier, Martha documented the details of an alleged rape committed by two of the town’s most respected gentlemen—one of whom has now been found dead in the ice. But when a local physician undermines her conclusion, declaring the death to be an accident, Martha is forced to investigate the shocking murder on her own.

Over the course of one winter, as the trial nears, and whispers and prejudices mount, Martha doggedly pursues the truth. Her diary soon lands at the center of the scandal, implicating those she loves, and compelling Martha to decide where her own loyalties lie.

My musings:

 

I love books based on real-life historical people, but not every author has the skill to imbue their fictional counterparts with as believable personalities as Lawhon has done with each and every one of her characters in THE FROZEN RIVER. For me, her book was like time travel back in time and place to meet midwife Martha Ballard as she is looking after the women in her small community in Maine. Of course, I knew that women of her time did not enjoy the same rights and freedom as we do today, but some of the historical facts still stunned me.

 

Based on the real Martha Ballard’s diary, which mainly recorded births and deaths and weather details, Lawhon blended fact and fiction to bring her own version of Martha and her large family to life. I liked her instantly, this intelligent, brave woman who will risk her own safety to fight for justice. Being a midwife, she is not only called upon to deliver babies but also to examine women who have been raped, or bodies when there has been an accident or a suspicious death. Martha is also able to read and write – not common for women of her time – and keeps a meticulous account of all her clients and events. When a man is found drowned in the river, she is the person called upon to determine what could have caused his accident. In Martha’s opinion, the death looks suspicious, with the man bearing wounds that point to a fight or an assault. She also knows that the same man had been accused of raping a local woman recently. But not everyone shares her opinion, and in a society where men have more power, this could prove to be very dangerous for her.

 

Thus starts a gripping mystery with a wonderfully atmospheric setting that had me spellbound from beginning to end – I could not get enough of this book! 

Audiobook Review: ONE PERFECT COUPLE by Ruth Ware

Title: ONE PERFECT COUPLE

Author: Ruth Ware

Narrator:  Imogen Church

Read: July 2024

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, The Perfect Couple, she decides to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla find herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, boating through the Indian Ocean towards Ever After Island, where the two of them will compete against four other couples—Bayer and Angel, Dan and Santana, Joel and Romi, and Conor and Zana—in order to win a cash prize.

But not long after they arrive on the deserted island, things start to go wrong. After the first challenge leaves everyone rattled and angry, an overnight storm takes matters from bad to worse. Cut off from the mainland by miles of ocean, deprived of their phones, and unable to contact the crew that brought them there, the group must band together for survival. As tensions run high and fresh water runs low, Lyla finds that this game show is all too real—and the stakes are life or death.

A fast-paced, spellbinding thriller rife with intrigue and characters that feel so true to life, this novel proves yet again that Ruth Ware is the queen of psychological suspense.

 

My musings:

 

It’s no secret that Ruth Ware is one of my favourite mystery writers and that I love the slow-burning, simmering tension that drives her stories. Initially, I was worried that ONE PERFECT COUPLE seemed to be following a well-trodden path of other novels, but I should have had more faith in Ware’s skill of brewing a cup of her own special magic. As the story unfolded, it soon became clear that this was a very cleverly planned tale of murder and survival that would break the mould and offer the kind of surprising ending Ware is known for. However, the thing I appreciated most of all was how each character came into their own in the course of the story: if I had disliked just about every one of them when I started reading (hence my initial doubts), by the end of the story I felt quite proud of the survivors.

Described by various reviewers as a mixture between AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, SURVIVOR, and LORD OF THE FLIES, this closed-door mystery did pack a lot of plots into its pages. I’m not one to watch much reality TV, but ONE PERFECT COUPLE gave me more pleasure than any of those type of shows ever have. I must also say that it was the perfect story for an audio-book: read by the very skilled Imogen Church (who I think has narrated all of Ware’s previous books), the visual scenes had me totally hooked and really drove up the tension! My only little quibble was with the WHY reveal of the story, which seemed a little far fetched even for an intended-to-be unexpected plot twist – it just didn’t gel with what had otherwise been a very cleverly constructed story (taking this opportunity to mention the diary entries, which had me fooled the entire time).

 

 Summary:

 

All in all, ONE PERFECT COUPLE was tense, claustrophobic and atmospheric and made for captivating listening from beginning to end, even if it lacked the Gothic vibes I usually look for in Ware’s mysteries. I especially loved the character development and Ware’s keen observations of people acting and reacting under pressure. Despite my initial doubts I very much enjoyed ONE PERFECT COUPLE and highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for a clever closed-door mystery.

Book Review: THREE by Valerie Perrin

 

Title: THREE

Author:  Valerie Perrin

Read: April 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

From the international bestselling author of Fresh Water for Flowers, a beautifully told and suspenseful story about the ties that bind us and the choices that make us who we are.

1986: Adrien, Etienne and Nina are 10 years old when they meet at school and quickly become inseparable. They promise each other they will one day leave their provincial backwater, move to Paris, and never part.

2017: A car is pulled up from the bottom of the lake, a body inside. Virginie, a local journalist with an enigmatic past reports on the case while also reflecting on the relationship between the three friends, who were unusually close when younger but now no longer speak. . As Virginie moves closer to the surprising truth, relationships fray and others are formed.

Valérie Perrin has an unerring gift for delving into life. In Three, she brings readers along with her through a sequence of heart-wrenching events and revelations that span three decades. Three tells a moving story of love and loss, hope and grief, friendship and adversity, and of time as an ineluctable agent of change.

 

My musings:

 

Oh, my broken heart! What a wonderful story about love, friendship, grief and identity that touched my heart as deeply as FRESH WATER FOR FLOWERS (my first book by the author which had me coming back for more).

 

THREE is the story of three childhood friends who meet at school when they are ten years old and become inseparable. Do you recall those innocent days of childhood friendship, when your friends meant the world to you and became almost an extension of yourself, with the boundaries blurring between their thoughts and desires and your own? Nina, Etienne and Adrien are closer than siblings, sharing their thoughts, their dreams and their plans for the future, supporting each other through tough times. It is unimaginable to them that they would not continue to share their lives after school finishes. Their plan is to move to Paris, rent an apartment together and make music. But as it so often happens, life has other plans for them.

 

Now, thirty years later, the friends meet up again for the first time, reflecting on the past three decades of life, love, loss and shattered dreams – and trying to reconnect to the bond they shared as children.

 

THREE is a book that speaks to the heart, in every way. I loved reflecting on the meaning of friendship – how as children we are attracted to people in their purest form, without all the distractions we encounter later in life. Haven’t we all experienced this ourselves: we may not see some friends for decades and yet it seems as if we have only spoken yesterday. And yet, with others, we lose touch, grow apart, never find anything in common again, wondering what we ever saw in each other in the first place. As Nina, Etienne and Adrien fight their own battles thrown at them by life, we get to see them develop personalities quite unlike the innocent children who first forged a bond at school.

 

I loved every minute of this book, truly grieving the loss of these characters once I finished. Books like this don’t come around often, and yet Perrin has given me two memorable reads I will treasure and revisit when I want food for the soul and heart.  

Book Review: DAUGHTER OF MINE by Megan Miranda

 

Title: DAUGHTER OF MINE

Author:  Megan Miranda

Read: April 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

When Hazel Sharp, daughter of Mirror Lake’s longtime local detective, unexpectedly inherits her childhood home, she’s warily drawn back to the town—and people—she left behind almost a decade earlier. But Hazel’s not the only relic of the past to return: a drought has descended on the region, and as the water level in the lake drops, long-hidden secrets begin to emerge…including evidence that may help finally explain the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.

My musings:

 

I love Megan Miranda’s books – she is the queen of the atmospheric, character driven slow-burn, with intriguing interpersonal dynamics between her characters, which add an extra layer to her mysteries. As with many of her other books, DAUGHTER OF MINE started off as a slow simmer, setting the scene, but it didn’t take long for the tension to build.

 

After the death of Mirror Lake’s beloved local detective, Perry Holt, his daughter Hazel returns home to join her two brothers and attend his memorial service. The town has been in the grip of a severe drought, which has caused the lake’s level to drop to an all-time low, revealing all kinds of sunken treasures in its depth. Hazel arrives just in time to see an old car being pulled from the mud, setting her sense on high alert. After her mother left the family home never to be seen again when Hazel was fourteen, she is afraid that the car might be somehow related to her disappearance. But there is another surprise in store for Hazel when she finds out that she is the sole heir to her father’s estate. She is convinced that her father is trying to send her a message from beyond the grave – but how can she find out what he was trying to warn her about?

 

As with all of Miranda’s novel, DAUGHTER OF MINE was cleverly constructed, with many red herrings and an underlying sense of danger and menace that had my hairs standing on edge as I was trying to work out the mystery. I love books where the reader finds out clues at the same time as the main character, with the great unknown creating a sinister foreshadowing. Together with Miranda’s hallmark atmospheric setting, all of these elements worked perfectly together to keep me on the edge of my seat the whole time, especially as the body count in the small town was beginning to mount.

 

If you love a good slow-burn with a small town setting and atmospheric nature backdrop, then you can’t go past Megan Miranda’s books. Every time I read her latest novel, I am wondering which is my favourite – and DAUGHTER OF MINE is a definite contender (though I think that THE ONLY SURVIVORS is still number 1 on my list). 

Book Review: THE BELL IN THE LAKE and THE REINDEER HUNTERS by Lars Mytting

 

Every now and then you stumble across a book that just takes your breath away, and THE BELL IN THE LAKE and its sequel THE REINDEER HUNTERS fell into that category for me! I loved everything about this story, even though it also broke my heart into a million pieces.

 

Set in a small remote village in Norway in the late 1800’s, we get to meet the unforgettable characters that will soon worm their way into our hearts and minds. Astrid Hekne, the beautiful and clever daughter of a local landholder, who yearns to get out of the confines of her village and a different life. Kai Schweigaard, the young pastor who has just been posted to the village and has ambitious plans for the town, hoping that his progressive ideas will elevate his status and give him a ticket to grander locations. And Gerhard Schoenauer, the young German architect who has been sent to draw up plans of the church before it gets sold, dismantled and moved all the way to Germany. Butangen’s stave church features like a character itself, with its myth about the “sister bells” and its strong connection to the community, so it’s little wonder that its fate is strongly tied to that of its parishioners.

 

With a strong sense of place and time and a setting so vivid that I thought I was in Norway, the book took me on one unforgettable journey I only came out of reluctantly, dazed and completely emotionally wrung out. Mytting tells his tale so convincingly that his characters came to life for me, and I remember them as flesh and blood people whose fate touched me in ways only few fictional characters can. A heads up: have some tissues ready because I cried floods of tears!

 

Despite being 400 pages long, the story came to an end way too soon, but the good news was that there is a sequel! THE REINDEER HUNTERS takes the story up where THE BELL IN THE LAKE ended, with a new, younger generation of Butangen residents now in the forefront of the novel. Myttings trilogy (I can’t wait for the third instalment, which hasn’t been released yet) is deeply steeped in history and folklore, making it an interesting as well as educational read. Be prepared to spend hours googling “stave churches” after reading it. I was also fascinated by the details about midwifery and the knowledge of the midwives in the late 1900’s, with so many challenges to overcome, distance and poverty amongst them. Mytting’s keen observations of human behaviour fill his novels with tales of love & hate, jealousy & forgiveness, kindness and compassion and greed and the dynamics of a small remote community steeped in tradition and folklore. Here the progressive ideas of a young pastor may not be kindly received by all, and the ideas of the church often clash against more traditional views.

 

There is so much more I could say about these wonderful novels but I will leave it at that and urge you to pick them up for yourself. You will be rewarded with a story that will stay with you for a long time, and some magnificent armchair travel to Norway (which makes me want to go out and buy a ticket right now to explore it for myself). I can’t wait for the release of the third book in the trilogy to find out more about the fate of the sister bells and the sisters’ weaving depicting Skrapanatta.

Book Review: TOM LAKE by Ann Patchett

 

Title: TOM LAKE

Author:  Ann Patchett

Read: February 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

My musings:

 

Every now and then a book comes out of left field and totally steals your hear. TOM LAKE was that type of novel for me, jumping from a random book exchange find ("If I don't like it I just bring it back") to my first 5 star read of the year.

Set on a cherry orchard in those first few surreal early months of the pandemic, it tells the story of a family thrown together in lockdown, trying to make sense of the past and the present. I loved the concept of Lara telling her three grown daughters about her youth and musing about how her life was irrevocably changed by the events of one long ago summer. Tackling themes like first love, betrayal, friendship, dreams, loss and the choices we make, its underlying message is that life can turn in a heartbeat and derail the track we're on. Lara has long learned the wisdom some people never achieve: to see what's really important in the big picture and to live the moments. If there is one thing that the pandemic showed us, it's the importance of family and those little snatched joyful moments we often take for granted.

Just as Lara brings her character Emily to life, Pratchett presents us with a cast of unforgettable people who seemed as alive to me as someone I've known for years. Lara muses that she will grow too old to play Emily, and yet her fictional character spoke to me across the ages. I related as much to the younger Lara as to the mother telling her life story to her three grown daughters, trying to make them understand. Written with insight and a lot of heart, the story touched some deep sentimental core in me, making me feel warm and fuzzy one minute and sobbing my heart out the next. What a wonderful read this was! I am so sad to leave this story and am experiencing the biggest book hangover right now.

Book Review: TO THE RIVER by Vikki Wakefield

 

Title: TO THE RIVER

Author:  Vikki Wakefield

Read: March 2024

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

The Kelly family has always been trouble. When a fire in a remote caravan community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly's mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody and disappears. Recently made redundant from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weirdermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river-now, twelve years after the 'Caravan Murders', she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year.

Rachel's ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes. Vikki Wakefield's compelling story is about class, corruption, love, loyalty, and the vindication of truth and justice. And a brave dog called Blue.

My musings:

 

After a somewhat disappointing start to my reading year, it came as a wonderful surprise to stumble across an unexpected gem, TO THE RIVER, a beautifully drawn story of resilience and justice despite disadvantage and corruption.

Sabine Kelly has been on the run from the law for 12 years after being accused of setting fire to a caravan park when she was only seventeen, killing nine people, including her own mother and sister. Journalist Rachel Weidermann has been fascinated by Sabine’s story since she first read about it and has been tirelessly investigating Sabine’s fate in the hopes of locating her and being able to write an expose’ that will save her flailing career. Through a weird twist of fate, Rachel and Sabine meet, setting a chain of events into motion that will put them both in danger.

I loved Sabine from the start, despite her murderous reputation, and my heart broke for her as we get to find out more about her childhood and years on the run. Rachel was initially a bit more difficult to warm to, but in the end she won me over as well. Wakefield writes with insight and a lot of heart, which shines through in all her characters. Each and every one of them (including Blue, the blue heeler) quickly took on shape in my head until they felt like real flesh and blood people as familiar to me as old friends. Further complimented by the backdrop of an atmospheric river and small town setting, the story soon swept me up and kept me captivated until the end, and I was sad to turn the last page and lose the connection to characters that had become very dear to me in the process of reading.

TO THE RIVER was the first book I have read by Vikki Wakefield but it won’t be my last – I just loved her writing style and the way she portrayed her characters. It’s always exciting to discover a new author to love, and I look forward to reading many more of her novels in future.

5-Star Book Review: THE BIRD HOTEL by Joyce Maynard

 

Title: The Bird Hotel

Author:  Joyce Maynard

Read: June 2023

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

After a childhood filled with heartbreak, Irene, a talented artist, finds herself in a small Central American village where she checks into a beautiful but decaying lakefront hotel called La Llorona at the base of a volcano. 
 
The Bird Hotel tells the story of this young American who, after suffering tragedy, restores and runs La Llorona. Along the way we meet a rich assortment of characters who live in the village or come to stay at the hotel. With a mystery at its center and filled with warmth, drama, romance, humor, pop culture, and a little magic realism, The Bird Hotel has all the hallmarks of a Joyce Maynard novel that have made her a a leading voice of her generation. 

My musings:

 

What a beautiful, atmospheric books this was, full of the lyrical language, keen observations and magic that makes Maynard one of my favourite authors. I was hooked as soon as I met Irene, a young woman who has had to endure more than her fair share of tragedy and death. Desolate, and without much hope for the future, she boards a bus into the unknown and finds herself in a little Central American village at the edge of a large lake and at the foot of a volcano.

 

During Irene’s stay at La Llorona she comes not contact with a wide range of people, whose fate has brought them to this remote place, and whose lives will be forever changed after leaving here. As La Llorona becomes home for her, Irene slowly shakes off the layers of her grief and hopelessness that have ruled her life. But there are still some surprises in store for her …

 

Told through the eyes of Irene and flicking back and forth between the 1960s and the present, THE BIRD HOTEL was a heartwarming and magical story about loss, grief and starting afresh, peppered with a rich cast of unforgettable side characters. With her unflinching eye for detail and innate understanding of the human psyche, Maynard delivers us protagonists that are as flesh and blood as the people we have known all our lives, set against an atmospheric backdrop of a small Mayan village. Whilst Maynard clarifies that she has written the novel purely from the perspective of an expat, her rich details about Mayan life and culture were fascinating and made for wonderful armchair travel. I dare you not to be touched by at least one of the human tales in this story – I know that I shed a few tears along the way.

 

THE BIRD HOTEL is the type of immersive, enchanting story that makes Maynard such a great writer and sent this book straight to my favourites list. I loved every minute of it and thought about its characters long after finishing it. All the stars from me!

Book Review: WOLF PACK by Will Dean (Tuva Moodyson #5)

 

Title: WOLF PACK

Author: Will Dean

Publisher: Oneworld Publications

Read: September 2022

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

A closed community

Rose Farm is home to a group of survivalists, completely cut off from the outside world. Until now.

A missing person

A young woman goes missing within the perimeter of the farm compound. Can Tuva talk her way inside the tight-knit group to find her story?

A frantic search

As Tuva attempts to unmask the culprit, she gains unique access to the residents. But soon she finds herself in danger of the pack turning against her – will she make her way back to safety so she can expose the truth?

Will Dean’s most heart-pounding Tuva Moodyson thriller yet takes Tuva to her absolute limits in exposing a heinous crime, and in her own personal life. Can she, and will she, do the right thing?

My musings:

 

Oh how I love Tuva Moodyson! This series is just getting better and better.

 

Tuva has had her fair share of tragedy and is still reeling from the incident that almost killed her lover and put her in a coma. She now feels like she has little to lose, which is perhaps the reason she throws herself headlong into trying to solve another mystery, consequences be damned. A young woman has gone missing up near the mysterious Rose Farm, and no one is talking. It’s the sort of challenge Tuva cannot resist, even if it puts herself in danger.

 

With Tuva, Dean has created a strong, enigmatic, kick-ass female character who has not only overcome adversity (Tuva is deaf), but also never shies away from setting injustices right. Supported by a cast of weird and wonderful characters, and a remote, small-town setting, this series never disappoints. Over the previous four books, we have become very familiar with the small forest town of Gavrik and its inhabitants, and they all make a disappearance here. Whether it’s the creepy wood-turning sisters you’ve been hoping to catch up with, or the whiff of Tammy’s amazing cooking, Dean makes sure they are not forgotten.

 

I felt sad for Tuva in this one, because part of her bravery and determination not to back down reflects her inner loneliness after the tragedy that stole the love of her life from her. So perhaps this is the reason this book seemed more melancholy to me than its predecessors, even though it’s a solid mystery with lots of action and nail-biting scenes where Tuva puts herself in danger. For me, it’s the characters and the setting that make this series so irresistible, though of course I’m not knocking the well-plotted mystery that holds it all together (which I won’t go into here because it’s best to delve in blind for maximum surprise value).

 

The Tuva Moodyson series remains one of my favourite crime series and one I can’t get enough of. I hope that we will see a lot more of Tuva in future.

 

Thank you to Netgalley and Oneworld Publications for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

Introducing my favorite book of 2022: THE WINNERS by Fredrik Backman (BEARTOWN #3)

 

Title: THE WINNERS (BEARTOWN # 3)

Author:  Fredrik Backman

Read: November 2022

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

My musings:

 

I would give this book 100 stars if I could!

 

If I thought that Beartown ripped out my heart and broke it into a million pieces, then Backman’s latest instalment in the series just ground them to fine dust. At least now I know to stock up on tissues before starting any of his books!

 

I don’t even know where to begin with a review because it’s difficult to express how much I loved this book. After the three Beartown novels, I almost feel part of the community. I’m not sure how Backman does it, but his characters are so well drawn that they are totally real to me. Often, characters remain a hazy outline, but this cast is as vivid in my mind as people I have known all my life.

 

With the Beartown themes of community, parenthood, coming of age, friendships and the fine threads that connect us all to one another, there wasn’t many tissues left in the box by the time I finished reading. Backman’s writing resonates deeply with me, as do his characters.

 

THE WINNERS is set 2 years after the events in BEARTOWN, and we get to find out how all our favourite characters have fared in that time. There are a few surprises in store, but one thing has not changed – the rivalry between the two hockey clubs of Beartown and Hed. As someone who knows nothing about hockey and isn’t particularly sports orientated, even I soon realised how much the sport reflected the hopes and dreams of the community, and was swept away by their love for the sport. As hockey gets embroiled in the political power games of influential people trying to make Beartown and Hed’s animosity work in their favour, the simmering tension is about to erupt into violence. With the constant foreshadowing in the story, I knew that something terrible was about to happen, which had me torn between reading quickly to find the answers and savouring the story. Backman injects so many snippets of insight and wisdom into his stories that touched me deeply, drawing out emotions that are often repressed or overlooked.

 

I can confidently say that THE WINNERS is my favourite book for 2022 and one that I will revisit again when the open wounds in my heart are no longer so raw and I can savour the fine details I may have overlooked. Please note that this is not a stand-alone novel and needs to be read in the right order of the Beartown series to make sense and to get the full value out of this wonderful tale. I loved every minute of it and was sad to say good-bye to characters who feel like good old friends – I will miss them. A truly wonderful book! If you haven’t discovered this series yet, what are you waiting for?

Book Review: THE LAST TO VANISH by Megan Miranda

 

Title: THE LAST TO VANISH

Author:  Megan Miranda

Publisher:  Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books

Read: March 2022

Expected publication: 26 July 2022

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

Ten years ago, Abigail Lovett fell into a job she loves, managing The Passage Inn, a cozy, upscale resort nestled in the North Carolina mountain town of Cutter’s Pass. Cutter’s Pass is best known for its outdoor offerings—rafting and hiking, with access to the Appalachian trail by way of a gorgeous waterfall—and its mysterious history. As the book begins, the string of unsolved disappearances that has haunted the town is once again thrust into the spotlight when journalist Landon West, who was staying at the inn to investigate the story of the vanishing trail, then disappears himself.

Abby has sometimes felt like an outsider within the community, but she’s come to view Cutter’s Pass as her home. When Landon’s brother Trey shows up looking for answers, Abby can’t help but feel the town closing ranks. And she’s still on the outside. When she finds incriminating evidence that may bring them closer to the truth, Abby soon discovers how little she knows about her coworkers, neighbors, and even those closest to her.

My musings:

 

A suspenseful mystery set in a small town near the Appalachian trail? Yes please! Good mysteries that feature wilderness areas and hiking are not easy to find, but Megan Miranda, an avid hiker herself, has nailed it with her latest novel THE LAST TO VANISH. From a deliciously claustrophobic wilderness setting, to an old unsolved mystery, to small town secrets, this book contained everything that I love in a mystery and was a delight to read. The best books are those who make you come up with the wildest theories, and then still manage to prove you wrong. 

 

Over the last few years, Miranda has firmly engraved her name on my favourite authors list. I particularly enjoy her atmospheric setting and the interpersonal dynamics between her characters, which add an extra layer to her mysteries. Abigail Lovett, our protagonist in THE LAST TO VANISH only gradually gives up her own secrets as the story unfolds, which provided some unexpected twists that I certainly didn’t see coming. Personally, I loved the way the story got off to a slow simmer, but soon heated up as we got closer to finding out the truth. And what can be more enticing than the unsolved cases of hikers vanishing off a mountain without a trace? Add a remote lodge, patchy phone and internet reception and a bunch of locals who want the past to stay hidden, and the stage is set. 

 

I would hate to give spoilers, so I won’t say any more than that, only that I savoured this book like a treat every night and found it hard to tear myself away. A lot of mysteries become repetitive or predictable in a “been there, done that” way of a seasoned reader, but not here – I was thrilled until the end and the armchair detective in me had to admit defeat. 

  

Summary:

 

All in all, THE LAST TO VANISH once again confirmed why Miranda is one of my favourite thriller writers today. With her trademark atmospheric setting, enigmatic young female lead and an intriguing unsolved mystery from the past, it ticked all the right boxes for me! 

Thank you to Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.