Book Review: EVERY LAST FEAR by Alex Finlay

 

Title: EVERY LAST FEAR

Author:  Alex Finlay

Publisher:  Head of Zeus

Read: March 2021

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

After a late night of partying, NYU student Matt Pine returns to his dorm room to devastating news: nearly his entire family—his mom, his dad, his little brother and sister—have been found dead from an apparent gas leak while vacationing in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI and State Department seem far less certain—and they won’t tell Matt why.

The tragedy makes headlines everywhere because this isn’t the first time the Pine family has been thrust into the media spotlight. Matt’s older brother, Danny—currently serving a life sentence for the murder of his teenage girlfriend Charlotte—was the subject of a viral true crime documentary suggesting that Danny was wrongfully convicted. Though the country has rallied behind Danny, Matt holds a secret about his brother that he’s never told anyone: the night Charlotte was killed Matt saw something that makes him believe his brother is guilty of the crime.

When Matt returns to his small hometown to bury his parents and siblings, he’s faced with a hostile community that was villainized by the documentary, a frenzied media, and memories he’d hoped to leave behind forever. Now, as the deaths in Mexico appear increasingly suspicious and connected to Danny’s case, Matt must unearth the truth behind the crime that sent his brother to prison—putting his own life in peril—and forcing him to confront his every last fear.

My musings:

 

Sometimes, I just want to binge on a book just as I would on a great Netflix series or a classic action movie, and Alex Finlay’s debut was perfect for a pulse-pounding night of reading. Yes, I did read this in one sitting, and I enjoyed it immensely!

 

EVERY LAST FEAR started off with some of the most sinister and intriguing first lines I have ever read: “They found the bodies on a Tuesday. Two days after the family had missed their flight home. Six days after all the texts and social media had gone dark.” I was immediately hooked. Here starts Matt Pine’s nightmare, when he finds out that his entire family – mum, dad, sister Maggie and brother Tommy – have been found dead in their cabin whilst vacationing in Mexico. No, hold on, not his entire family, because he also has an infamous older brother who is in jail, convicted of the murder of his girlfriend when he was in his teens. And thus, Matt’s life is shattered once more.

 

Even though the story starts with the deaths of most of the Pine family, we get to know them gradually through flashbacks to their lives just prior to their ill-fated holiday. Not every author can pull this off, because it’s difficult to get invested in a character when you already know their fate. But the more I read about Evan, Maggie, Olivia and Tommy I got to like them, and ultimately grieve for them as they met their death. Which was the very thing that made me emotionally so invested in this book that I read until late into the night to find out all the answers.

 

With multiple POVs and a rich cast of characters – we not only hear from the entire Pine family but also from the POV of Sarah Keller, the FBI agent tasked to investigate their tragic deaths – the story rolled out movie like in front of my eyes. This is not a simple whodunit, but a multi-layered plot with roots in another crime, the one Danny Pine has been convicted of all those years ago, devastating his parents and alienating his younger brother Matt. There are a lot of threads, red herrings galore, a true crime podcast thrown into the mix and some political happenings, too. Even with all those threads shooting off in different directions, the story moved along at a pace that made my pulse race, craving answers.

 

Yes, some readers have said that there were moments when you had to suspend disbelief. And yes, some of the characters are stereotypes, but just as I automatically picture a Bruce Willis type in an action movie, these somehow helped to form some strong imagery of characters you only get to meet very briefly. Did this bother me? No. This was pure entertainment, and I was happy to roll with it. To be honest, a lot of it went over my head as I cried for Maggie and little Tommy, held my breath as Matt went to Mexico to claim the bodies of his entire family (just imagine that heartbreak!) and was intrigued by Danny’s backstory. There was just so much going on! It wasn’t until the end that I could see where this was all headed, and by then I was almost glad for the reprieve.

 

Summary:

 

EVERY LAST FEAR will appeal to readers who enjoy a fast-paced, entertaining thriller rather than a whodunit that offers up clues like a trail of breadcrumbs for readers to follow and practice their own investigation skills. It requires some suspension of disbelief and may feel a bit heavy-handed at times, but as far as entertainment value goes, it was pure gold for me. Read it binge-style as you would sit through an action movie. With food on hand. And plenty of time to spare. I loved it and look forward to reading more from this author in future.

 

 

 

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

BLOG TOUR: Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize Longlist: VIRTUOSO by Yelena Moskovich #SUDTP20

Title: VIRTUOSO 

Author: Yelena Moskovich
Publisher: Serpent's Tail

"You gotta keep speaking, and if it don't sound right in one language, just learn another."

I’m very excited to be one of the 66 bloggers taking part in a blog tour introducing and celebrating books that have been longlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize.

About the Prize:

I admit that I hadn’t heard of this literary prize before. For those of you who are like me, let me give you some quick info. Launched in 2006, the annual Swansea University International Dylan Thomas Prize aims to encourage raw creative talent worldwide and is open to authors aged 39 or under. Read more about the prize here

This year, international and under-represented voices dominate the longlist and explore pressing social and world themes across identify, culture and power. Twelve novels have been longlisted for the prize. Link to all longlisted books here

The shortlist will be announced on the 7th April, followed by a British Library Event, London on the 13th May and Winner’s Ceremony held in Swansea on International Dylan Thomas Day, 14th May.

About the Author:

Yelena Moskovich was born in the former USSR and emigrated to Wisconsin with her family as Jewish refugees in 1991. She studied theatre at Emerson College, Boston, and in France at the Lecoq School of Physical Theatre and Université Paris 8. Her plays and performances have been produced in the US, Canada, France, and Sweden. Her first novel The Natashas was published by Serpent's Tail in 2016. She has also written for New Statesman, Paris Review and 3:AM Magazine, and in French for Mixt(e) Magazine, won the 2017 Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize in 2017 and was a curator for the 2018 Los Angeles Queer Biennial. She lives in Paris. 

What attracted me to this book:

The debate over the book American Dirt which ensued on social media has made me more aware of the importance of reading widely and choosing to read underrepresented and authentic voices. So I was very excited to receive a copy of Virtuoso by Yelena Moskovich with the invitation to take part in this blog tour.

About the book:

For the first ten years of her life, Jana was a simple Czech girl, a watercolour. Her days were a clock run by the Czechoslovakian State Security, snapping hidden photos in their plainclothes. Much fervent artwork was created: Man Subverting Republic (Black and White), Woman Distributing (Tryptic). Man and Woman Organizing (Reprint).

Jana was a watercolour, until the raven-haired girl Zorka came. Jana, now an interpreter in Paris, hasn't seen Zorka in a decade.

Aimée is in Paris too, happily married and trying to get into her hotel room. On the other side of the door is her wife Dominique, face down on the hotel linen, one hand drooping off the side of the bed, fingers curled in, wedding ring white gold like an eye frozen mid-wink.

A body now, no longer a person.

As Aimée and Jana's stories slowly circle through time and place, they lead inexorably together...

My musings:

Virtuoso initially tells about three women: Jana, a simple Czech girl growing up in Prague, whose life is changed by the friendship with the impulsive Zorka; and Aimee, a Parisian whose wife has just been found dead in a hotel room. The women’s stories are interwoven in a way that skips back and forth in time, snapshots that roll out like a surreal fever dream, flashing images full of colour and feeling. Soon it became apparent to me that there was no central story, as each and every character takes the stage for a few pages, then bows gracefully and lets the next one take her place. Chatroom scenes between two women, Amy and Domenika, who meet online and fall in love, pepper the other narrative and provide yet another thread that flashes in between the pages.

Virtuoso is unusual and unique, like nothing I have ever read before. It’s not an easy book to review, with moving images in my mind rather than the type of logical and chronological narrative I am used to. It left, however, some vivid pictures behind that prompted reflection, and affected me more on an emotional than a rational level. I was so intrigued by the character of Zorka, who is so different from any mainstream character I have ever me in a book. Her mother’s words “Zorka, my love, please don’t be weird” almost broke my heart.

I should give a trigger warning, because there is some explicit sexual content that won’t be for everyone.

In summary, Virtuoso was an unusual read for me that has settled in the dark murky waters of my psyche and is still stirring there. At times I was not sure what to make of it, but felt compelled to read on, as if under a spell. It’s the type of book you need to pick up for yourself to see if it’s a good fit for you, and it would be interesting to compare notes. Surreal, honest and utterly original are the words that come to mind.

Book Review: THE OTHER YOU, by J.S. Monroe

Title: THE OTHER YOU

Author: J.S. Monroe
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Read: February 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

You are waiting for your husband to join you on holiday. But when he arrives, you know it's not him...

This clever, twisty psychological thriller explores identity and pretence, paranoia and the disturbing notion that we are all, at some level, impostors.

My musings:

I’m usually not overly fond of books that immediately slap you in the face with a whole line-up of coincidences and rather unsubtle clues to introduce their often quite farfetched premise. It makes me feel like I’m getting set up on some disastrous blind date where the allegedly handsome young man turns out to be a thrice divorced 70 year old with a gambling habit and a penchant for twirling his wiry moustache. So it was with some trepidation that I entered a story where the main character is a “super-recogniser” (or facial profiler) for the police (who knew such a thing even existed?), who has lost her gift in a tragic accident. She coincidentally lives with a rather creepy (but reportedly handsome) guy whose worst fear is that his life will be stolen by his doppelganger, and who is suddenly acting weird. Hmmm, yes. Totally believable. “Not impossible, though”, said the other little voice in my head. “This is FICTION remember?” Oh yes, suspension of disbelief, my old foe, you got me once again!

Once I allowed myself to go with the flow, however, I found I quite enjoyed the story that unfolded. I certainly learned a lot. There were facts about super-recognisers who never forgot a face (I am on the other end of the spectrum I’m afraid), and the way police use them for spotting faces in surveillance footage. Interesting! Then there also was the fascinating statistics about your odds of having a doppelganger somewhere out there, which led me down a google rabbit hole looking up photos of random strangers who look identical. S.J. Monroe spun quite a tale out of all these little morsels, and I was soon engrossed. Had it not been for whiney Kate, who annoyed me, I would have really loved the way the story played out, blindsiding me several times and still offering a satisfying surprise at the end.

Like in his previous novel, FORGET MY NAME, J.S. Monroe likes to explore the often unrecognised possibilities of our amazing brains, and uses these facts to spin an intricate web. Once again he offers us a long list of characters who may or may not be trustworthy, and it is up to you to figure it all out. After twists and turns galore, I had some of it worked out, but other plot elements came out of nowhere. It’s one of those books where you need to dive in, suspend disbelief, and let yourself be carried away with the flow of the story. I found it entertaining and often fascinating, and will be left wondering if I am the one in 135 people who has a doppelganger out there. Like having a twin. This could be fun! Or not .....

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

Blog Tour and special extract from the book THE OTHER YOU, by JS Monroe

 

Title: THE OTHER YOU

Author: JS Monroe
Publisher: Head of Zeus
Expected publication: out now

I am delighted to take part in the Blog Tour for J.S. Monroe's thriller The Other You, where nothing is quite as it seems! Make sure you visit the other blogs taking part in this tour for special author interviews, Q & A's and extracts from the book. My review will follow soon.

Book Description:

Kate used to be good at recognising people. So good, she worked for the police, identifying criminals in crowds of thousands. But six months ago, a devastating car accident led to a brain injury. Now the woman who never forgot a face can barely recognise herself in the mirror.

At least she has Rob. Young, rich, handsome and successful, Rob runs a tech company on the idyllic Cornish coast. Kate met him just after her accident, and he nursed her back to health. When she's with him, in his luxury modernist house, the nightmares of the accident fade, and she feels safe and loved.

Until, one day, she looks at Rob anew. And knows, with absolute certainty, that the man before her has been replaced by an impostor.

Is Rob who he says he is? Or is it all in Kate's damaged mind?

About the author:

J.S. Monroe read English at Cambridge, worked as a foreign correspondent in Delhi, and was Weekend editor of the Daily Telegraph in London before becoming a full-time writer. Monroe is the author of six novels, including the international bestseller, Find Me.

Buy Links:

Amazon / iBooks / Kobo / GooglePlay 

Follow J.S. Monroe:

Twitter: @JSThrillers

Facebook: @JSMonroeFindMe

Follow Head of Zeus:

Twitter: @HoZ_Books

Facebook: @headofzeus

Instagram: @headofzeus

Website: www.headofzeus.com

Extract:

Sleep soon starts to lap at her own consciousness, but something’s preventing her from dropping off. What Rob said about doubles last weekend has been on her mind all week. She hasn’t been able to forget it, his words chasing her through her days of painting and nights of restless dreams. And I’ve already met mine, a long time ago. What must it be like to actually meet your double? And when did Rob encounter his? Where? We’ve all got a double out there somewhere, watching, waiting. Shadowless. It’s revealed an unexpected side of him. A new insight.

She turns over, her interest piqued all over again. She remembers being fascinated by identical twins in primary school. The teacher used to tell her off for staring at them in class. Maybe it was an early challenge to her powers of recognition. Spot the difference. And there was this French-exchange girl at secondary school who apparently looked just like her. That had freaked her out.

She lies there, sleepless, her thoughts running loose and wild. What if that French girl were to suddenly come back into her life, discover her on Instagram, decide she’d like a piece of Rob… What was it he said? It’s well within the bounds of probability for all of us to be found by someone with an exact physical likeness. Would Rob be attracted to her? The woman would have a fight on her hands if she tried it on with him. Kate smiles at the ceiling. It’s a preposterous thought. But then she recalls Rob’s tone of voice, how serious he’d been, and her stomach tightens. He’ll take over my life, me, you, the house, my company, all that I’ve achieved, everything’s that’s precious to me. Imagine living with that sort of fear. And what if it became reality? She shoves the idea to the back of mind.

Secretly, she’s thrilled that Rob has been so honest with her, admitted to such fragility. It’s a sign that he trusts her, no longer feels obliged to be the strong one all the time. She will ask him about it again when he’s unwound from London. Diplomatically, of course. Tomorrow they’ll walk the coast path and swim, have coffee at their favourite café overlooking the harbour. She starts to drift off to sleep, warmed by the prospect.

And then she’s awake again. Her eyes spring open in the darkness, the sound of blood pulsing in her ears. Rob always insists that he sleep on the right side of the bed. He’s a creature of habit, of quotidian routine. Tonight he’s lying on the left. Should she prod him? Check he’s not been replaced by his double? Relax. She’s being silly. It’s just another sign that Rob’s loosening up, going with the flow a bit more. She rolls over, searching for sleep again. He might be helping her to recover, but she’s doing him some good too.

Book Review and Blog Tour: FORGET MY NAME by J.S. Monroe

Title: FORGET MY NAME

Author: J.S. Monroe
Publisher: Aria Books
Read: June 2019

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

She arrived at the train station after a difficult week at work. Her bag had been stolen, and with it, her identity. Her whole life was in there – passport, wallet, house key. When she tried to report the theft, she couldn’t remember her own name. All she knew was her own address.

Now she's outside Tony and Laura's front door. She says she lives in their home. They say they have never met her before.

One of them is lying.

My musings:

Amnesia is a popular theme for a mystery, and I can rarely resist the pull of such a premise. It is such a terrifying thought, not being able to remember who you are, or where you have been, and if well done, usually makes for a good read! However, it is also a tricky theme to pull off, and I usually go in fully expecting to have to suspend disbelief in parts to make things work. This is where it gets tricky for me, because I am really bad at doing just that!

We know from the blurb that a young woman turns up at a private house in Wiltshire, claiming that she has no idea of who she is, other than that the house seems familiar. Concerned about the stranger’s welfare, Tony and Laura, the owners of the house, offer her a bed for the night until she can get help. As the story unfolds, we learn that the young woman, who now calls herself Jemma, a name given to her by Tony, has both retrograde as well as anterograde amnesia, which means that she cannot remember the past and is also unable to form new memories. It may make for an intriguing premise, though I have known people with traumatic brain injuries who had that affliction, and let me tell you, it’s no picnic in the park. Imagine eating a meal and then not being able to remember having eaten. Every place is strange, because you can’t form any memories of having been there. Everyone is a stranger, because you can’t form the memories of ever having met them. Terrifying! Of course, this level of disability would not work well in a novel, so Jemma’s affliction is much less extreme than that. So even though some things may have been modified for the sake of entertainment, it still makes a good recipe for an unreliable narrator. Who is Jemma? And what does she want?

J.S. Monroe sure knows how to write a twisty, original thriller, and if you go in expecting entertainment rather than a life-changing story about someone with amnesia, then you should enjoy this one. There are twists and turns galore, a bunch of unlikeable, unreliable people with different agendas and a great mystery at the heart of it: who is Jemma? The atmosphere gets a lot darker and more menacing towards the later part of the book, at which stage you will have a pretty good idea of where it is heading, except perhaps for .... No, I will not give anything away here. Let me just tell you that there was one sinister element that managed to gobsmack me. I will never be able to look at one of my favourite sea creatures again without thinking of this story. Ugghhh!

Whilst Jemma battled with her damaged memory, I struggled with my own affliction, the suspension of disbelief, trying to silence the little nagging part of my logical brain that constantly questioned things. So if you are a reader who likes all threads to link up and all elements to be scientifically correct, then you may feel some of the frustration of the little devil on my right shoulder whispering questions in my ear throughout. But I won’t give anything away here, because the story hinges on it surprise elements, of which there are many. Points for totally blindsiding me – I really had no idea where this was headed, and the final reveal came totally out of left field.

Summary:

If you are looking for a fast-paced, original and entertaining thriller that holds quite a few surprises, and can overlook a few little holes in the story, then you have come to the right place! 

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

Book Review and Blog Tour: BLOOD IN THE SNOW by Franco Marks

Title: Blood in the Snow

Author: Franco Marks
Publisher: Aria
Buy Links: Kobo, Amazon, Google Play, iBooks

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

I am delighted to take part in the Blog Tour for Franco Marks' thriller Blood in the Snow, set against a backdrop of the beautiful Italian Alps! Make sure you visit the other blogs taking part in this tour.

Book Description:

Marzio Santoni left behind the brutal crimes of the big city long ago.

Valdiluce is a quiet ski resort, where all he needs is the peace, quiet and his trusty vespa.

At first glance, the town inhabitants are as perfect as their postcard scenery. But under the surface, nothing is as it seems...

So when four women are discovered dead, seemingly by their own hand, Marzio can sense that something isn't right. Fighting against his police chief, his own emotions and the evidence stacked against him, Marzio is caught up in a race against time to discover what truly happened.

Gripping, shocking and packed with a punch that will leave you reeling long after the last page.

My musings:

Having just come back from a holiday in the Italian Alps, I was excited when I was offered a review copy of Franco Marks’ mystery Blood in the Snow, featuring some of the amazing landscapes of this beautiful region. Isn’t the cover just beautiful? I’m happy to say that the armchair travel was almost as enjoyable, as Marks skilfully recreated the small mountain villages and towns the story takes place in – I could vividly picture main protagonist Marzio speeding along on his bike around hairpin bends on lonely country roads.

Whilst the armchair travel ticked all the boxes, there was the additional bonus of an intriguing mystery wrapped up in this package. The bodies of four women are found in a holiday apartment in the picturesque ski resort town of Valdiluce. Was it a suicide gone wrong, or murder? DI Marzio Santoni has a very personal stake in solving the mystery, seeing that one of the women had been his mistress, and he is convinced that she would never have taken her own life. Death, however, is very bad for tourism, and the townfolk are only too happy to dismiss the deaths as an unfortunate accident – Marzio’s digging into their affairs is not going to go down well.

I really liked the character of Marzio, who seemed like a breath of fresh air with his outdoor-man persona and his strange ability to pick up scents (yes, it sounds strange, but it added quite a unique quirk to his character). His nickname of “White Wolf” suited his identify as lonely mountain man, which intrigued me. At times he tended to be a bit too maudlin, but it suited the remote setting and small town atmosphere the author was trying to convey. Taking place in a small town, the interactions between the characters and the politics behind their actions were at times more interesting than the mystery itself, which perhaps could have done with a few more thrills to prompt more shock and surprise on its ultimate reveal.

I think the one thing that let the story down at times was the translation from Italian, which was often a bit too literal and could have done with some tweaking. I realise the difficulty in staying true to the author’s unique voice and making the prose more palatable for an international audience, which must be hard. However, if in doubt I would always opt for the latter, as the overall enjoyment of the book ultimately comes down to the reader’s ability to understand and relate to events depicted. Having just been to Italy I was able to overlook these minor quibbles and appreciate the sometimes unusual wording as something that added character to the story. Some things still puzzle me, however – what, for example, is a “bio-detective”?

All in all, Blood in the Snow was an intriguing, slow burning police procedural set in the beautiful Italian Alps, which made for great armchair travel.  This was a quick read, which would make a good travel companion, and even though the translation was a bit clunky at times it was fun to add another great location to my armchair travel map.

About the author:

Franco Marks is a writer and television director who lives and works in Rome. He has written the novels La neve rossa, Il visionario (shortlisted for the 2003 Strega Prize), Festa al blu di Prussia (winner of the Procida Isola di Arturo – Elsa Morante Prize 2005), Il profumo della neve (shortlisted for the 2007 Strega Prize), Lo show della farfalla(shortlisted for the 2010 Viareggio-Repaci Prize), Il suicidio perfetto, La mossa del cartomante, Tre cadaveri sotto la neve, Lo strano caso dell’orso ucciso nel bosco, Delitto con inganno and Giallo di mezzanotte. His books have been translated in several countries.

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

Blog Tour with special excerpt: KISS HER GOODBYE by Susan Gee

Title: Kiss Her Goodbye

Author: Susan Gee
Publisher: Aria Fiction
Expected publication: out now

I am thrilled to be taking part in the blog tour for Susan Gee's debut novel Kiss Her Goodbye, a tightly plotted and tense thriller with a heart-stopping twist. See below for your special preview.

For more excerpts, author interviews and reviews, make sure to stop by other blogs participating in this blog tour (schedule attached).

Book Description:

Seventeen year old Hayley Reynolds is unwanted at home, and an outsider at school. Pushed away by her best friend Kirsten Green, she makes a deliberate, chilling decision – if Kirsten can’t belong to her, then she won’t belong to anyone….

DI Beverley Samuels has the body of a schoolgirl on her hands – a murder that brings back the hauntingly painful memories of the case she’s tried so desperately to forget.

There’s something deeply disturbing about this crime – and yet with little hard evidence it’s up to her to decide who she will believe….

Tightly-plotted, tense, and a finale with a heart-stoping twist - get ready for the biggest thriller of 2018. Fans of Claire Mackintosh, Laura Marshall, A. J. FInn and Alice Feeny won't be disappointed!

About the author:

Susan Gee was a finalist in the Daily Mail Write a Bestseller Competition as well as a finalist in The Good Housekeeping fiction competition. This is her first novel.

Facebook: @susangeewriter

Twitter: @SusanGeeWriter

Extract:

DS Beverley Samuels

On Saturday morning, a dog walker reports seeing what looks like a hand stuck up from the reeds by the river near to Mrs Green’s and when I hear about it, I know that it will be Kirsten Green’s body. As a branch is lifted away from the side of the bank I see a curl of blonde hair and know that it’s her. I immediately think of Moira Timperley and although I want to forget her, I can’t. Even the way she wore her leg warmers – one pink and one yellow – is imprinted on my mind. What happened to her has become a part of what I am. It was unforgivable. I am unforgivable.

As I avert my eyes upwards the sky is surprisingly beautiful: pastel lines of mauve and pinks under a band of soft grey cloud. I say a silent prayer for the girl below me as my thoughts go to Mrs Green in her kitchen, carefully chopping the carrots for another soon-to-be-uneaten stew.

As the other police officers secure the area I picture Kirsten blowing out her birthday candles, the awkward smile in her school photograph and the snapshots of bleak-looking beaches from Mrs Green’s photo album.

As a large branch is removed it looks as if her arms are reaching out to me. Her T-shirt is slightly ripped and weeds from the river have stuck to her body like tentacles. Her neck is bare and there’s no sign of the pendant that her mother said was so precious to her. I avert my eyes from her bloated face. There aren’t any obvious wounds. As the current bubbles in the middle of the river, I wonder if the necklace is sitting on the riverbed amongst the discarded rubbish and decaying weeds.

‘She had a pendant,’ I shout over, but I know that they’ll sweep the area.

My partner, Nick, walks over to me. ‘It’s her. Same clothes.’

I nod. There’s a momentary silence from the team as they work around her and only the faint sounds of the motorway can be heard from across the fields behind. Nick’s been insistent that we’d find her in the river from day one, but even he doesn’t speak. The wind blows his hair and it falls forwards across his forehead and I’m glad that he hasn’t mentioned suicide again.

In an odd way I don’t want to stand close to her and discuss it. I walk to the top of the bank and he follows.

‘That’s not an obvious place for her to jump in,’ I say. ‘There’s a barbed-wire fence running along the field.’

‘Current’s been strong the last few days after the rain,’ he replies as we both look into the swirling water in front of us. ‘She could have gone in by the weir.’

‘Yeah, but they usually end up near the fields,’ I reply, looking back towards the bridge. ‘More likely she went off the bank further up.’

‘She could have stepped off the bank up there.’

‘Or was dumped there.’

He doesn’t argue the point, but there isn’t any need. Once the reports come back, we’ll know. We stand together at the edge of the bank as we wait for the next team to arrive. Mrs Green told me that her daughter cooked the dinner on a Sunday and always told her if she was going to be late home. I think she’d have left a note.

My thighs ache from last night’s run. I recall the reflections of the crooked trees on the water and the darkness of the sewerage pipe when I passed by.

Nick stares over at the far bank. ‘Steve’s going to speak to the mother. You want to go?’

‘No. I’m going to look around.’

Seeing Mrs Green is the last thing I want to do.

‘Coffee?’ Nick asks.

‘No. I’m going up there while they finish up.’ I point towards the weir.

‘Want some company?’ he asks, and I shake my head.

‘I’ll see you in five.’

He used to know when I needed space. Since Moira Timperley’s death we’ve lost that intuition. He never understood why I blamed myself, but that’s because his conscience was clear. I shouldn’t have gone that day. I dismissed her as an attention seeker and went home to pour myself a glass of wine while her stepdad hammered her face to a pulp. Nick can say what he wants, but I was too distracted to see what was in front of me and I can’t let that happen again.

I already know the area, but I can’t concentrate. It seems odd that she’d go into the shallows and not off the bridge further up or near the weir.

‘Bev, you all right?’ he asks.

‘I’ll see you in five.’

He walks over to Debbie on the side of the bank and she giggles as he starts one of his anecdotes. I continue further along the path until they are out of sight. I don’t want to watch his flirting. I’ve had it with men. Even though I finished with Tom six months ago, that time has slid away like water through my fingers. The day I threw him out, he accused me of seeing someone else when he was the one who’d stayed out all night. Men are all the same.

The river’s high after last week’s heavy rainfall and as it pours over the weir I make my way down the concrete steps to the bank. The broken red bricks, from the town’s past, that sit under the surface have been smoothed into red pebbles by the power of the water. Emerald green weeds stretch in the current and point to Kirsten’s body as I take a twig and drop it into the river. The twig floats on the current towards the officers and I imagine Kirsten sitting here. The trajectory is right and it’s a possible point of entry. This river once powered the waterwheels for the Bleachworks and the mills. The currents are strong and dangerous and she’d have struggled if she’d fallen in, accident or not.I walk back up the steps and sit on a bench as a pair of mallards float past on the water. The smell of damp weeds is strong and I think about the unfairness of it all: that a young girl’s life is lost while I’m still here.

Steve will be at Mrs Green’s by now. I picture him on the doorstep with a hand on the brass doorknocker. These are her last moments of hope before her world changes forever. I try to put her out of my mind and focus on Kirsten. It is four o’clock and the bell from St. John’s church chimes like a death knell as she walks down Vale Close towards the industrial estate and onto the river path from the bus stop. Her head is full of the things that have happened and her heart is heavy. I try to imagine what it’s like to be a girl on the outside that no one understands, a girl who is picked on, but I don’t know how to put myself there. It’s not somewhere I’ve ever been.

When I get past the industrial estate, there’s a girl sitting on the metal gate facing the road. She is around the same age as Kirsten Green and I stop, because seeing her there unnerves me. The loose curls of her brown hair are tied up in a headscarf and her lipstick is dark mauve. She swings her legs as she holds onto the top of the gate and, by the many silver necklaces over her cropped red tee shirt, I guess that she’s from the new estate: the more affluent side of town.

As I walk towards her she gives me a knowing look, as though she knows that I left Kirsten amongst the coiled branches when I jogged past her last night.

‘What’s happening?’ she asks, with a nod towards the river.

The ‘missing posters’ on the lamp posts have alerted most people to Kirsten’s disappearance and it’s not difficult to work out why we’re here.

‘We’re looking into something,’ I reply.

She raises an eyebrow. ‘You’ve found her. Right?’

She stares at my face and tilts her head. We both know the answer.

‘What’s your name?’ I ask.

‘Why?’

It surprises me. She doesn’t look like the type to talk back, but she tells me anyway.

‘Hayley Reynolds, what’s yours?’

‘DS Beverley Samuels,’ I reply, with a look behind her. The area is overgrown, with trees to the side, and Kirsten could have been moved from here. I decide to speak to the drivers from the industrial estate to see if anyone noticed anything.

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Book Review & Blog Tour: LEAVE NO TRACE by Mindy Mejia

Title: Leave No Trace

Author: Mindy Mejia
Publisher: Quercus Books
Read: August 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

I am thrilled to be taking part in the blog tour for Mindy Mejia's latest novel Leave No Trace, an atmospheric story of love and survival featuring an irresistible wilderness setting in rural Minnesota. For excerpts, author interviews and more, make sure to stop by other blogs participating in this blog tour (schedule attached).

Book Description:

There is a place in Minnesota with hundreds of miles of glacial lakes and untouched forests called the Boundary Waters. Ten years ago a man and his son trekked into this wilderness and never returned.

Search teams found their campsite ravaged by what looked like a bear. They were presumed dead until a decade later...the son appeared. Discovered while ransacking an outfitter store, he was violent and uncommunicative and sent to a psychiatric facility. Maya Stark, the assistant language therapist, is charged with making a connection with their high-profile patient. No matter how she tries, however, he refuses to answer questions about his father or the last ten years of his life

But Maya, who was abandoned by her own mother, has secrets, too. And as she’s drawn closer to this enigmatic boy who is no longer a boy, she’ll risk everything to reunite him with his father who has disappeared from the known world.

My musings:

To me, there is nothing more intriguing than a mystery with a wilderness setting and a survival theme, and I can never resist when I stumble across one! I loved that Leave No Trace was inspired by real families who escaped civilisation to live in the wilderness, and Mindy Mejia’s fascination with those real life characters shows in the way she presents Josiah’s background and his motivations to live a life off the grid.

The atmospheric setting was my favourite part of the book (ok, apart from the beautiful cover), and I devoured the descriptions of the Minnesotan wilderness, picturing both Maya’s mother’s remote mountain cabin as well as the life Lucas and Josiah must have led amongst the trees, surrounded only by nature. I think I would have been a very happy reader indeed if the whole story had revolved around Josiah and Lucas’ time in the mountains and the way they managed to survive for 10 years – it was so fascinating and I wanted more! Josiah’s chapters were by far my favourite parts of the book, his character the most complex and complicated, his motivations the most intriguing for this reader.

However, in Leave No Trace, Mejia tackles a lot more issues than simply the desire to escape a conventional life, and she is not afraid to offer us deeply flawed characters, many of whom have been touched by mental illness or addiction. I particularly admired her astute portrayal of Josiah’s landlady as she spiralled deeper and deeper into heroin addiction. In fact, all of Mejia’s characters have had their share of adversity, which lends a deeper meaning to their actions and choices.

Whilst I really appreciated the premise of the story, especially the idea of a young man who returns into civilisation after years in the wilderness, I admit I struggled a bit with both main characters, especially Maya. At first glance, Maya is the perfect flawed but gutsy female protagonist in the vein of others I have admired and enjoyed rooting for in the past. My main issues however were – as usual – the suspension of disbelief as Maya becomes emotionally attached to Lucas, who is one of her patients at the mental health facility she is working at. Not only does her unprofessional attachment raise some serious ethical and moral concerns, but I had trouble believing that her role as speech therapist would allow her so much freedom with such a troubled and potentially dangerous patient, some of which would not even be in her scope of practice. Seeing that Maya had previously been hospitalised at the same facility she is now working at, this behaviour would have raised many red flags for me, and as a health professional myself I found it hard to understand why no one stepped in to remove her from such a situation. I tried to envisage some of the scenes between Maya and Lucas taking place in our hospital and found them to be a bit far-fetched – however, I often struggle with details that don’t seem to bother others, so the chances are that this may not be an issue for the majority of readers.

What I did enjoy was Maya’s feelings of abandonment surrounding her mother and her search for the truth regarding her mother’s fate, which was beautifully and sensitively portrayed – as was the chance to get to hear her mother’s point of view. Family relationships featured strongly in this novel, none of them straightforward and simple, which added complexity.

Summary:

All in all, Leave No Trace was an intriguing mystery with a wild and remote setting I could picture vividly. Whilst I struggled with some details, these will most likely not bother most other readers who are not afflicted with a chronic inability to suspend disbelief – to enjoy the journey, I recommend going into this one with an open mind and enjoying the story without getting hung up on details.

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