Audiobook Review: THE GOOD SAMARITAN by John Marrs

Title: The Good Samaritan

Author: John Marrs
Narrators:  Elizabeth Knowelden, Charlotte Cole, Matthew Lloyd Davies, Tim Campbell

Read: April 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

She’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?

The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.

Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry. She doesn’t love talking to people worse off than she is. She craves it.

But now someone’s on to her—Ryan, whose world falls apart when his pregnant wife ends her life, hand in hand with a stranger. Who was this man, and why did they choose to die together?

The sinister truth is within Ryan’s grasp, but he has no idea of the desperate lengths Laura will go to…

Because the best thing about being a Good Samaritan is that you can get away with murder. 

My musings:

Wow, this book! Where do I even start? Saying this makes me fear a little bit for my own mental state, but I just loved this dark and twisted tale of cat-and-mouse! It is definitely one of the most sinister books I have read all year, and one that made it easily onto my favourites list.

Having really struggled (and finally abandoned) Marrs’ previous book The One (I know, I know ... so many loved it but it just wasn’t me), I had this one sitting on my TBR list for a long time before finally delving in. And I’m so glad I did! The blurb really tells you all you need to know. Laura is a volunteer for a helpline, talking to people who just need a friendly ear to listen to their problems. She is trained to stay totally impartial, and to offer support to the person in whatever sorry state they are in, without passing judgment. Only Laura has her own agenda. There are wedding planners and party planners, so why not offer a tailor made suicide plan? After extensive research, she is the expert on all methods to take your own life, from overdoses to hanging, from jumping off a cliff to stepping in front of a train. On secret online forums she calls herself “the saviour of lost souls”. If she may say so herself, Laura is an expert on helping people die. And she sees absolutely nothing wrong with that. If that’s what people want, she is happy to deliver. Until Ryan finds out that it was Laura who helped his pregnant wife die, thereby destroying his life – and sets out to get justice.

The Good Samaritan must be THE best use of the unreliable narrator theme I have come across for a long, long time. It also has one of the most deranged and psychopathic lead characters I have encountered for a while. As Laura is telling her story, I made the one fatal mistake Ryan made: I totally underestimated her. To be honest, I even felt a bit sorry for her, because her story is such a sad tale of childhood trauma and having to live with the scars. Even her own family sound like they are not very nice to her, and she does spin a compelling tale why she does what she does. I was like that stupid hapless bug that flew right into the spider’s web! By the time Ryan came along and made me realise my mistake I was so caught up in her trap that it was impossible to back out.

After the first third of the book unfolds through Laura’s POV, short and sharp chapters take over in a he said / she said fashion that plays out like a deadly game of tennis. One minute the ball is in Laura’s court, then it’s Ryan who wins a set. Wimbledon has nothing on this evil little match that is played with live grenades that are meant to detonate the other’s life on impact. My head was spinning from my metaphorical head-bobbing – ping, pong, back and forth, back and forth. It was so nail-bitingly thrilling that I got palpitations and almost needed to triage myself for some blood pressure control and GTN spray. It’s not often that a thriller manages to get the better of me!

I could go on and on about the greatness of this book, so I will cut it short: if you love a dark and twisted psychological thriller that messes with your mind, then rush out and buy, beg, borrow or steal this book right now! Now for the trigger warning – some people may find the theme of suicide and depression and preying on the vulnerable extremely distressing. Personally, I admire the author for tackling a subject that is often so taboo in our society. In the whole dark and twisted plot there are also a lot of truths about death and suicide, especially the effects of suicide on the family and loved ones of the deceased. Ryan, who is the one left behind and bereaved, openly and honestly shares his feelings during the stages of grief he goes through, which gave a deeper meaning to the story. But if this subject touches a nerve, then perhaps this book is not for you.

I listened to it on Audible and spent a LOT of time sitting in the car in the driveway just to steal a few more minutes of listening time. After a long shift at work, this is always a sign of how much I love a book! Very highly recommended to all fellow lovers of dark and twisted tales!

Audiobook Mini Review: LOOK BEHIND YOU by Sibel Hodge

Title: Look Behind You

Author: Sibel Hodge
Narrator: Susan Duerden
Read: April 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟1/2

Book Description:

Chloe Benson wakes up kidnapped and bound in an underground tomb with no memory of how she got there.

She escapes through deserted woods with her life, but no one believes her story.

And when she suspects her husband is lying to her, Chloe is forced to retrace her past, following in her own footsteps to find the truth and stay alive.

But who is following Chloe?

My musings:

POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT!

I love psychological thrillers that mess with your mind, so I had high hopes for this one, but unfortunately it didn't quite deliver for me. The book starts off with Zoe as she is finding herself captive in an underground chamber, with no recollection of how she got there and what happened prior to her captivity. She manages to escape, only to find that noone believes her story, due to having suffered some sort of psychosis shortly before her disappearance that had resulted in hallucinations and an alleged attempt to take her own life. Her husband, the police and her doctors are convinced that her story is just another result of a reaction to medications that were found in her bloodstream, and tell her to get on with her life. But how can she, when she is convinced that someone is out there trying to kill her?

On a positive note, I really liked the author's interpretation of the judgment reserved for a person who may have suffered mental health issues in the past. Even though Chloe is convinced that she had been abducted and left for dead, everyone around her puts her story down to hallucinations or a cry for help. I imagine how frustrating this would be, and admit that I was never quite sure of Chloe's reliability as a narrator myself.

On the downside, I found Chloe's frantic internal monologue to be repetitive and dragging in places, slowing down the narrative and grating on my nerves as she ruminates on the same events over and over – and over again! There were few surprises in the outcome of the story for me, therefore also lacking the shock element that would have made the final denouement worth the very lengthy build up. Whilst I usually don’t mind a slow-burning mystery, I found myself getting bored and frustrated, wanting to speed things along a bit. As a character, Chloe became a bit stagnant and I would have liked a more insight and background into what made her tick. Perhaps audio, with its leisurely narration, also wasn’t the best choice for this slow-burner for me.

Book Review: 11 MISSED CALLS by Libby Carpenter

Title: 11 Missed Calls

Author: Elisabeth Carpenter
Publisher: Avon Books UK
Read: April 2018

Expected publication: 26 July 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

Here are two things I know about my mother: 

1. She had dark hair, like mine.
2. She wasn’t very happy at the end.

Anna has always believed that her mother, Debbie, died 30 years ago on the night she disappeared.

But when her father gets a strange note, she realises that she’s never been told the full story of what happened that night on the cliff.

Confused and upset, Anna turns to her husband Jack – but when she finds a love letter from another woman in his wallet, she realises there’s no-one left to help her, least of all her family.

And then a body is found…

My musings:

Elisabeth Carpenter was one of my most exciting new author discoveries in 2017, with her riveting psychological thriller 99 Red Balloons, and since then I have been anxiously waiting for the release of her new novel. Mother-daughter mysteries have always held a special fascination for me, so I was doubly excited to read the synopsis of the plot, which revolves around the mysterious disappearance of our main character’s mother over 30 years ago – I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it! And as soon as I started reading, I was happy to find that this was a gripping story that totally hooked me from the very beginning.

Carpenter uses a dual timeline to tell her story: Anna’s POV in the present as she is trying to find out the truth about her mother’s disappearance in Tenerife when Anna was only a month old; and Debbie’s voice from the 1980’s as she tells of the events leading up to her own demise, from baby Anna’s birth to the fateful holiday where she went missing. I loved Carpenter’s wonderful representation of life in the eighties, such as Debbie sitting up all night with a crying baby and staring at the test pattern on TV, and life lived out in the neighbours’ eyes. Having partially grown up in the eighties I thought the author captured the era perfectly! I could really relate to Debbie and felt so much empathy for her. It is terrible to have postnatal depression, even today, when there is more understanding and support available to deal with the condition, which would not have been understood well thirty or so years ago. Debbie’s growing sense of desperation and her slow unravelling are well represented, as are her feelings of isolation and failure as she is struggling to get through her days. Also well depicted are the gender roles of my parents’ generation, with the man going off to work and the stay-at-home mother expected to manage the children, the household and have dinner ready and served when the man of the house came home in the evening. There is a general sense of puzzlement when Debbie does not live up to her role, which only contributes to her isolation.

Having lost my mother as a child, I really related to the way Carpenter writes about the huge hole in Anna’s life left by the absence of her mother, her frustration about the half-truths she’s been told about Debbie’s disappearance and her need for answers. I always think that family secrets make for the best mysteries, and Carpenter has created a very gripping story that totally hooked me from the start. At times I felt as frustrated as Anna as all the people around her keep hiding the truth, only revealing the “alternative facts” families use to sweep dirty secrets under the carpet. There is so much raw emotion in both Debbie’s and Anna’s stories, it was impossible not to get emotionally involved! As in her previous novel, Carpenter has delivered three-dimensional, believable characters that touch your heart and your soul.

As with 99 Red Balloons, Carpenter throws in a few good curveballs and surprises, which made me suspicious of one character or the other at some stage in the book. I especially resented Monica, who seemed to be such a false friend to Debbie when she most needed someone. Anyway, I will not give any more away, except to say that the final denouement took me by surprise. I admit that there was one element in the ending that didn’t completely work for me, but I can’t say why without giving spoilers, so I will keep my mouth zipped tight and concede that endings rarely please every reader and on this occasion I am in that camp and will just have to take one for the team!

Summary:

Carpenter has once again delivered a gripping story brimming with family secrets and engaging characters that had me hooked from the start. With a theme that touched a nerve in my own personal history, there was a lot of raw emotion contained in this story for me, and I especially loved the dual timeline setting. Readers who love mysteries revolving around family dynamics and skeletons in the closet should definitely give this one a go!

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

To get ready for the July release of this book, make sure to also read the author's fabulous first book:

Book Review: THE RETREAT by Mark Edwards

Title: The Retreat

Author: Mark Edwards
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Read: April 2018

Expected publication: 10 May 2018

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

“It’s like I dived into that river two years ago. And I’m still under the water, holding my breath.”

Book Description:

Two years ago, Julia lost her family in a tragic accident. Her husband drowned trying to save their daughter, Lily, in the river near their rural home. But the little girl’s body was never found—and Julia believes Lily is somehow still alive.

Alone and broke, Julia opens her house as a writers’ retreat. One of the first guests is Lucas, a horror novelist, who becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to Lily. But within days of his arrival, the peace of the retreat is shattered by a series of eerie events.

When Lucas’s investigation leads him and Julia into the woods, they discover a dark secret—a secret that someone will do anything to protect…

What really happened that day by the river? Why was Lily never found? And who, or what, is haunting the retreat?

My musings:

Take a spooky old house in a small, isolated Welsh community, connected to the disappearance of a small girl. Add a group of writers with overactive imaginations and a sprinkling of things that go bump in the night. Stir in someone who is prepared to do anything for the past to stay hidden and pour the whole mixture into a remote, eerie forest. Does this not sound like the perfect recipe for a delicious, spooky mystery? I thought so, and thoroughly enjoyed the taste of it.

Edwards has an engaging writing style that immediately drew me into the story – I love nothing more than a claustrophobic setting, and the old mansion turned writers’ retreat provided the perfect backdrop for this tale. Horror novelist Lucas Radcliffe has come to the retreat for inspiration to make progress writing his latest ghoulish book, but even with his vivid worst-case-scenario imagination he was not prepared for the dreaded “be careful what you wish for”. The eclectic mix of characters at the retreat, plus the mysterious goings on at the house made for a story I was loathe to put down, reading way too long into the night to find out the answers. Edwards’ writing style is engaging and I remembered how much I loved one of his previous books, The Magpies, for the very same reason.

Whilst Edwards delivers a solidly plotted mystery involving a missing child, he is also not afraid to throw some urban legends and local folklore into the mix to build intrigue and suspense. Haven’t we all feared them as a child, those stories of ghouls and monsters that snatch innocent children in the night, that prowl the forest in the moonlight and steal your soul when you utter their name? I remember one vividly from my childhood, a fanged wild eyed creature who was supposed to come through your bathroom drains if you called her name three times down the toilet bowl. It may sound strange, but even as a child who was always up for a dare, I never mustered up the courage to tempt fate (there were some big rats that could make their way up the pipes, so why not a monster?). In The Retreat, it is the scary figure of the Red Widow who is being blamed by some superstitious villagers for little Lily’s disappearance. This spectre, distressed and angry after losing her unborn child, demands one of the village’s children as a sacrifice every 35 years.

If this all sounds strange and a bit “out there” to you, don’t despair, because Edwards uses these local superstitions to their full potential, and they provide as much of a backdrop as the remote claustrophobic setting. And if you are really clever and pay attention, you will pick up on the trail of breadcrumb like clues Edwards leaves along the way to point you in the right direction. With a dual timeframe and two POVs, that of Lucas himself and that of the missing girl shortly before her disappearance, the mystery is off to a most intriguing start and had me totally engrossed. Readers who find it difficult to suspend disbelief may struggle with some elements in the ending, but I am usually firmly in that camp and still found the final denouement satisfying. There is plenty of action for those who need an adrenaline fix thrown in as well.

Summary:

With its mix of mystery, action and suspense set in a claustrophobic setting against a backdrop of local folklore and superstition, The Retreat is a page-turning tale that will appeal to readers across multiple genres and those who enjoy a good story in which (in Edwards' own words) 'scary things happen to ordinary people'. 

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

Book Review: THE FEAR by C.L. Taylor

Title: The Fear

Author: C. L. Taylor
Publisher: HarperCollins Australia
Read: April 2018

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Book Description:

When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces.

Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused.

But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again become his prey…

My musings:

I can never say no to a good psychological thriller, so when C L Taylor’s new book started popping up on social media I absolutely had to read it. And it lived up to all my hopes! Here we have all the hallmarks of a gripping story that had me hooked from the start. A creepy predator – check. A crime in the past linked to the present – check. A flawed and damaged, but ultimately likeable and plucky heroine – check! A multi-layered plot that plays out over two separate timeframes – check! There are plenty of twists and surprises in store as well, and emotional triggers that will make sure that no reader can escape without some visceral responses to certain scenes described.

The most difficult part of reviewing a mystery is the fear of giving something away that will spoil the surprise for other readers, so I will leave this one very short and sweet. The blurb really tells you all you need to know about the story itself, except that there is a third, intriguing character (Wendy) who drives part of the narrative and whose role is not immediately obvious. This offers a whole new angle to what you may think is a straight-forward plot that has been done many times before. I particularly enjoyed the dynamics between the three different female leads, who each offer their own unique circumstances, strengths and vulnerabilities to the story. This is also one of the few books where excerpts from a diary work well and ratchet up the tension and emotional involvement a few notches.

As things begin to spiral out of control, these women will come into their own, in whatever part they are playing in the story. Taylor’s interest in abnormal and criminal psychology is evident in the believable way she portrays not only her villain, but also those whose lives have been affected by him, to the point where it is impossible to disengage from the story. This is a page-tuner, so allow plenty of time for it! There was a little element that required suspending disbelief, but I thought that the final little twist was so clever that it was worth the effort.

If you enjoy a good mystery, then I recommend you put this one on your TBR list! 

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