Book Review: THE WICKED SISTER by Karen Dionne

 

Title: THE WICKED SISTER

Author:  Karen Dionne

Publisher:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Read: August 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents' deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family's sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns—as her mother did years earlier—that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.

What attracted me to this book:

 

I loved Karen Dionne’s previous novel, THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER, an atmospheric mystery that made it onto my favourites list in 2018, so I was very excited to read her latest one!

My musings:

 

In THE WICKED SISTER, Dionne continues to share her knowledge and love of the Michigan UP wilderness areas with her readers. Rachel, our main protagonist, grew up in the forest, in an old hunting lodge that has been in her father’s family for generations. It made sense to her that her scientist parents should choose such a remote location, which gave them access to the wilderness they were writing about. Little does she know the real reason why her parents chose to relocate here from their suburban home, nor is she aware of the cascade of events that led to her parents’ murder-suicide when Rachel was eleven. Haunted by disjointed memories of holding the gun that killed her mother, and plagued by feelings of guilt that she may have been responsible for her parents’ death, Rachel has spent the last fifteen years in a mental institution. Now, if not cured then at least pronounced able to return into society, it’s time for Rachel to go home.

 

In another timeline was hear from Jenny, Rachel’s mother, telling of the events leading up to her and her husband’s death. And if you have read Dionne’s previous novel, then you will know her knack of delving into the darkest corners of the human psyche and creating a tale that is truly chilling to the core. I wished that I had read this with a buddy, because I needed counselling after this disturbing tale! If I had to sum it up in one word only, “unsettling” comes to mind. Shaken to the core is another. As layer after layer is stripped away and Rachel’s fragmented memories fall into place, the truth is a picture you will not forget in a hurry.

 

As much as some of the story’s aspects disturbed me, I thoroughly enjoyed the wilderness setting and the rich descriptions of all kinds of wildlife found there. THE WICKED SISTER is the kind of book where the setting acts like another character, and I was instantly transported there. As with her previous book, Dionne incorporates aspects of legends and fairy tales into her story. Maybe it’s the creation of a child’s mind surviving trauma that Rachel thinks she is able to communicate with animals, or maybe it’s just her survival instinct, but it has saved her life more than once. Even though this element may seem somewhat whimsical, it gave me a sense of hope of how a young child may cope in extreme psychological distress.

 

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE WICKED SISTER was a dark and unsettling psychological thriller that drew me in very quickly and had me glued to the pages for hours. I especially enjoyed the remote wilderness setting and Dionne’s rich descriptions of the dense forests of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, which made for armchair travel of the best kind. Even though some aspects of the plot – especially the ending – seemed slightly farfetched, this did not distract from my overall feeling of quiet discomfort that I really appreciate in a mystery. I look forward to Dionne’s next book, and hope she will take us back to the forest she loves and knows so well.

 

  

 

Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P. Putnam’s Sons for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

 

Book Review: THE SEARCHER by Tana French

 

Title: THE SEARCHER

         Author:  Tana French

         Publisher:  Penguin Group UK / Viking

         Read: August 2020

         Expected publication: 5 November 2020

         My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 all the stars!

 

Book Description:

 

Retired detective Cal Hooper moves to a remote village in rural Ireland. His plans are to fix up the dilapidated cottage he's bought, to walk the mountains, to put his old police instincts to bed forever.

Then a local boy appeals to him for help. His brother is missing, and no one in the village, least of all the police, seems to care. And once again, Cal feels that restless itch.

Something is wrong in this community, and he must find out what, even if it brings trouble to his door.

 

What attracted me to this book:

 

There is a reason why Tana French is one of my all-time favourite authors, and her books are on my most anticipated auto-buy list. And even though I am still hoping for another instalment in the Dublin Murder Squad series, this did not curtail my excitement on finding out that her new stand-alone novel is coming out later this year. I did a happy dance that sent the dog scurrying outside in fright when I received an ARC from Netgalley!

My musings:

 

Every one of Tana French’s books may be quite different from each other, both in characters and even writing style, but there hasn’t been a single one where I have not instantly felt transported into another world within a few paragraphs. THE SEARCHER was no exception. I would almost say that it was French’s most atmospheric book yet, but then I think of the claustrophobic housing development in BROKEN HARBOUR, or the rickety old mansion in THE LIKENESS, or the spooky forest of IN THE WOODS, and come to see that atmospheric settings are her forte! Let’s just say that I particularly liked this one, the small village somewhere in Ireland, surrounded by gently rolling green hills, forests and mountains, and so idyllic at first glance. This is exactly what has attracted retired American detective Cal Hooper to the area and motivated him to settle across the Atlantic in his newly purchased tumble down farmhouse. He just wants a quiet life, and this place promises exactly that. Until a raggedy teenager turns up on his doorstep, and Cal becomes embroiled in a mystery some people are prepared to keep hidden at all cost.

 

Please note that THE SEARCHER is a slow-burning, character driven book that relies heavily on atmosphere and the things left unspoken to carry the story along. So if you are looking for fast-paced, you may be disappointed. However, if you – like me – love a story brimming with atmosphere and appreciate an undercurrent of menace and danger that is entirely being created by seemingly benign things, then you’re in luck! I enjoy nothing more than a small town setting that oozes intrigue and where everyone has something to hide. French recreates this setting so well!

 

I also appreciate the way that each character in the book ultimately managed to surprise me as we got glimpses beneath the surface. There again we had that bittersweet feeling of melancholy that is another one of French’s hallmarks. Whether it is the dream of friendship and family (THE LIKENESS), or of a beautiful forever home (BROKEN HARBOUR), or this time a peaceful life and healing from a failed marriage – we can all relate to those at some level, can’t we? However, like life, French has other plans for her characters, and the expulsion from an imagined paradise leaves behind a slight taste of sadness. We know that life for our characters will never be the same after this, and will always carry the scars, and the echo of things that could have been.

 

 

Summary:

 

All in all, THE SEARCHER is the type of slow burning, atmospheric novel oozing with an undercurrent of menace and danger I have come to expect from the pen of Tana French. Grabbing me from page one, it didn’t let go until the very last page had been turned, and consumed my thoughts for quite some time after that. I enjoyed everything, from the rural Irish setting to its authentic characters and the mystery at the heart of the novel that threatens everything our main protagonist has hoped for when he moved here. I enjoyed every minute of it!

 

 

 

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

 

Book Review: THE NIGHT SWIM by Megan Goldin

 

Title: THE NIGHT SWIM

Author:  Megan Goldin

Publisher:  St Martin’s Press 

Read: August 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

 

 

Book Description:

 

 

After the first season of her true crime podcast became an overnight sensation and set an innocent man free, Rachel Krall is now a household name―and the last hope for thousands of people seeking justice. But she’s used to being recognized for her voice, not her face. Which makes it all the more unsettling when she finds a note on her car windshield, addressed to her, begging for help.


The small town of Neapolis is being torn apart by a devastating rape trial. The town’s golden boy, a swimmer destined for Olympic greatness, has been accused of raping a high school student, the beloved granddaughter of the police chief. Under pressure to make Season Three a success, Rachel throws herself into interviewing and investigating―but the mysterious letters keep showing up in unexpected places. Someone is following her, and she won’t stop until Rachel finds out what happened to her sister twenty-five years ago. Officially, Jenny Stills tragically drowned, but the letters insists she was murdered―and when Rachel starts asking questions, nobody seems to want to answer. The past and present start to collide as Rachel uncovers startling connections between the two cases that will change the course of the trial and the lives of everyone involved.


Electrifying and propulsive, The Night Swim asks: What is the price of a reputation? Can a small town ever right the wrongs of its past? And what really happened to Jenny?

 

What attracted me to this book:

 

With THE ESCAPE ROOM having been a five-star read for me, I was thrilled to receive an ARC of Goldin’s latest novel, THE NIGHT SWIM. Do you keep some books on your TBR for a special treat to cash in at a time you really need it? Well, I did that here and it totally paid off.

 

My musings:

 

Over the last couple of years, I have noted a rise in mysteries featuring social media and podcasts, and I enjoy the inclusion of various types of media to flesh out the story. Goldin’s main protagonist, Rachel Krall, is the creator of a popular true crime podcast, and her recordings feature as separate chapters telling part of the story. It almost had the feel of a “book within a book” concept, and I love that!

 

THE NIGHT SWIM may have triggers for some readers, such as violence and rape, but it did make for compelling and contemplative reading. Rachel Krall is covering a rape trial in which a small town’s golden boy has been accused of raping the sixteen-year-old granddaughter of the police chief. The town is divided. Is she lying? Is he guilty? As Rachel knows, rape trials are excruciating agony for the victim, as they have to re-live all the gory details of the attack. It doesn’t help that it usually comes down to a he-said-she-said trial, in which each solicitor is trying to win over the jury by whatever means they can. It is Rachel’s goal to provide her audience with as much neutral facts as she can.

 

But Rachel’s attention is not purely focused on the trial after receiving an anonymous letter from a woman who is asking for help in finding her sister’s killer. Allegedly the murder occurred in the same small town where the trial is taking place, over 20 years ago. Once Rachel starts asking questions, she feels like she is hitting a brick wall, and her curiosity is piqued ...

 

A tale of two rapes, in the same small town, decades apart – this may not sound like uplifting reading, but it was woven into a compelling mystery with such skill and sensitivity of a brilliant writer that I could not tear myself away. All the feels with this one: fear, fury, grief and a fist-clenching anxiety as I was waiting for justice to prevail. THE NIGHT SWIM is a book that will take you on a rollercoaster of emotion and spit you out, breathless and exhausted, but not after the last page has been turned. Told trough the POVs of both Rachel and Hannah and interspersed with episodes of Rachel’s podcast, I frantically turned the pages to find out more. I was disappointed that this was not a real podcast I could get addicted to, because it ticked all the boxes for me – the podcast that puts you in the jury box. Yes please! Harrowing – yes. But utterly compelling.

  

Summary:

 

It is hard to believe that both THE NIGHT SWIM and THE ESCAPE ROOM came from the pen of the same writer, because on the surface they couldn’t be more different. But once you look deeper, you will see some similarities, mainly in the strong female leads and their quest for justice. And, of course, the brilliant writing! Edgy, raw and very relevant today, this was a total winner for me and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 

 If you enjoyed the podcast elements in this one, you may also like:

 

 

Thank you to Edelweiss  and St Martin’s Press for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

 

Book Review: THE DEEP by Alma Katsu

 

Title: THE DEEP

Author:  Alma Katsu

Publisher:  G.P. Putnam’s Sons

Read: August 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟

 

Book Description:

 

Someone, or something, is haunting the Titanic.

This is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the passengers of the ship from the moment they set sail: mysterious disappearances, sudden deaths. Now suspended in an eerie, unsettling twilight zone during the four days of the liner's illustrious maiden voyage, a number of the passengers - including millionaires Madeleine Astor and Benjamin Guggenheim, the maid Annie Hebbley and Mark Fletcher - are convinced that something sinister is going on . . . And then, as the world knows, disaster strikes.

Years later and the world is at war. And a survivor of that fateful night, Annie, is working as a nurse on the sixth voyage of the Titanic's sister ship, the Britannic, now refitted as a hospital ship. Plagued by the demons of her doomed first and near fatal journey across the Atlantic, Annie comes across an unconscious soldier she recognises while doing her rounds. It is the young man Mark. And she is convinced that he did not - could not - have survived the sinking of the Titanic . . . 

 

What attracted me to this book:

 

Show me a person who isn’t fascinated by the history of the ill fated Titanic and its passengers – I certainly am, and the promise of a ghost story on the grand ship was just too tempting to resist!

My musings:

 

It is not all that farfetched to imagine that some would blame an evil deity or spirit for the great ship’s demise, seeing how all three sister ships of the White StarLine’s fleet of steamships succumbed to tragedy. And even though Annie, our main protagonist, was an entirely fictional character, Katsu wove several true historical figures into her story to lend it substance – I enjoyed reading up on some of them after finishing the book, and they provided a fascinating backstory. Especially intriguing to me was Violet Jessop, the true survivor of all three White Star Line maritime disasters. A stewardess on the RMS Olympic and the RMS Titanic, she also survived the torpedoing of the last sister, the HMHS Britannic. To be honest, I thought that Violet, who featured only peripherally, would have made a much better narrator than the somewhat insipid Annie, but I can see that this would have created inaccuracies that could not have been easily excused by writing fiction. My biggest disappointment, however, was that I bonded with many of the narrators who feature as passengers of the ill-fated Titanic, but never learned of their final fate.

 

If I had to put my finger of why I experienced an overall lingering feeling of discontent I would say that the book suffered from having too much packed into the one story. Two timelines from Annie’s POV, several POVs from various passengers on the Titanic, and a final rather fantastical supernatural element towards the end that felt forced and il-fitted to the overall story. Had the book stuck with the Titanic setting and its characters, it would have worked much better for me, especially as I never really connected to Annie but found some of the more peripheral characters (such as the two boxers) much more engaging.

 

The supernatural element, which is always a difficult theme to balance, was slightly underdone in the first part of the story, where the vast bulk of the Titanic could have provided more setting for unsettling encounters and an underlying feeling of menace and dread. It ramped up in the second timeline, but seemed ill-matched to the rest of the story and seemed unbelievable and forced to me. To be honest, the last quarter of the book barely managed to hold my interest, featuring – in my opinion - the two least interesting characters whose fate I was barely invested in.

 

 

Summary:

 

To sum it all up into one coherent paragraph, THE DEEP was the type of dual narrative where one timeline definitely overshadowed the other one, to the detriment of my overall enjoyment. Whilst I loved the chapters involving the voyage of the ill-fated Titanic, I felt myself skimming through large parts of the second timeline. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the historical details included in the book, and probably learned much about the events leading up to the sinking of the great ship by reading up on many of the people Katsu included in her story. It’s never easy to mix fact with fiction, and I feel that the author did a great job here by bringing some of these historical figures to life for us. I am very keen now to read her earlier book THE HUNGER, which also blends historical fiction with a ghostly element.

 

 

 

Thank you to Edelweiss and G.P. Putnam’s Sons  for the free electronic copy of this novel and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.

 

Book Review: THE SPLIT by Sharon Bolton

 

Title: THE SPLIT

Author:  Sharon Bolton

Read: August 2020

Expected publication: out now

My Rating: 🌟🌟🌟1/2

 

Book Description:

 

The remote Antarctic island of South Georgia is about to send off its last boat of the summer – which signifies safety to resident glaciologist Felicity Lloyd.

Felicity lives in fear – fear that her ex-husband Freddie will find her, even out here. She took a job on this isolated island to hide from him, but now that he's out of prison, having served a term for murder, she knows he won’t give up until he finds her.

But a doctor delving into the background of Felicity and Freddie's relationship, back in Cambridge, learns that Felicity has been on the edge for a long time. Heading to South Georgia himself to try and get to her first is the only way he can think of to help her.

 

What attracted me to this book:

 

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that Sharon Bolton is one of my favourite auto-buy authors, and I would read anything she has written, from a shopping list to the doodles made on a notepad whilst she is on the phone. So it was a no-brainer that I was eagerly lining up to get my hands on her latest creation.

 

My musings:

 

THE SPLIT promised not only an intriguing mystery but also a remote atmospheric setting of the best kind – the island of South Georgia in the southern Atlantic Ocean. I admit that I had never heard of this place before, which made this armchair travel even more special. Pictures show a small rugged landmass covered in ice and inhabited by interesting creatures such as penguins, seals and reindeer. It makes the perfect setting in which the main character, Brit Felicity Lloyd, holds the unusual job title of glaciologist. We first meet Felicity at work on South Georgia, feeling absolutely terrified of a new passenger who is just about to arrive on one of the tourist ships docking on the island. She has already made an escape plan, which involves a dangerous journey in a small boat across the icy water with the imminent threat of a fierce storm about to engulf the island. But why is Felicity so afraid? And who is this mysterious Freddie who has tracked her down in this remote place?

 

With her usual flair for creating atmosphere, I was soon transported to this wild and wonderful remote island, and thoroughly enjoyed learning more about its rugged beauty, especially the glaciers Felicity’s research centres around.  And even though the second timeline leading up to Felicity’s present predicament was set in Cambridge, UK, which features in many of Bolton’s novels, I felt equally drawn to both parts of the story. After a slow burning beginning, the second timeline soon set out to answer a lot of my questions, and Felicity’s situations became a lot clearer.

 

If you have read any of Bolton’s book, you know she can write and tell a gripping yarn. Perhaps THE SPLIT lacked some of the Gothic feel that usually creates a tense and claustrophobic vibe in her other books, and I did miss the sense of dread I have been taking for granted in Bolton’s novels. It may be a symptom of reading too many psychological thrillers that I found the plot in this one quite predictable, and was waiting right until the end to be proven wrong, which is what usually happens. I felt gobsmacked to find that my theory was correct! Maybe there is hope yet for my armchair detective career.

 

So here I am, feeling split between my loyalty to this great author and THE SPLIT (I aplogise for this terrible pun). On one hand, there is a brilliant, remote claustrophobic setting. On the other hand, a very slow start, a fairly predictable plot and one of the main characters who needs to be brought before an ethics board for having a few issues with getting way too closely involved with his patients (which really bugged me). Strangely, I felt very similar about the first book I ever read by Bolton, SACRIFICE, which also featured a wonderful atmospheric setting but evoked similar feelings in me as this latest one.

 

 

Summary:

 

In summary, THE SPIT will appeal to readers who love a remote, claustrophobic and atmospheric setting that features almost like its own character in the mystery. After a slow-burner start, the second timeline moved things around at a much better pace. Despite finding the plot somewhat predictable and missing some of the dark, Gothic vibes of Bolton’s other works, I thoroughly enjoyed the armchair travel in this one and felt engaged until the end. Hopefully, for readers who don’t read as many mysteries as I do, the main plot will hold plenty of surprises and give you that “aha-moment” I had been waiting for.