liseyp's reviews
1386 reviews

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman

Go to review page

emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The residents of Coopers Chase have seen a lot, but the impact has rarely been felt so close to home. Drawn into the world of international smugglers and scam artists Elizabeth, Joyce, Ibrahim and Ron are on the case.
 
The fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series will hopefully prove to anyone who has had their doubts that these are not cosy mysteries. Like the members of the club itself it feels like these books are sometimes  dismissed as gentle or cosy. But, the emotionally loaded fourth instalment shows that there is so much more to these books.
 
Real threats and real consequences, and a real understanding that while the motivations of thieves and murderers may be complex, the real villain of the piece is unstoppable illness and hard choices for those who may be left behind.
 
Joyce continues to grow as one of the best characters. It’s great to see her capable, practical side from years as an emergency room nurse coming to the fore here as for plot reasons Elizabeth takes a but of a step back.
 
But even the new characters we have not had the chance to build an understanding of manage to be well-rounded. And if not sympathetic then at least interesting and understandable.
 
In the acknowledgments the author says there won’t be a new Thursday Murder Club book next, as he pauses the series to explore some different characters (still crime). This is good for the Coopers Chase crew as it feels like they could really do with some time to take stock and recover from the events of this book.
The Opposite of Lonely by Doug Johnstone

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The Skelfs are back. Still recovering from the personal stresses of previous books they’re taking on new cases - investigatory and supportive - which challenge them in new ways. From missing cats, to online abuse, the still missing body of Hannah’s dad and the murder of a young girl from a hidden community on the edges of the city, the Skelfs have their hands full.
 
Once again I am astounded by how much story the author has packed into a sub-300 page novel. Three core investigations, marital strife, important consideration of the dynamics of power and the abuse of power in relationships, and a the always sensitive handling of grief and family dynamics. In any other author’s hands this would be several hundred pages longer, and yet I’m left totally satisfied as a reader. Everything I’d want from such storylines have been delivered, the plot and thoughts it has sparked will continue to bounce round my head for a long time to come.
 
I’m particularly happy with how Jenny is developing as a character. She’s always been the one slightly out of step with the rest of the Skelfs (for good reason), and in the previous book dealing with the trauma of her murderous ex-husband had sent her slightly off the rails. But, as the Opposite of Lonely progresses it’s Jenny who sees the most character growth and I’m very much here for that.
 
And, of course no Skelfs book would be complete without a fresh appreciation for and insight into the ways traditional funerals/cremations are damaging to the environment and how green alternatives should be the future.
A Haunting in the Arctic by C.J. Cooke

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you to the author, publishers Harper Collins and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.
 
Dominique is an explorer of the abandoned and unusual spaces. She is visiting an abandoned scientific research ship in the Arctic. A ship which once served as a whaling vessel from Dundee, and which is due to be dragged from its resting place and destroyed 50 years after crashing on the rocks with no sign of the research team who should have been on board. Teaming up with another group of explorers she begins to research the history of the ship.
 
Told with a narrative shift between the present day and the ship’s dark past in 1701, this is a compelling gothic exploration of trauma, memory and life at sea where the captain and first mate were law. Having loved the author’s previous novels - The Lighthouse Witches is a particular favourite of mine - I was ready to expect the unexpected, and the plot absolutely delivers on that.
The Belladonna Maze by Sinéad Crowley

Go to review page

mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Thank you to the author, publisher Aria, and online book club The Pigeonhole for the chance to read this. This is an honest and voluntary review.
 
After years swapping between winters nannying in London and summers as a Greek tour rep, Grace returns to her native Ireland as a full-time nanny for the Fitzmahons in the impressive, and possibly haunted, Hollowpark House.
 
An easy to read story combining the history of family homes, the devastating impact of the Irish potato famine, some spookiness, long unsolved mysteries and a little bit of romance. If you don’t go into this with too high expectations there is plenty to enjoy here.
 
Grace is a fairly well-developed character and apart from a predictable and tiresome crush on the father of the child she is nannying, manages to solidly carry moat of the plot. The story hinges on Grace being open to the possibility of ghosts and sensing that something isn’t what it seems with the Fitzmahons while also having believable reasons for staying. And for the most part, and certainly the much stronger first half of the book, she fulfils her role well.
 
The secondary characters are also pretty solid, with people with secrets hiding them well, and people who are red herrings acting just suspiciously enough. Unfortunately for me the first half of the book sucked me in too well and I had much higher expectations of what the overall story would deliver. 
 
Even as some of my fellow Pigeonhole readers expressed doubt over some plot points I was willing to let them go to follow the flow of the story. But, a very anticlimactic resolution to the main corporeal threat of the story, followed by an extended ‘what happens next’ section that explains things that could have been left ambiguous, left me sadly disappointed.
Kill For Me Kill For You by Steve Cavanagh

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

When grief-stricken Amanda meets Wendy at a bereavement group she feels that finally there’s someone else who understands that even beyond the mourning there’s a hatred for the person who took her loved ones away. So when the pair agree to serve their own form of justice it begins to seem like it was meant to be.
 
I have never watched the end of a book approaching with such anxiety before. This novel keeps delivering right up to the last page, to the extent that as the final chapters approached I began to fear that we wouldn’t see the resolution in this book. Like how could it possibly wrap up when so much was still happening.
 
Of course Mr Cavanagh is a professional so I really knew that I was in safe hands. And once again he proved that he’s a master of pacing and the reveals landed exactly as they should to pay off this extraordinary novel.
 
This is a standalone book. Not part of the Eddie Flynn series. Although it is a part of the same universe as a mention of Eddie’s childhood friend Jimmy ‘the hat’ Fellini proves. But apart from those couple of pages I didn’t miss Eddie at all. Sorry Eddie, I do still love you, but the characters and plotting are so strong in this novel that there’s no sense of loss of the history or framework of a series. Amanda and co. quickly became enough of a strong basis to feel fully invested in this story.
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you to the author, publisher Manilla Press, and online book club The Pigeonhole for the chance to read this. This is an honest and voluntary review.
 
Rosaline is still mourning the loss of her beloved mother when she discover her father intends to submit her to a nunnery. As she enjoys her last few nights of freedom she falls head over heals for the charming, but forbidden, Romeo Montague. As she begins to see behind Romeo’s charm he turns his sights on her younger cousin Juliet.
 
A fascinating reimagining of the most famous love story in the English language. Rosaline is lifted from a brief mention of the girl Romeo is teased about forgetting to a complex young lady finding her place in a world where she is expected to follow the social rules and have no say in what happens to her.
 
If you know the original play well I’m sure you’ll pick up on many more moments than I did, but I enjoyed that so much of the moral or caring lines attributed to Romeo are here given to Rosaline. Suggesting that like so much of her life her autonomy is overwritten by a domineering male.
 
Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter

Go to review page

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Thank you to the author, publishers Harper Collins and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.

Told through scripts and screen directions for  the true crime documentary at the heart of this story, a team of experts have been brought together to try and crack a 20-year-old unsolved murder. The show’s director is the stepson of the murder victim and is determined to find out the truth, whatever the cost.

First off if you can opt for a physical copy of the book rather than a digital one. The unusual presentation of this story, through scripts and document clippings, is pretty hard to follow in digital format. To the extent that I was ready to give up just a few chapters in.

However, I’m really glad I stuck with it as once the format settles down the story is a corker. The twists and turns, following an episodic cliffhanger format, are good and where they do feel forced that’s explained within the format. As an aside, the show’s producer is a despicable character, but it’s fine you’re not supposed to like him.
The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

The true life story of Billy Milligan, the first man to be found not guilty by reason of insanity because of dissociative identity or multiple personality disorder.
 
I love Flowers for Algernon, but I’ve never considered looking for other books by the same author. But, when I saw Daniel Keyes’s name associated with Tom Holland’s new series The Crowded Room, I was immediately intrigued.
 
This is a relatively easy to understand book in that it doesn’t labour the technical explanations of Billy’s condition or sentencing, but it’s not as easy read. The way the author write about Billy’s life makes him very sympathetic. A survivor or domestic abuse and childhood sexual assault Billy’s psyche creates personas over which he has no conscious control or awareness, but who are able to deal or suffer different aspects of Billy’s life. However, ultimately this traumatised young man in turn traumatised three women by raping and robbing them at gunpoint.
 
I don’t think the author intentionally tries to minimise this, but as his focus is on Billy’s story the impact he has on others is lost. Not that the politicians and journalists who later argue for harsher control and punishment really have those women in mind either. They just seem to like riling up hatred. Just goes to show that refusing to consider the whole story isn’t just a 21st century thing.
 
What it does show though is how horrendous the mental health system can be where it prioritises punishment and control over people who don’t follow societal norms.
 
As an insight into DID it’s hard to know if how the personas in Billy’s system (or family as they refer to it) experiences the condition is typical. I suspect there is little that is typical about a mental illness largely associated with trauma. But, it is a fascinating read.
They Lurk by Ronald Malfi

Go to review page

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

Thank you to the author, publishers Titan Books and NetGalley UK for access to this as an advance reader’s ebook. This is an honest and voluntary review.
 
A collection of five novellas about the creatures that lurk in the dark places.
 
I’m left a little bit disappointed by this collection. In the author notes they explain that the first four stories have previously been published in magazines and represent older works. The restrained word count of magazine writing may be why I felt each of the endings were disappointing, leaving me with a sense of ‘so what’.
 
The last novella, the new to publication one is the best of the bunch. It’s like if Stephen King’s The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon crossed with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The ending was still disappointing though, throwing in a did it/didn’t it happen moment that spoiled an otherwise decent thriller for me.
A Deadly Likeness by Lesley Mcevoy

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Forensic psychologist and profiler Dr Jo McCready is called into help when a series of murders are linked to a serial killer she studied as a student. Not that same serial killer has offered to help track down his copycat, but only if Jo will come and speak to him.
 
A brilliant crime thriller which only work and sleep were able to divert me (unwillingly) from reading.
 
Jo is a fantastic character, and while I’m slightly disappointed with the tension and estrangement between her and her on/off boyfriend, police detective Callum Ferguson, in this book, it does make for additional layers to the story.
 
A gripping read with a great combination of heart-in-mouth tension and a sense of humour, I highly recommend it.