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Picture You Dead (Roy Grace #18)
Picture You Dead (Roy Grace #18)
Peter James | 2022 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I can't believe I'm saying this but ... this is the first book by Peter James I have read!!! I know, where have I been all this time given that this is book 18 ... living under a rock obviously!!! Although this is book 18, I think it worked well as a standalone; there is obviously character development and back stories that I've missed but it didn't detract too much from the story as a whole.

The story delves into the world of art dealing and centres around the potential discovery of an extremely rare and sought after painting which, if genuine, is worth a fortune. The plot involves a cold case, murder, forgery, burglary and the Antiques Roadshow!

With all manner of twists and turns, this is a highly entertaining story with great characters and I must give a thank you to Pan Macmillan, Macmillan and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of Picture You Dead.
  
HG
His Game: The Woods
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
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Book sirens arc
His Game: The woods
By Tirzah M.M. Hawkins
⭐️⭐️⭐️

John returns for another game. Only this time he passes himself off as Luke, a former army medic, living alone in the woods with his dog.
Sandra is a romantic. Her idea of a good time is curling up with a love story and her cat. When she's kidnapped, tortured, and left for dead in a forest, Luke looks like the closest thing she's ever seen to a guardian angel.
But the game is still going. And she doesn't realize she's playing.

This was a decent quick read. I didn’t realise at the time it was the second of a series so I will have to go back and read the first. This is a cruel way to play a game especially when it’s not going to end well.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
  
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The Body Reader ( Detective Jude Fontaine 1)
By Anne Frasier
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive.

After her experience with isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice—and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead. Despite colleagues’ doubts about her mental state, she resumes her role at Homicide. Her new partner, Detective Uriah Ashby, doesn’t trust her sanity, and he has a story of his own he’d rather keep hidden. But a killer is on the loose, murdering young women, so the detectives have no choice: they must work together to catch the madman before he strikes again. And no one knows madmen like Jude Fontaine.

Holy cow I bloody really enjoyed this book! It was a non stop stomach clenching read. I mean to go through everything she did then to have to deal with dead 16 year old girls was just harsh! The ending was so so satisfying too I actually wanted to cheer for Jude twice! Well worth a read. I’m really enjoying this authors work at the minute.
  
Reign of the Fallen
Reign of the Fallen
Sarah Glenn Marsh | 2018 | Young Adult (YA)
8
6.5 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
Reign of the Fallen has a pretty interesting premise - there are a few different school of magic in this world, and our main character is a necromancer. (One of the side characters is a Beast Master, and another is a Healer. We also see Weather Mages.) Necromancers, far from being the mysterious evil mages we see in most fantasy, are revered and noble in this world; they bring souls back from the Deadlands, when they can, so they can continue "living" in the real world. "Living" is a loose term - they must make sure they are completely covered at all times - if a living person sees any of their flesh, they turn - immediately - into terrifying monsters that hunt and kill both the living and the Dead. And the more they kill, the more powerful they become. Thankfully, people are very, very careful, and so Shades are very rare! .....or they were. Now that someone has started to purposefully make them, shit's hitting the fan.

Odessa and her friends - three other Necromancers, a Healer, a Beast Master, and a Princess - set out to solve this mystery and take out the shades wreaking havoc on the kingdom. Entwined in that plot is the near-breaking of Odessa's spirit when one of her friends dies, and the recovery from that, as well as romances with people of both genders. Yay for bisexual representation! (One of her Necromancer friends is also in a homosexual relationship with the Healer, and it's all perfectly normal. I love seeing so many fantasy YA books these days not treating that as something special or other. Yay for culture changing! Maybe someday it won't even be so out-of-the-ordinary that I'll feel the need to point it out!)

The book had a few technical problems - a few scenes where I was confused how a character had gotten someplace when I thought they were somewhere else, some confusion in how a scene was described - but those could be overlooked with how wonderful the rest of the book was.

The plot was wrapped up very nicely by the end of the book, so I don't know if there will be a sequel or not, but I really enjoyed the world and would definitely read one if she writes it!

You can find all my reviews at http://goddessinthestacks.wordpress.com