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Fractured: Part 2 ( Soviet book 12)
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
33 of 235
Kindle
Fractured:part 2 ( Society book 12)
By Mason Sabre
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The second and final instalment of Fractured. When Cade MacDonald made a bargain with his father—his alpha, he never suspected he was sacrificing the very person who meant the world to him. Torn between his love for Gemma, and his loyalty to Natalie, Cade must choose. His life, or the one thing he wants more than anything, Gemma? Especially when he is investigating the murder of a young shifter who was slaughtered for the same secret Cade holds close to his own heart, he must face more truths than his soul can stand.

I freaking loved it!!!! This is what I was looking forward to. Finally seeing something play out with Cade and Gemma and wow is this going to be interesting going forward. The ending had me almost cheering and waking my husband as it’s 2am! Can’t wait to see where we go from here.
  
JB
Jail Bird
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
68 of 235
Book
Jail Bird
By Jessie Keane
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder, loyalty and vengeance collide in Jessie Keane's gritty fourth novel. Blonde and beautiful Lily King is back on the scene - and not in a good way. Her family haven't missed her. Her husband, London villain Leo King, certainly hasn't, because he's dead. Lily killed him and did time for it. At least, that's the story. Everyone believes it. But Lily knows it's not true. She knows she was fitted up by someone close to her. Now, she's just hit thirty, she's out, and she doesn't do forgiveness. But in her absence, things have moved on, the old order has changed, and now she's ready to reclaim her position as head of the King family. Fuelled by vengeance and power, Lily King is back. London won't know what hit it.

Loved it! Can’t imagine being locked away from everything you love especially being innocent! I love Jessie Keane her books really pack a punch!
  
The Seventh Victim
The Seventh Victim
Michael Wood | 2023 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I really love Michael Wood's DCI Matilda Darke series but this is a standalone thriller from him which is equally as good and no-less riveting but please be warned, it does deal with child murder and abuse so if this is a trigger, I would suggest you look elsewhere.

Mr Wood treats us to a cast of excellent characters that leap out of the page and grab hold of you from the beginning to the very end and whilst not all of them are particularly 'nice', they are all well developed and all have their place in the story and what a story it is.

Dark, disturbing, powerful, emotional, riveting and full of tension with a twist I didn't see coming, this is a must read for all thriller fans and my thanks go to One More Chapter, HarperCollins UK and NetGalley for enabling me to read and share my thoughts of The Seventh Victim.
  
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide
Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide
Rupert Holmes | 2023 | Mystery
5
5.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Planning the Perfect…Deletion
You’ve never heard of McMasters, the secret college that teaches adults of all age how to get away with deleting someone, what we uninitiated would call murder. This book, presented as an instructional book for those of us who can’t attend the university, has three case studies from three students in the 1950’s. They all need to delete their bosses for various reasons. Will they learn enough to help them?

I’d heard about this book for a while, and finally remembered to get it from the library. Parts of it were fun, like the word play. However, that didn’t carry on throughout the book, at least for me. My biggest gripe is that trying to juggle three students made it hard to focus on and remember who all the players were in all three stories. I think taking out one of the students would have helped. Still, I did have fun with this book. I’m glad I finally gave it a chance.
  
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Daniel Boyd (1066 KP) rated The Sinner - Season 1 in TV

Nov 30, 2017 (Updated Nov 30, 2017)  
The Sinner - Season 1
The Sinner - Season 1
2017 | Crime
I like Bill Pullman and Jessica Biel (0 more)
Barely any of the characters were sympathetic or relatable (3 more)
The ending was dissatisfying
So many wasted episodes
It was only 9 episodes long, but it felt far longer
A Sin That This Wasn't Better
This show came highly recommended to me by sources that I usually trust, but it turned out to be a total let down. The show opens with a young family going to the beach. The mother who is played by Jessica Biel, suddenly walks over to another young man on the beach and stabs him to death in front of over a hundred witnesses in broad daylight. She is then arrested and the show spends the next 8 episodes clumsily trying to explain why she committed this heinous act.

I like Jessica Biel, I like Bill Pullman and I like Christopher Abbott, who plays the husband to Biel's Cora Tannetti. I like mysterious shows about crime and murder. I should have loved this, but I thought it was a train wreck from start to finish. During the first episode we see the murder occur in graphic detail, then the next couple of episodes ask why she did what she did and then you start to wonder, "how are they going to manage to drag this out for another six episodes without it getting stale?" The answer is, they aren't and it gets old fast. In this sense, the writing is a mess.

Sometimes though, a show can have messy writing, but be saved by it's cast of characters. However, that is absolutely not the case here. Cora is the main character of the show, so I think we are supposed to feel some sort of connection to her, yet she is so grossly off-putting in every way, I was actually was hoping to see her get the death sentence. At first you see her committing this atrocity, which obviously causes you to take an instant dislike to her, but you expect as the show goes on and we learn more about her, that we will eventually feel sympathetic towards her. In fact, the exact opposite is true, every new facet of information that I learned about her backstory just made me hate her more and at no point did I feel like I was on her side.

There is also a flashback subplot going on, which shows Cora as a suspiciously old looking teenager, as for some reason Jessica Biel is still playing the role of the teenage Cora. Through this we see her family life growing up, but her family are some of the most dislikeable characters I have seen in a TV show in years. Her mother is a religious nut to the point of insanity, her father is sleeping with the next door neighbour and her terminally ill sister is such a little shit that you don't feel any sympathy towards her for her illness and you end up hoping she will die sooner rather than later.

I'll try to discuss the ending without giving away any major spoilers, but for those who haven't yet seen the show, you may want to skip to the final paragraph. At around the episode 5 mark, I was very close to giving up on this show, but I had heard that the ending was amazing, so I stuck with it. What a waste of time that turned out to be. The reveal itself was a huge let down and after everything was revealed, I still felt that the murder victim didn't deserve to die and I thought that Cora pretty much getting away with murder was so dissatisfying and undeserved.

Overall, this show is pretty awful. There are so many plot threads that go nowhere, the writing thinks it is far more clever than it actually is, actors that I normally like are playing entirely dislikeable characters and the whole thing seems far longer than just nine episodes. The ending isn't worth sticking around for and really the show is just tons of wasted potential. Do yourself a favour and give this a skip, there are far better shows available to watch on Netflix.
  
The Trespasser: Dublin Murder Squad
The Trespasser: Dublin Murder Squad
Tana French | 2016 | Crime, Thriller
8
8.3 (6 Ratings)
Book Rating
We're up to the sixth installment in Tana French's Dublin Murder Squad series and she's still going strong. In this one, we hear from Antoinette Conway, the partner of Stephen Moran from French's previous novel, [b:The Secret Place|20821043|The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)|Tana French|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1396671263s/20821043.jpg|21598636]. Being a Detective on the Murder Squad isn't everything Antoinette hoped for. She isn't fitting in on the male squad--most of whom tease and prank her viciously--and she and Steve seem only to receive the most bland, boring cases. Not much bothers Antoinette, but she's about ready to leave the Squad behind for good. So when the latest case comes in--handed straight to Conway and Moran by their boss--it looks like much of the same: another domestic dispute. Beautiful, blond Aislinn Murray has been killed in her home. It looks like a typical lover's quarrel gone wrong. Aislinn's table is set for a romantic dinner, and she's dressed up for a beau. But as Antoinette and Steve investigate, they find things aren't exactly what they seem. Why is their colleague, Detective Breslin, so involved in their case? Why does Antoinette keep seeing someone following her home? And why is the local media out to get her? Antoinette knows the Squad doesn't like her, but now it seems like the hatred is wrapped up in her case, too. Who can she trust--and where will it end?

I'll say it up front: this was an excellent mystery. Just a wonderful read. I love all of French's novels, but thoroughly enjoyed this one. Antoinette was a refreshing voice and completely relatable. Her case was interesting and well-plotted, leaving you constantly guessing. As per a typical French novel, you don't receive just a simple mystery; each of her books comes with a backstory. In this one, we see Antoinette battling her demons and her inability to fit in with her Squad. Are they really out to get her, or is it all in her head? It's true that French's books probably aren't for everyone. There's a lot of talking, a lot of expounding, and a lot of knowing what her characters are thinking. But, in turn, you're presented with characters who are so complex, so rich and in-depth. It's amazing. I've said it in previous reviews, but I love that when I open one of French's novels, I know that I'll be completely transported into another world for a few days. Her writing is strong that you completely inhabit her characters and their environment.

Antoinette, as mentioned, is a complex female character -- strong yet vulnerable and just completely refreshing to find in a detective novel. Her relationship with Moran was very enjoyable to read about, especially after hearing about their initial early meeting in [b:The Secret Place|20821043|The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5)|Tana French|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1396671263s/20821043.jpg|21598636] from Moran's point of view. There's a humor to Conway, lending levity when needed, but also a dark side. She's bitter with the world for a reason. Because the entire book is told from her perspective, we're figuring out the mystery with her, learning facts and alibis as she does, and unraveling the plot along with our detective. Of course, we're limited to seeing the case from her perspective, too. As Moran and Conway try to determine who they can trust, so do we. The book expertly leaves you guessing with the plot; it takes you in one direction early in an incredibly convincing matter. It also skillfully takes you inside the Squad, allowing us to see not only how a case is run, but the inner politics.

In this way, the novel is not just a well-crafted mystery but a lovely treatise on relationships and friendships and the lengths we go for both. I'm also left amazed at how much French can put into a novel. Her way with words is magical, and I just love her books, her stories, and her characters. I highly recommend this novel, or any of her earlier work. 4.5 stars.