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Sassy Brit (97 KP) rated Playing With Death in Books

Jun 6, 2019

^^ I am familiar with Simon Scarrow’s Roman novels, so was excited to try this one out, as it is something new from an established author. With Playing with Death, Scarrow is co-writing writing this novel with Lee Francis, and it is NOT a historical novel! My goodness. This could be the death of him, or so I thought. But actually, it wasn’t bad.

^^ This is what I’d call a technological thriller and it highlights how the use of gaming via Artificial Intelligence and virtual reality technology could be detrimental to society, even in our world as it is today.

^^ Rose Blake is an FBI agent with a strange new case to investigate, and it is one that will take her beyond anything she can at first imagine, as murder and online gaming intertwine and the boundaries of what she knows to be true are stretched to the limit. To top it all she is feeling distanced from her husband, Jeff, who works as Senetor Kelly’s media manager with very little downtime, plus her own job is (as you would imagine) very demanding and often cutting into her family time, putting a strain their marriage.

^^ It’s a violent, fast-paced story with lots of twists and turns, and as a lover of thrillers, I thoroughly enjoyed Scarrow’s refreshing change of genre. My dad is a huge fan of Scarrow, however, I’m not sure how he’ll take to this since it’s about technology of which I doubt he’ll be interested in. I’m hoping he’ll try it out though. Saying that, this new genre is a great way to reach out to new readers, who may have not read any of his previous historical books.

Overall: I look forward to seeing if this is the start of a new series, as I would like to see how this enjoyable book, develops into more exciting stories.

Kudos

ClareR (6062 KP) rated The Temple House Vanishing in Books

Feb 27, 2020

The Temple House Vanishing is set in an elite Convent School (Roman Catholic, all girls, lots of masses, praying and rampant oestrogen). The nuns run a tight ship - or so they think. Mr Lavelle is a young, bohemian-type character, and a fair few of the girls are in love with him. Particularly Victoria.

Louisa joins the school late as a scholarship student, and is generally looked down on by the fee-paying girls, but she and Victoria become good friends. Everything seems to be improving for Louisa. Until, that is, she disappears along with Mr Lavelle. Everyone assumes that they have run away together, and the staff and students are of no help. They close ranks. No-one wants to be involved.

Until, that is, a journalist becomes involved with retelling the story on its 25th anniversary. She manages to speak to the Head Girl at the time, and after many persistent emails, with Victoria. And this time, Victoria talks about what happened.

I liked this very much. I liked the atmosphere of the school - even though it wasn't particularly nice it was described well, especially the way the girls ganged up together to pick on whoever they assumed was the weakest link. I especially liked the journalists chapters, particularly when it became clear that she had something of a vested interest in finding out what happened to Louisa - Louisa had been her babysitter when she was a child.

This isn't a 'hold on to your hat' story. There's no-one to save - whatever happened, happened 25 years ago. It's all about WHAT happened and WHO was involved. And in the end, it's all rather sad.

I really enjoyed this, particularly the way the story unfolded. I think the teenagers emotions were described as well as the adults, and it was easy to empathise with them when necessary, and despair at their teenaged reactions and angst.

This book is well worth a read.

Many thanks to The Pigeonhole for serialising this book!