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The Night Gate
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In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of...
Hazel (2934 KP) rated The Dinner Lady Detectives in Books
Oct 24, 2021
This is, in my humble opinion, a very successful debut and definitely a series that I am looking forward to keeping up with. It is described as "a delightful, quintessentially British cosy mystery" and that's exactly what you get.
Margery and Clementine are dinner ladies, or to give them their official title 'Education Centre Nourishment Consultants' (really? is that what they're called now?!?!?!), and they are an absolute blast. Their relationship absolutely shines through from start to finish, it's beautiful and very authentic feeling.
Margery and Clementine smell a rat when one of their colleagues is found dead in the walk-in freezer of the school kitchen and so begins their unorthodox investigation into her death which results in all manner of escapades. There are some very funny moments (the suspended school ceiling being a particular highlight for me đ¤Łđ¤Ł) amongst a great and engaging plot with excellent characters throughout.
I raced through this book desperate to find out what happened and how it was all going to come together and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest and I am pleased to read on the publisher website that they have acquired the rights to a three-book deal. I think someone needs to snap this up and make a television series - I can so see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as Margery and Clem, in fact, that's who I was seeing in my head as I was reading it!
Highly recommended for those of you who want a break from all the doom, gloom and violence in many crime fiction books and who don't mind a bit of dark humour.
Thank you so much Canelo and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
Margery and Clementine are dinner ladies, or to give them their official title 'Education Centre Nourishment Consultants' (really? is that what they're called now?!?!?!), and they are an absolute blast. Their relationship absolutely shines through from start to finish, it's beautiful and very authentic feeling.
Margery and Clementine smell a rat when one of their colleagues is found dead in the walk-in freezer of the school kitchen and so begins their unorthodox investigation into her death which results in all manner of escapades. There are some very funny moments (the suspended school ceiling being a particular highlight for me đ¤Łđ¤Ł) amongst a great and engaging plot with excellent characters throughout.
I raced through this book desperate to find out what happened and how it was all going to come together and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest and I am pleased to read on the publisher website that they have acquired the rights to a three-book deal. I think someone needs to snap this up and make a television series - I can so see Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders as Margery and Clem, in fact, that's who I was seeing in my head as I was reading it!
Highly recommended for those of you who want a break from all the doom, gloom and violence in many crime fiction books and who don't mind a bit of dark humour.
Thank you so much Canelo and NetGalley for my advance copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.
ClareR (5577 KP) rated Lying Beside You in Books
Oct 2, 2022
Lying Beside You is the third book in the Cyrus Haven series - and Iâll admit now that I havenât read the first two. It didnât affect my enjoyment though. There are enough hints at the background that I could understand what was going on and who was who.
Cyrus is a busy forensic psychologist and criminal profiler, and to add more to his load, he has a lodger with a distressing background (which is only hinted at, but thatâs all youâll need), and his brother is due to be released from a secure institution. His brother has lived and been treated there since he murdered the rest of his and Cyrusâ family.
I found it fascinating how Cyrus seemed to be able to forgive his brother for his actions - particularly as heâd learnt from his job how his brother wasnât in control of himself at the time. On the other hand, he seemed hesitant to have him back out in society and in his house. But heâs designed to it. I liked how it showed how complex his feelings towards his brother were.
And what a nice person Cyrus is generally. His lodger has had a very bad experience (which we donât find out about in this book). Heâs patient and tries to help her, and understands that she needs time and space. Heâs a great character actually.
You might get from this that I specifically like the characters in books, and that I just see plot as a nice aside. Well, you wouldnât be wrong. But this has enough exciting plot to keep the crime fiction fans very happy. It all gets quite frenetic towards the end, and I had no idea who the perpetrator was up to the big reveal.
Itâs a great book - many thanks to the Pigeonhole and Michael Robotham.
Cyrus is a busy forensic psychologist and criminal profiler, and to add more to his load, he has a lodger with a distressing background (which is only hinted at, but thatâs all youâll need), and his brother is due to be released from a secure institution. His brother has lived and been treated there since he murdered the rest of his and Cyrusâ family.
I found it fascinating how Cyrus seemed to be able to forgive his brother for his actions - particularly as heâd learnt from his job how his brother wasnât in control of himself at the time. On the other hand, he seemed hesitant to have him back out in society and in his house. But heâs designed to it. I liked how it showed how complex his feelings towards his brother were.
And what a nice person Cyrus is generally. His lodger has had a very bad experience (which we donât find out about in this book). Heâs patient and tries to help her, and understands that she needs time and space. Heâs a great character actually.
You might get from this that I specifically like the characters in books, and that I just see plot as a nice aside. Well, you wouldnât be wrong. But this has enough exciting plot to keep the crime fiction fans very happy. It all gets quite frenetic towards the end, and I had no idea who the perpetrator was up to the big reveal.
Itâs a great book - many thanks to the Pigeonhole and Michael Robotham.
Ivana A. | Diary of Difference (1171 KP) rated Quarry's Climax (Quarry #14) in Books
Aug 21, 2018
My full review can be found on this link as well: https://www.diaryofdifference.com/2018/05/15/quarrys-climax-max-allan-collins-book-review/
Quarryâs Climax is the 14th book of the Quarry series, and even though I only had the chance to read this one, the rest of the books are certainly something that I have put on my TBR list!
<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498930963i/34014841._UY630_SR1200,630_.jpg"/>;
The plot is simple â until, of course, it gets complicated:
Quarry is a Hitman â he kills people for pleasure, I mean, money! He works for this guy ââthe Brokerââ and his new mission is to protect a chairman of an underrated Porn magazine and strip club â The Climax. When this task might seem easy, suddenly everyone hides something and everyone has secrets. And then our man Quarry â who usually goes on the spot and just kills whoever he needs to, now has to play the role of a detective, find out what the hell is going on in this rat hole, and eliminate any danger.
Now - first things first - I am not usually a person that reads these types of books - Pulp fiction, hardboiled fiction, entangled harsh noir stories, but this book pleasantly surprised me with its light reading experience and admirable description of the characters.
Quarry â now thatâs one interesting character! Quarry is what happens when you mix a Cowboy personality, with a bit of witty humour, no respect for ladies and egotistical appearance. I happened to actually kind of like this guy!
Though the part I didnât like it how he treats women and talks about them as they are a piece of meat with no brain whatsoever. I am not a feminist, but I mean â you couldnât have tried harder, I guess. He would just go to a scene, let us know how irrelevant and thick this lady is, he would sleep with her, never call her again, and then continue with his life as nothing happened. Wonderful, isnât it?
This is one of a kind book for me, and even though I wouldnât put it on my favourites pile, it has a special place in my heart. I greatly enjoyed it, and it made me smirk at times. I will definitely explore this genre in the future, and I am sure that Quarryâs Climax was a great beginning for me on that.
I received this book by winning a Goodreads Giveaway from Max Allan Collins and Hard Case Crime.
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Quarryâs Climax is the 14th book of the Quarry series, and even though I only had the chance to read this one, the rest of the books are certainly something that I have put on my TBR list!
<img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1498930963i/34014841._UY630_SR1200,630_.jpg"/>;
The plot is simple â until, of course, it gets complicated:
Quarry is a Hitman â he kills people for pleasure, I mean, money! He works for this guy ââthe Brokerââ and his new mission is to protect a chairman of an underrated Porn magazine and strip club â The Climax. When this task might seem easy, suddenly everyone hides something and everyone has secrets. And then our man Quarry â who usually goes on the spot and just kills whoever he needs to, now has to play the role of a detective, find out what the hell is going on in this rat hole, and eliminate any danger.
Now - first things first - I am not usually a person that reads these types of books - Pulp fiction, hardboiled fiction, entangled harsh noir stories, but this book pleasantly surprised me with its light reading experience and admirable description of the characters.
Quarry â now thatâs one interesting character! Quarry is what happens when you mix a Cowboy personality, with a bit of witty humour, no respect for ladies and egotistical appearance. I happened to actually kind of like this guy!
Though the part I didnât like it how he treats women and talks about them as they are a piece of meat with no brain whatsoever. I am not a feminist, but I mean â you couldnât have tried harder, I guess. He would just go to a scene, let us know how irrelevant and thick this lady is, he would sleep with her, never call her again, and then continue with his life as nothing happened. Wonderful, isnât it?
This is one of a kind book for me, and even though I wouldnât put it on my favourites pile, it has a special place in my heart. I greatly enjoyed it, and it made me smirk at times. I will definitely explore this genre in the future, and I am sure that Quarryâs Climax was a great beginning for me on that.
I received this book by winning a Goodreads Giveaway from Max Allan Collins and Hard Case Crime.
<a href="https://diaryofdifference.com/">Blog</a>; | <a href="https://www.facebook.com/diaryofdifference/">Facebook</a>; | <a href="https://twitter.com/DiaryDifference">Twitter</a>; | <a href="http://innahcrazy.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a>; | <a href="https://www.instagram.com/diaryofdifference/">Instagram</a>; | <a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/diaryofdifference/pins/">Pinterest</a>; |
honingwords (32 KP) rated Alias in Books
Jul 5, 2018
Iâve never read a book by Cari Hunter that I haven't loved and Alias lived up to my high expectations.
Iâve never read a book by Cari Hunter that I haven't loved and Alias lived up to my high expectations. It became available to me soon after I finished the third of her Dark Peaks trilogy so I was able to fangirl-mode right into it.
It is an absolute joy to read Cari Hunterâs books. Iâm so thankful I have stumbled across her at the point where there have been a few books to binge on. It is no secret that I think she is one of the finest authors currently, and she has re-awakened my interest in crime thrillers after many years of reading solely romances. Itâs a bonus that she is writing novels about regional parts of the UK.
Alias is written in the first person through-out, which is different to her other books and I found this quite refreshing.
The plot starts off with a car crash on a Welsh country road. The woman driver finds herself alive, confused as to who the dead woman beside her is, and then frustrated she doesnât remember anything about herself, including her name, or why she was driving through Wales.
The opening scene brought tears to my eyes when I realised a great writer was going to be looking after the next few hours of my reading pleasure.
The local Police spend their time trying to work out if she should be prosecuted and she decides to keep tight-lipped about the small pieces of information that start to come back to her through her fugue while she is hospitalised, and then for the short while after she is released.
The rest of the book is about her finding out whether she is a goody or a baddy; whether she should trust Detective Bronwen Pryce, or, in fact, any of the other characters who tell her they are friends and colleagues. Cari makes us wonder about everyone until the very end of the novel.
The details! The details! Cari just loads her pages with perfect details about what is happening to the characters. There is never anything to stutter over. I never have to read a sentence twice because I didnât understand it, or lose track of the easy-going flow.
I had to note the parts which made me beam during this book so I could re-read them at leisure. Thatâs it! Cari Hunter makes me beam while reading her books.
Her characterâs legs are âwobblier than watered-down jellyâ, they find ânovelty of two cooperating lungsâ, their âfingers poke outâ (from her splint) âas fat as unpopped sausages.â
Cari doesnât simply give her characters goose pimples - they âtickle as they rise along her arm.â They use âthe painted numbers on the wheelie bins to gaugeâ their progress down the street. When they eat they try âat first to isolate flavours and then giving up and simply enjoy the mix.â Their stomach doesnât just rumble; eating silences their âgastric percussion and leaves them with a stitch to walk off.â The weather isn't cold, it is âbrittle cold.â
The amnesia aspect had me in tears at points. There are people who possibly may no longer be alive and when she meets her friend for the âfirst timeâ I became quite emotional.
As per her other books Cari has humorous moments throughout Alias.
The character is âsure that my choice of forget-me-nots wasnât intended to be ironic.â And there is a car-buying scene which make me laugh out loud.
There is no CSI Effect in this book. Some blood testing will be âfour to five weeks at bestâ rather than the four to five hours it can sometimes be in fiction.
Iâm really sorry to learn there are no plans to take these characters further. Cari writes well-rounded characters with believable back stories and I would have loved to have seen a couple of the ones in this book teased out a little more in at least one sequel.
Donât be picking this book up if you are looking for bodice-ripping sex. It just isn't there. Part of me cries out for more than Cari usually offers us, the part of me which craves romances. Holy Crap! She can sure write sex when she wants to but, people, this. is. a. crime. novel.
She could have put more sex in, but then it wouldnât be true to itself, she wouldnât be true to herself, and the novel would suffer for reader-driven gratuitous sex scenes which arenât necessary to the plot.
If you would like recommendations for that kind of book let me know and Iâll introduce you to different genres and different authors.
For now, sit back and enjoy good down-to-earth well-written crime fiction.
It is an absolute joy to read Cari Hunterâs books. Iâm so thankful I have stumbled across her at the point where there have been a few books to binge on. It is no secret that I think she is one of the finest authors currently, and she has re-awakened my interest in crime thrillers after many years of reading solely romances. Itâs a bonus that she is writing novels about regional parts of the UK.
Alias is written in the first person through-out, which is different to her other books and I found this quite refreshing.
The plot starts off with a car crash on a Welsh country road. The woman driver finds herself alive, confused as to who the dead woman beside her is, and then frustrated she doesnât remember anything about herself, including her name, or why she was driving through Wales.
The opening scene brought tears to my eyes when I realised a great writer was going to be looking after the next few hours of my reading pleasure.
The local Police spend their time trying to work out if she should be prosecuted and she decides to keep tight-lipped about the small pieces of information that start to come back to her through her fugue while she is hospitalised, and then for the short while after she is released.
The rest of the book is about her finding out whether she is a goody or a baddy; whether she should trust Detective Bronwen Pryce, or, in fact, any of the other characters who tell her they are friends and colleagues. Cari makes us wonder about everyone until the very end of the novel.
The details! The details! Cari just loads her pages with perfect details about what is happening to the characters. There is never anything to stutter over. I never have to read a sentence twice because I didnât understand it, or lose track of the easy-going flow.
I had to note the parts which made me beam during this book so I could re-read them at leisure. Thatâs it! Cari Hunter makes me beam while reading her books.
Her characterâs legs are âwobblier than watered-down jellyâ, they find ânovelty of two cooperating lungsâ, their âfingers poke outâ (from her splint) âas fat as unpopped sausages.â
Cari doesnât simply give her characters goose pimples - they âtickle as they rise along her arm.â They use âthe painted numbers on the wheelie bins to gaugeâ their progress down the street. When they eat they try âat first to isolate flavours and then giving up and simply enjoy the mix.â Their stomach doesnât just rumble; eating silences their âgastric percussion and leaves them with a stitch to walk off.â The weather isn't cold, it is âbrittle cold.â
The amnesia aspect had me in tears at points. There are people who possibly may no longer be alive and when she meets her friend for the âfirst timeâ I became quite emotional.
As per her other books Cari has humorous moments throughout Alias.
The character is âsure that my choice of forget-me-nots wasnât intended to be ironic.â And there is a car-buying scene which make me laugh out loud.
There is no CSI Effect in this book. Some blood testing will be âfour to five weeks at bestâ rather than the four to five hours it can sometimes be in fiction.
Iâm really sorry to learn there are no plans to take these characters further. Cari writes well-rounded characters with believable back stories and I would have loved to have seen a couple of the ones in this book teased out a little more in at least one sequel.
Donât be picking this book up if you are looking for bodice-ripping sex. It just isn't there. Part of me cries out for more than Cari usually offers us, the part of me which craves romances. Holy Crap! She can sure write sex when she wants to but, people, this. is. a. crime. novel.
She could have put more sex in, but then it wouldnât be true to itself, she wouldnât be true to herself, and the novel would suffer for reader-driven gratuitous sex scenes which arenât necessary to the plot.
If you would like recommendations for that kind of book let me know and Iâll introduce you to different genres and different authors.
For now, sit back and enjoy good down-to-earth well-written crime fiction.
Zuky the BookBum (15 KP) rated Nutshell in Books
Mar 15, 2018
Iâve never read any of Ian McEwanâs work before, but it seems like I started on a good one, because almost everyone is saying this is his best yet!
This has such an intriguing and unique plot, it would be hard to pass it up if you saw it in store. Are there actually <i>any</i> other novels out there told from the PoV of a foetus?
Considering no one actually knows what itâs like to be a foetus, that is to say, weâve all been one, but we donât remember back that far, I feel like McEwan really <i>got</i> what itâs like to be in the womb through the third trimester.. I wasnât sure how anyone could write as an unborn child but it was done so well in this! The child was a very likable character, he was witty, intelligent and interesting - certainly not things I would think to associate with an unborn child.
The overall plot was certainly different and intriguing, but it wasnât exactly what I thought it was going to be. I didnât expect this unborn child to be able to solve a murder or stop a crime etc, but I did think it was going to be more of a thriller mystery than it was. Thatâs not to the say that the plot made the story any less fun to read, I just had to alter my mindset into accepting this as a different sort of book.
Unfortunately for me, this didnât move me as much as it has done other readers because this is a <i>Hamlet</i> retelling, but Iâve never read <i>Hamlet.</i> (I have pretty much no time for the âclassicsâ, they tend to just bore me, thereâs no way around that, Iâm just not that kind of girl). So maybe some of the beauty of this was a bit lost on me?
Anyway, this was a very enjoyable read. A solid piece of fiction that has and will appeal to thousands.
This has such an intriguing and unique plot, it would be hard to pass it up if you saw it in store. Are there actually <i>any</i> other novels out there told from the PoV of a foetus?
Considering no one actually knows what itâs like to be a foetus, that is to say, weâve all been one, but we donât remember back that far, I feel like McEwan really <i>got</i> what itâs like to be in the womb through the third trimester.. I wasnât sure how anyone could write as an unborn child but it was done so well in this! The child was a very likable character, he was witty, intelligent and interesting - certainly not things I would think to associate with an unborn child.
The overall plot was certainly different and intriguing, but it wasnât exactly what I thought it was going to be. I didnât expect this unborn child to be able to solve a murder or stop a crime etc, but I did think it was going to be more of a thriller mystery than it was. Thatâs not to the say that the plot made the story any less fun to read, I just had to alter my mindset into accepting this as a different sort of book.
Unfortunately for me, this didnât move me as much as it has done other readers because this is a <i>Hamlet</i> retelling, but Iâve never read <i>Hamlet.</i> (I have pretty much no time for the âclassicsâ, they tend to just bore me, thereâs no way around that, Iâm just not that kind of girl). So maybe some of the beauty of this was a bit lost on me?
Anyway, this was a very enjoyable read. A solid piece of fiction that has and will appeal to thousands.
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