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Christine A. (965 KP) rated The Shadows in Books

Aug 24, 2020

The Shadows

Alex North | 2020 | Thriller

9.0

(3 Ratings)

Book Rating

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book so I could give an honest review. The opinions are entirely my own, and any quotes are taken from the ARC and may be different in the final published copy.

While I have "read" audiobooks for years now, this is the first one I was given to review. Let me catch my breath before starting. Wow! OK. Wow! That needed to be said.

Alex North's "debut" novel, The Whisper Man, was a 2019 Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Mystery & Thriller. When I finished reading it, I immediately added his second book, The Shadows, to my must-read list.

The narrators of The Shadows are Hannah Arterton and John Heffernan. The combination of North's writing and Arterton and Heffernan's narration provides a story that feels as if the narrators are the characters themselves, sitting by a fire, retelling North's story, and not merely reading the story. It is their narration that helps North bring the listener down the rabbit hole and ending up questioning everything they thought was true. I needed to reread sections to see how I could have gotten everything so wrong.

North is a British crime writer who has previously published under another name. According to Goodreads, this is Arterton's first narration. While Heffernan has narrated a few novels, he writes mostly for film and TV but also wrote Driver For The Dead, his first comic book series.

This 200-word review was published on Philomathinphila.com on 7/14/20 and updated on 8/24/20.

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2623 KP) rated City Spies in Books

Jun 7, 2020

City Spies

James Ponti | 2020 | Children, Mystery

10.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Meet the City Spies

Sara Martinez is in jail after hacking into New York’s juvenile justice system to turn in her foster parents. She gets the surprise of her life when her lawyer turns out to be a man called Mother, who reveals himself to be a British spy. He whisks Sara away to Scotland where she joins a secret team of MI6 made up of other kids like herself. Sara has joined them just weeks before their next mission – infiltrating an ecological conference to stop a group that is out to sabotage it. Will Sara be far enough along in her training to be an asset to her team? Will they succeed in their mission?

I saw this new series debut recommended by another author I love, and I’m so glad I did. This middle grade book is fast paced. We get plenty of set up, but everything is introduced as part of the story, so it never slows things down. Once the mission begins, the pace picks up even more, and I couldn’t put the book down. Some of the elements are a little over the top, but I just reminded myself this is a spy story and got right back into the book. We don’t get to know all the characters well yet, but we definitely saw some growth in Sara and a few others, and what we saw of them is great. There are some truly heartwarming moments as well as moments that made me laugh. This is a fantastic middle grade book for readers of all ages.

Kudos

Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2623 KP) rated Cozy Up to Death in Books

May 12, 2020

Cozy Up to Death

Colin Conway | 2020 | Mystery

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

Debut that Grew on Me

Today is Brody Steele’s first day running The Red Herring, a mystery bookstore in Pleasant Valley, Maine. However, he’s not a reader. So what is he doing here? It’s a cover since Brody has just entered the Witness Protection Program after turning on his former motorcycle gang. Brody is sure he will find his new life too quiet. However, as he tries to settle into town, he begins to find questions. Is there danger lurking just below the surface?

I’m always looking for something different, so I was intrigued by the premise of this book when I first heard about it. It took a while for the story to get going, but once Brody started to realize something was wrong, I was hooked all the way until the climax. I enjoyed the character growth we saw in Brody, and I liked several other characters as well. I did think the writing could be a bit more polished. I also found a few things about the Witness Protection Program, as described here, a little hard to swallow. Then again, I haven’t done any research on it and instead learned everything I know about it from the TV show In Plain Sight, so I decided to sit back and enjoy the story, which I most certainly did. Despite the series name and book title, we do get more violence than in a typical cozy. Overall, I’m glad I gave the book a chance, and I’m curious to see where the series will go from here.