Title: The Best Way to Bury Your Husband Author: Alexia Casale Published: 14th March 2024, Viking Status: Read February 2024 courtesy Penguin Books UK ++++++++ My Thoughts: On average, 1 in 4 women will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, and 2 women a week are killed by a current or former intimate partner in the UK where this book is set. In a note addressed to the reader, Alexia Casale explains that she wrote The Best Way to Bury Your Husband as “…a way to confront a truth that otherwise seems too much to bear”. This black comedy takes place during the Covid Lockdown, a perio ..read more

  Title: A Blizzard of Polar Bears {Alex Carter #2} Author: Alice Henderson Published: 9th November 2021, William Morrow Status: Read January 2024 ++++++++ My Thoughts: In need of a book set in the Arctic Tundra for reading challenge, A Blizzard of Polar Bears by Alice Henderson caught my eye. It’s the second book in a series featuring wildlife biologist Alex Carter, though reads well as a stand alone. In A Blizzard of Polar Bears, Alex has taken an assignment in the Canadian Arctic studying its threatened population of polar bears. Teamed with an assistant and a helicopter pilot Alex’s ..read more

Title: The Silence in Her Eyes Author: Armando Lucas Correa Published: 31st January 2024, Simon & Schuster Status: Read January 2024 courtesy Simon & Schuster ++++++++ My Thoughts: Known for his historical fiction, The Silence in Her Eyes is Correa’s first foray into the contemporary suspense genre. I was utterly fascinated by Leah’s condition, I’d never heard of akinetopsia, also known as motion blindness. I have to trust that Correa’s portrayal of the experience is accurate, and I imagine it’s a little like when the audio on a video keeps playing even though the image on screen has ..read more

  Title: Glenrock Author: Lee Christine Published: 30th January 2024, Allen & Unwin Status: Read January 2024 courtesy Allen & Unwin ++++++++ My Thoughts: Lee Christine has moved from the NSW southern highlands to the mid coast for the setting of her newest novel, Glenrock. After Justice Maurice Tempest is found shot dead in Glenrock State Conservation Park, Senior Sergeant Callan O’Connor and his partner suspect organised crime involvement, especially when the body of a known enforcer is later found nearby, but something isn’t adding up. There is a lot happening in Glenrock but ..read more

  Title: One of the Good Guys Author: Araminta Hall Published: 9th January 2024, Macmillan Status: Read January 2024 courtesy Macmillan ++++++++ My Thoughts: “And I know, historically, it’s been hard to be a woman but, my God, it’s hard to be a man right now.” A provocative and thought-provoking novel, One of the Good Guys by Araminta Hall explores the gendered dynamic of power, the mythology of the ‘good guy’, and feminine rage. Told in three parts primarily from the perspectives of three individuals but also through newspaper articles, podcast transcripts, Tweets, and WhatsApp chats fr ..read more

  Title: Vendetta {Lexi Winter #3} Author: Sarah Barrie Published: 15th November 2023, HQ Fiction Status: Read December 2023 courtesy Harlequin/Netgalley ++++++++ “Cop or criminal? When you’re undercover, the lines can get a little blurry.“ My Thoughts: Vendetta is the third exciting instalment in Sarah Barrie’s series featuring vigilante turned cop, Lexi Winter. I love Lexi, she’s smart, brave, and kickass, if also somewhat reckless and unpredictable. She doesn’t hesitate when her former neighbour Dawnie asks for her help to rescue Dannie’s husband Morris, and reacts quickly when she is ..read more

Title: Killer Traitor Spy {John Bailey #4} Author: Tim Ayliffe Published: 5th July 2023, Simon & Schuster Status: Read July 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster ++++++++ My Thoughts: “Stick with me, bubba.’ Ronnie turned to him and smiled. ‘Like I told you, this is going to be a hell of a story.” Killer Traitor Spy is Tim Ayliffe’s fourth fast-paced thriller to feature investigative journalist John Bailey. When a young friend of his is poisoned with what appears to be a nerve agent meant for a Russian millionaire, Dmitry Lebedev, John Bailey wants answers. With Lebedev on the run, Bailey be ..read more

Title: Going Zero Author: Anthony McCarten Published: 11th April 2023, PanMacmillan Status: Read June 2023 courtesy PanMacmillan Australia ++++++++ My Thoughts: In this tense future thriller by Anthony McCarten, ten people attempt to ‘Go Zero’, by eluding a sophisticated computer system called FUSION for 30 days for the chance to win 3 million dollars in cash. Though it’s difficult to disappear in the age of electronic dependence, anyone determined enough can still manage it. Tech wunder-kind Cy Baxter has developed a program designed to close the loop holes, and if he can prove it works, he ..read more

  Title: Before She Finds Me Author: Heather Chavez Published: 27th June 2023, Mulholland Books Status: Read July 2023 courtesy Mulholland Books/Netgalley ++++++++ My Thoughts: “Shield the innocent. Kill the guilty. Defend the family.” A story of manipulation, murder and a mother’s love, Before She Finds Me is a well crafted thriller from Heather Chavez. After a shooting at a college campus leaves her daughter injured and her ex-husband’s new wife dead, Julia Bennett is desperate to make sense of the incident. Something about the sniper attack doesn’t seem random, and Julia, who lost her ..read more

  Title: Drowning Author: T.J. Newman Published: 1st June 2023, Simon & Schuster UK Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster AU ++++++++ My Thoughts: Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated, fasten your seatbelt, and be ready to brace for T.J. Newman’s exhilarating sophomore novel, Drowning. Just minutes after takeoff from a Hawaiian airport, Flight 1421 suffers catastrophic failure and plunges towards the Pacific Ocean. Those that survive the ditching frantically exit the bobbing plane, but twelve people are still onboard when it begins sinking beneath the waves. From the ..read more