REVIEW: After Anna by Alex Lake

After Anna by Alex Lake

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 26th February 2018

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★★★★ 4 stars

After a slowish start I'm glad I persevered with this one, as it did get better.

The first half of the book concentrates on 5 year old Anna's disappearance...and it is long and drawn out. Especially considering she was only gone for a week. I soon bored of the constant drone between Julia and Brian. So their marriage was over. Get over it. Concentrate on Anna. And then when Anna returns, they can't even keep their acts together for the sake of Anna whilst she settles back into normalcy. The bone of contention between them, and for myself too, was Brian's mother Edna. The epitome of the evil mother-in-law. She was positively awful. Selfish, self-indulgent, arrogant, opinionated, conniving, scheming...just plain rude and bitchy, but in a backstabbing kind of way. She hated anyone "leaving her", as she saw it. She made Brian a weak man and yet loathed him for it. And really more than the first half of the book was the hate-filled bitching between the three of them. Brian was so obviously fuelled by his mother as he couldn't derive a single thought himself and then hurl them at Julia. I thought this was about a missing child, but Anna seemed to be forgotten sometimes.

Then there was the abductor. Not written in the third person or even the first person, but the obscure "you had it all planned", "you executed it perfectly" tone of what....a second person? For me, the identity of the abductor was pretty obvious. I mean, who else could it be? And the lengths to which they went to, well it just seemed obvious. I won't spoil it by saying who though. You may be surprised and not guess it.

Then Anna came home. Unharmed. Without memory of what happened or where she'd been. But she did have snippets of memories. Particularly of an oversized doll's house. And this is where it did begin to get interesting. I read the second half in one sitting, and felt Julia's frustration as well as anger. I found myself uttering "what a bitch" and screaming obscenities in my mind. It was then that the whole story began to make sense...maybe not to Julia just yet, but to the reader. Everything began to add up - Brian's missing father who had "run off" with his girlfriend and not been heard from since; not even the police could find a trace of them. Anna returned unharmed.

There was no real great mystery here, I don't think. But it did get my blood boiling. And it did make for an interesting ending. A satisfactory debut.

REVIEW: The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney

The Girl Before by J.P. Delaney

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 16th February 2018

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Purchase: Amazon

★★ 2 stars

What can I say about a book that took over halfway to get remotely interesting? And the fact I actually stuck it out to find out what happened? I must be a masochist.

Firstly, this book reads so much like "Fifty Shades" without all the S&M...though there is an element of rough sex in parts - just not descriptive like "Fifty Shades". 

Secondly, I don't like Edward at all. He is controlling, narcissitic and completely OCD to the extreme. Emma and Jane are fools to not see this fact when it is pointed out to them the truth about him. The fact there were over 200 rules they had to agree to before signing the contract should have rung warning bells. Those women are clearly deluded or just stupid. 

Thirdly, each alternating chapter is THEN: Emma and NOW: Jane. Each chapter is a mirror image to the one before as if he (Edward) is trying to recapture what went before. He is not even original. By this stage I am pretty much sticking with it just find out the truth about Emma's death and his wife and son's deaths. Yep...definite "Fifty Shades" feel here except in that Christian Grey was at least likeable. This element of control is so clearly abuse. 

Fourthly, a book that takes 65% before it starts to get really interesting is not a great book in all honesty. I must admit, it did get interesting as lie after lie was exposed, but it really took too long to do so. And had I not wanted to plough on just to find out the truth about Emma's death, I would have given up long ago. Maybe the movie will be better but given that it is Ron Howard directing and he is into arty farty weird shit, I wouldn't bet on it.

And lastly...I can't believe I sacrificed sleep for this!

REVIEW: Little Girl Lost by Carol Wyer

Little Girl Lost (DI Robyn Carter #1) by Carol Wyer

Genre: Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Police Procedural

Read: 13th February 2018

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Purchase: Amazon

★★★★★ 5 stars

Brilliant read! It begins with little Alice...and a shocking turn of events that rocks both hers and her mother's world. 

Fast forward some 20 years later and we meet Abigail Thorne, husband Jackson and baby Izzy. Someone is stalking Abigail and her perfect life, sending her messages about "telling the truth" and taking everything from her. But Abigail has a secret that no one knows. Is this someone from her past? About to wreak havoc on the life she has built for herself? Abigail can't be sure, but someone is playing mind games with her...or so she thinks.

DI Robyn Carter has been working as a private investigator for the past year since her fiance's death in Marrakesh before returning to the Staffordshire Constabulary. Her PI partner and former colleague from the force, Ross Cunningham, tasks her with the job of a missing man, Lucas Matthews. What begins as a simple case of a missing man turns into something darker and deeper and race against time to save the life of a little girl.

Woven into the story along the way under the title of "THEN" tells the progressing story of little Alice, another little girl - the one the story opens with - and the horror she has endured as she grew into a withdrawn, anger-filled young woman hell bent on revenge against those who she blames for her's and her mother's downfall. 

Overall it is a tragic story of a little girl's innocence lost. In the end, who is the little girl lost? Izzy, or little Alice from 20 years gone...?

Brilliant psychological read. Just how I like them.

REVIEW: Dark Place to Hide by A.J. Waines

Dark Place to Hide by A.J. Waines

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Read: 11th February 2018

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Purchase: Amazon

★★★★ 4 stars

This was a rather enthralling read from start to finish, and is written in a format I have come to love - from the various perspectives of key characters. I love this style as it gives the reader snippets into each character's mind that other styles fail to do so. I find I am more and more drawn to books written in this format.

The story is one of Harper Penn, a criminologist with a PhD, told mostly from his perspective about what he thought, felt and believed about his wife Diane who at the beginning of the book was rushed to hospital with a hemorrhage, to find she had miscarried. Problem was, Harper had just discovered he was infertile. A few days after her return home, Diane pops out to the shops for some pain killers and never returns home, leaving Harper to think and tell himself that she must have run off with her lover and father of her baby, since he was unable to father one.

Another part of the story is about Clara. A vivacious young seven year old who has a high imagination and one day after being trapped for a night in an old castle, begins to talk and answer only quoting fairy tales refusing to engage with anyone. Her mother Marion, who also narrates as does Clara, has cancer and is being treated with chemo and quite often is too sick to get out of bed, leaving Clara to entertain herself which she is more than happy to do so.

Harper and Marion's stories meet one day when she collapses on the village green and he helps her home. Here a friendship forms. So when Clara inexplicably disappears, Harper is who Marion calls first.

The book's synopsis showed much promise about one village and two secrets. Unfortunately, the climax really only delved into one of them, although we do learn beforehand the other secret, it is really left by the wayside and failed to really be addressed in the end. It was merely revealed along the way whilst searching for Clara that the secret surrounding her was far greater than the one involving Diane, I felt it didn't really rate much of a mention. The other disappointing factor was the ending was really an anti-climax. In the end, there didn't seem to be much by way of explanation for Clara's disappearance even though the "secret" was obvious - what was the abductor planning to do with them? Let them die and be forgotten about. It was a pretty weak ending in my opinion, but it was still an incredibly enjoyable book. I loved the way Clara's fairytale conversation was telling in it's own way, despite it being Harper - who had no kids or no experience with kids to draw on - who made the connection. Slightly unbelievable on that score because it would really have to be someone who knew and understood kids and how they interacted and worked to understand how their minds worked to reveal what Clara was actually saying when she only quoted fairy tales and "Little Red Riding Hood" in answer to everything.

In all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable book and very enthralling but sadly with just a disappointing ending which really let it down. Otherwise, it was perfect.