Nicki's book blog

  Don’t Tell- Paul Williams- Crime   Girls are going missing in a small town in Australia and being found mutilated, trophies having been taken from them. Carrie has accidentally found a single earring in her husband Steve’s car and he denies all knowledge of where it could have come from. Her radar is peaked when she then finds condoms in his drawer- they never use them. She asks him if he is having an affair- something again he denies all knowledge of. Meanwhile a man is basing himself on the Marquis de Sade and “120 days of sodom” - Sadism. He has a young girl captive and is enjoying torturing her. Carrie confides in an off duty policeman and is persuaded to do a little investigating herself. I enjoyed this however two things slightly marred it- how terribly naive Carrie was and who the perpetrator was. That said I found it quite captivating and page turning to see if I was right (I was). It's a well written book and has some excellent descriptions. It is quite a gritty crim

  BODY LANGUAGE- AK Turner- lifestyle/forensic            “ THE DEAD CAN TALK - WE JUST NEED TO LISTEN .” Cassie Raven is a mortuary assistant having turned her life around thanks to a chance meeting of a former teacher from being on the streets and a drug fueled life. She is talented and has insights sometimes where the pathologists are stumped- something some are rather put out by. When a body arrives and it is her old teache r Mrs E she wants to treat it with the very greatest of respect as she does every body but she also wonders how Geraldine E got there- she was healthy and not that elderly. A little digging and she finds that Geraldine had a fiance- someone neither they or the funeral directors have heard from, only her estranged alcoholic son. I really enjoyed this to the point of almost racing through it- I say almost as I was enjoying it so much I wanted to savour it. Despite the subject matter (and I find pathology/forensic medicine very interesting) it made me smil

Murder Unjoyful- Anita Waller-  Mystery/crime (cozy) Fifteen years ago a woman was kidnapped whilst shopping and forced to shoot someone after being kept naked and without food or water for three days. She was chosen for her shooting skills and also shot at the scene. She has now come to Connection -the PI agency run by Kat, Mouse and Doris to try and get closure. The man who shot her has been released on licence and has fled- she is sure that he will try and finish what he started all those years ago. Doris pulls in some old favours and gets rather more than information in a very good way. Meanwhile the perpetrator is on the loose and causing havoc seemingly slipping under the radar every time. I really love this series. Despite the subject matter(which won’t put you off your dinner) this is a wonderful comfortable read. I’ve loved Doris from the very beginning of the series. This will stand alone but why miss out on the other 5* reads in the series?  A few smart twists and tur

The Twins by J.S. Lark -psychological thriller “F rom the moment they are born, twins Susan and Sarah are inseparable. Through good and bad, the girls will always be together…forever.”  Sarah and Susan were very close as children until something happened in their early teen years. Twenty five years later Sarah is married to Jonny who when children was the love of both of the girls. We go back in time in alternate chapters and it is a young Susan who is seeing Jonny. Present day Sarah and Jonny run a cafe and have an adult daughter Lucy having not seen or talked about Susan for all that time. One day Susan arrives on the doorstep having found them both and so sets off memories forgotten and things that neither Lucy or Jonny were aware of.  The book begins with a car crash with Lucy and Susan in it. I enjoyed this however my one criticism of this is that the chapters were not labelled as to whose perspective we were about to get or which timeline which at times made it a little

  Forgive Me by Susan Lewis Forgive Me by Susan Lewis -womens psychological fiction A very interesting informative, inspirational  read. Claudia and her daughter Jasmine along with Claudia's mother Marcy have escaped. Escaped from their past life- they have changed their names and moved to another part of the country making up a new history for themselves. Behind them is an abusive husband who is now in prison for insider information and money laundering but they fear recriminations as they have some important documents which could infer others in the case. After a while and beginning to make new friends and lives for themselves Claudia and Marcy independently tell the police as there is a search on for them as missing persons. They know that they have nothing to do with the case but are aware that there may be repercussions. I enjoyed this- its a well crafted and cleverly thought out plot. I liked Claudia and shuddered at her hearing the abusive voice from her past. This

  The Lockdown Diary of Tom Cooper by Spencer Brown - humorous literary fiction   A truly laugh out loud read. It’s the beginning of lockdown and single parent Tom now has his “ single digit aged two children '' Carrie and Arthur at home to cope with as well as his job as an advertising executive. I wasn’t sure how I would take to this as we all remember the anxiety and panic many of us went through in the early days and I hoped that it would make me smile- I wasn't disappointed- it made me laugh so many times. Tom buying hair dye when everyone else wanted pasta and then wondering how many loo rolls a day him and the kids would get through. ( A day??) . Fending off competition from a neighbour for rainbow support for the NHS posters and dealing with the idiots in the supermarket. To look back even now and realise that others saw the world the same during lockdown (idiots and madness) is not only reassuring but done in a humorous way perhaps brings it all down to

  Trust no-one Keri Beevis- Psychological thriller “A long, long time ago, you did a bad, bad thing. And now it’s time to pay.” Olivia has been receiving notes which are rather disturbing- telling her she will suffer for what she did in the past- something that doesn't make any sense to her. She works as an estate agent and on one viewing she finds a man bound and gagged in a house and on fire. She flees in terror as she has suffered trauma in the past and it is all she can do to save herself. Janice and an old school friend Fern are also receiving notes - only they know they did do something but it was such a long time ago. Olivia is getting spooked as more things begin to happen and she is sure that someone is entering her house or the restaurant when she stays with her mother. Her new boyfriend Noah is protective but also a little suspicious as she realises that she knows very little about him. Who is after her and why? OMG! This is one of those reads that you happily sit