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review, Thriller |
Series: Book of The Eleanor Raven Series
Author: Karen Long
Characters: DI Eleanor Raven, Laurence Whitefoot, Lieutenant Eddie Myles, Dr. Seb Blackmore
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The story begins with DI Eleanor Raven undergoing a psychiatric evaluation to she certify that she was fit enough to get back into her groove. She and her partner Laurence Whitefoot are called in to attend a domestic hostage situation that involves an army veteran, where they find a human hand. What they find in the autopsy reports is more than they bargained for, and to make matters worse for them the military is stopping them from digging deeper.
Soon the city has another weird case where dead carcasses of dogs are strung in a boiler room. And add a few more dead bodies, and the Toronto DI Raven has too many things on her plate. Are they all interconnected or is it just her mind that plays tricks on her? Her visits to her psychiatrists are becoming more and more upsetting, and she begins to be wary of him as well. As the body count keeps increasing, her ability is questioned, and it is a race against time.
The only way for to solve the murders is to do what she has been fighting against. Re-visit the demons from the past. Will she be able to conquer her inner conflicts and find the killer on time? Spoiler: she does. Read on The Cold Room
to find out more.
The Cold Room is the third part of the The Eleanor Raven Series
. I have not read the previous works, yet the book worked its charm on me even as a standalone. The writing is tight and makes sure that you would not want to skim down any line. Though there were quite a few cliches, they did not hamper my interest in the story.
I didn’t find any character likable at all, especially DI Raven. I found her too annoying and reckless for my taste. The other characters, which were too many, were not developed to their potential. But that is understandable given the pace that book was set in. And of course, they might have been already dealt with in the previous parts.
I liked that the author doesn’t dumb it down for the readers by explaining every clue and boring them to death. She understands that the readers of this genre would be able to catch up with her thread of thoughts without too many explanations. That being said, wait to be surprised at the end.
You might have read quite a number of thrillers and DI stories. While the premise of this book may not surprise you, the crisp writing and the killer storyline would. If you are looking to read a fast paced thriller that would keep you reading through the midnight, The Cold Room could be very well your choice.
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review, Thriller |
I like jumping into the books without reading much about them. I try not to read the blurb before I pick a book up if I can help it. I did read the plot summary on its blurb before I received this book for a review, a while ago but had completely forgotten what I had read. So I dove directly into the book without an idea what to expect. How did that end up for me? Read more to know.Book Name: Here and Gone
Author: Haylen Beck
Characters: Audrey, Danny, Sean, Louise, Sheriff Whiteside, Deputy Sheriff Collins
Setting: The USA
Disclaimer: Thanks to the Author, Netgalley and Blogging for Books for the free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Audrey is running away from her terrible past with her children. She is not hiding from the law technically but was she? When she is stopped by the cops on her way to San Deigo, does not realize her life was going to turn for worse. She knows the cops took her children while she was arrested on a fake charge of possession of Marijuana, but who is going to believe her? It is her words against the County Sheriff’s, and her ex-husband’s attempts to discredit her does not help her case. A former addict, single mother with no one turn to, one who is running away from Child Protection Services. It doesn’t take long for the media to turn her into the villain – child murderer. Does she get her kids back? Who could help her out?
I have a solid woman crush on Mrs. Gerber. I could picture her smoking from the top of her stairs looking down at her husband’s body like a badass, just moments after pushing him down to his death. I wish I could have felt this close to Danny or Audrey, but I am not complaining. Dark web and their conversations were flimsy and disappointing. Thankfully their parts were kept brief, lest it might have been bizarre and too clichéd.
Rarely thrillers sustain the pace they begin with. Here and gone does a great job at maintaining it till the very end, even after we got to know what had happened to the kids. Even if at times when we get the gnawing feeling that it is one of those stories that has been retold countless times, we stick glued to the book, and that is the power of crisp and straight forward narration. There are no unnecessary twists and turns that could have made false promises to the reader.Here and Gone does justice to the plot and genre. I can recommend this book if you are looking for a fast paced thriller that might keep you occupied for an hour or two.
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Paranormal |
Who in their right mind would reach out for a horror novel when they already know that they are not sleeping well at night? Who chases witches when they are being haunted by demons in their own nightmares? No one, except yours truly I suppose. But again how does one let go off a chance to read about the witches and their crafts, and probably have a bit of nightmare contributed by them as well? So how did Forsaken by J D Barker fare on the scare scale? Read more to find out.
Name: Forsaken
Author: J D Barker
Genre: Fiction Paranormal
Characters: Thad, Rachael, Ashely McAlister, Clayton Stone, Christina
The story revolves around the McAlistair family – Thad a bestselling writer, Rachael his pregnant wife and their daughter Ashley, and a deal that was made years with the Forsaken by one of them unwittingly. Though Thad’s first novel failed to hit the roof, his second and third novels shoot him up to the stars. He barely questions it, even when he understands subconsciously something was amiss.
Rachael takes pride in her loving husband, adores her daughter Ashley and expects her second with equal zest. She has not quite forgotten the rough start they had and that her husband had cheated her once. When the Forsaken wants to take back what was promised to Her, they have to deal with it in their own respective way, separately. Do they give in to their weaknesses or they put their family first, forms the present day storyline?
The story that Thad writes set in the 17th century, rather a parallel universe, narrates about the life of the witch and how She ends up hunted. We are taken to the magical world where time is subjective and manipulatable by Her. Physical appearances are mere disguises and often deceptive. The narrator and the reader oscillate between the sides – the young girl whom the narrator is attracted to or the witch who haunts people. She much like the folktales forces people to sign their souls off with the blood. Who is real and where does the fiction stop and reality begin?
The novel alternates between different point of views and time-lines, which works pretty well. The pace of narration is consistent and doesn’t slacken a bit. The storyline might seem familiar and the climax quite a bit overused, but the real strength of the novel is the vivid description of the scenario and the terror that engulfs the McAlistair family. The author makes it look like we are watching a movie, a scary one at that. Realising the story uses a famous character from Stephen King‘s novel creates a thrill that only a fan would understand.
I am no scaredy cat in general, and the nightmares are something I have to accept as a part of the life of a horror addict. But just as I started reading Forsaken by J D Barker, I realised it was going to be much harder because it involves a pregnant woman and it somehow made me queasy. Thankfully, the writer did not take us down that road.
Despite all these strengths, I took a day more than usual to finish. Why? I couldn’t get to understand the characters, much less like them. I would have liked to have known the characters better and deeper, I felt they were pretty one dimensional. There was just a small part (less than a chapter) to explain the witch’s effect on the young girl, which could have been a tad longer and stronger. It might just be me, but I couldn’t help imagining ‘the minions’ from the ‘Despicable’ movies instead of the creepy, evil witch worshipers. My bad but I just could not.
For someone who is eagerly awaiting the release of the movie ‘IT’ and is gathering her wits to read the book, Forsaken acted as the right place to start. With an obvious and expected influence from Stephen King, Barker could be an author I might have to watch out. If you wanna read quick, fast, creepy thriller, I recommend Forsaken by J D Barker.
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What are your nightmares about? Do books help you have more of those vivid dreams? Have you tried to stop reading such books? No I have not. Let us talk more.
review, Thriller |
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”― Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake
If my last book had taken me to Afghanistan, the war-torn country with rich culture and diversity, Optimal Exposure
took me to Israel and then back to India with a classic detective/whodunnit story. Most of us heard about Kumbh Mela and the related news about its participants who run into millions. What happens when an elderly photographer is found dead amidst the crowd? What and who would help him out, if at all? Sounds intriguing? Then Optimal Exposure by Dan Rogel is the book for you.
Book Name: Optimal Exposure
Author: Dan Rogel
Characters: Boaz and Ephraim Lavie, Superintendent Shemesh, Inspector Hagit Butler
Setting: Israel, India
Disclaimer: Thanks to the B00k R3vi3ws for the free copy of the book.
The story begins with Boaz Lavie completing his seven day mourning period following the death of his father Ephraim, a photographer who was brought dead from India where he had been on a photography trip. The case attracts the attention of Superintendent Shemesh and Inspector Hagit Butler, as they realize this was the second time a fellow photographer was carried home dead by the same group following such an expedition and they start to dig into the cases, inspired by Boaz’s interest. In both cases the local authorities, namely Indians and Brazilians, had given a clean chit to the deaths and cause were as heart attack declared by their doctors.
Boaz was quite close to his father and he cannot fathom the circumstances leading to his death, until he starts digging into his computer and his universe of photography. He understands the financial benefit that people could gain out of these photography contests and that his father had dealt with a few minor rifts with the the contest results, just before he left to the expedition to Kumbmela, India. Who, why and how they murdered the photographers forms the part the rest of the story.
It had been so long that I read about Jews and their customs and this story set in Israel was a welcome change. And added to that the party visits India, my place of birth making it doubly pleasurable to read and understand how things work with authorities here. Kudos to the author for keeping the photographic jargon pretty simple to layman, yet the descriptive language and the writing style was a little hard to get used to. The murders and their modi operandi were interesting, and I could not guess the murderers until the very end. I found the narration part of Hagit very annoying and her desire to please her partner Shemesh seemed too filmy for my taste. The last chapter which was supposed to be the one that solves the ‘whodunnit’ was too long and one could even get away reading it instead of the entire novel.
Looking for a book that takes you across countries on a murder chase? Go grab Optimal Exposure by Dan Rogel.
