Good weather is, I find, very conducive to reading! There are few things in life I enjoy more than sitting in the sunshine, with my hat on of course, and reading.. perhaps another is curling up on the sofa on a rainy day and reading. But in the garden with the sunshine is my favourite, and so I have devoured three books this week so far…here’s the first!
This fast and snappy thriller is by Belinda Bauer, a new author for me. I was gifted this by another #bookstagrammer on Instagram, (together with Turkish Delight!), and read it in one sitting. I must admit, it held extra interest for me because it is set in an area of the UK I’m quite familiar with, Tiverton, in Devon, a fairly typical small English town with it’s full complement of quirky characters.
The story begins on a hot summer day, with three children left sitting in a broken down car on the side of the M5 whilst their pregnant mother walks to the emergency phone. She doesn’t come back. The eldest, Jack, is just eleven, and taking his responsibility for his younger sisters very seriously…which is something that will continue throughout the novel.
Fast forward three years, and the family is in tatters. The father has broken down and walked out; none of the children are attending school and are terrified of being found by the Social Services, the house is now more of a tunnel system between piles of newspapers obsessively collected in the hope of finding news about their mother, and Jack is supporting the three of them through burglary.
Meanwhile, heavily pregnant Catherine While awakes when she hears someone in her house to find an unusual knife left beside her bed.. and a crusty London copper finds himself transferred to the comparatively sleepy West Country, and on the hunt for the burglar known as Goldilocks, because he sleeps in the houses he robs.
It does keep you turning the pages, although I have to say that if this is the best crime novel Val McDermid has read in a very long time, as quoted on the cover, then I’m a little worried about what she has been reading. Nevertheless, it kept me entertained…and guessing!
So, if this sounds like a book you’d enjoy, please get in touch either here or through Facebook or Instagram and I would be delighted to send it to you…without the Turkish Delight though, I’m afraid! And I’ll drop a link for you to find it on Amazon if it has already been claimed…
and the link to buy on Amazon…
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