Saturday, June 26, 2021

The Girl In The Moon by Terry Goodkind

Angela Constantine is a girl born broken.

The daughter of a meth addict, Angela is convinced she was born a monster. Haunted by an abusive childhood, she was forced to become a woman far too soon. And in the process, she became more.

Angela Constantine has a secret.

Living in a secluded mountain cabin and juggling several jobs, Angela leads a double life right under everyone's noses. Because her family's bloodline carries the ability to recognize killers, she adopts a solitary existence in service of her own violent mission in life. When she unexpectedly finds herself stalked, Angela is the only one who knows the truth of what they are about to do. She's an unlikely hero. She's also our only hope.

The book starts out slow but after a few chapters I couldn't put it down.
Obviously this is fantasy /crime and so some things are never going to happen. I didn't see where it was going to go, but wow, it was good.

9/10

Saturday, June 19, 2021

The End Of The Wasp Season by Denise Mina

When notorious millionaire banker Lars Anderson hangs himself from the old oak tree in front of his Kent mansion his death attracts no sympathy. But the legacy of a lifetime of self-serving is widespread, the carnage most acute amongst those he ought to be protecting: his family. Meanwhile, in a wealthy suburb of Glasgow, a young woman is found savagely murdered in her home. The genteel community is stunned by what appears a vicious, random attack. When DS Alex Morrow is called in to investigate, she soon discovers that behind the murder lurks a tangled web of lies.

We know from the beginning that two boys from a posh private Catholic school killed young Sarah Erroll and that they have made some sort of mistake about her identity. The question is: which of them is most responsible and who were they really after? 

A nasty grizzly murder involving nasty, rich people who think they shouldn't have to have any consequences for their actions and they raise their children the same. 

A well written book. A bit slow moving at times but I enjoyed it. It just didn't call me to keep reading until about half way.

7/10

Friday, June 4, 2021

The Lace Weaver by Lauren Chater

Each lace shawl begins and ends the same way – with a circle. Everything is connected with a thread as fine as gossamer, each life affected by what has come before it and what will come after. 

1941, Estonia. As Stalin’s brutal Red Army crushes everything in its path, Katarina and her family survive only because their precious farm produce is needed to feed the occupying forces.

Fiercely partisan, Katarina battles to protect her grandmother’s precious legacy – the weaving of gossamer lace shawls stitched with intricate patterns that tell the stories passed down through generations.

While Katarina struggles to survive the daily oppression, another young woman is suffocating in her prison of privilege in Moscow. Yearning for freedom and to discover her beloved mother’s Baltic heritage, Lydia escapes to Estonia.


I skimmed a bit when the detail on the oppression of Estonia under Russian control got a bit much...which was a lot of the time.

6/10