Faithless in Death is JD Robb/Nora Roberts’ 52nd book in the Eve Dallas / Roarke (In Death) series and it’s probably the best I’ve read for some time.
I appreciate that Robb manages to come up with new plots and offers readers something different in each outing and I suspect it’s that, along with the like-ability of her main cast that keeps readers like me coming back. Again and again. And again and again. Well, 52 times.
They were a few weeks apart but it bodes well for 2021 that I read two books that I’m rating an easy 4.5 stars – a very rare honour in my world. The first was Linwood Barclay’s new release Find You First and the second, The Burning Girls by CJ Tudor.
This is the third book I’ve read by Tudor but I don’t think it’d appeared in any new release catalogues that I recall so I sent a query after seeing her talk about the book on Twitter. I’d missed her 2020 release, The Other People, but heard great things about it. And thank god I chased for a copy because I freakin’ loved this book. There’s a fabulous twist early and they really don’t stop coming.
I was cruising along quite nicely until a couple of weeks ago. And when I say cruising I mean unemployed, overweight, unfit and feeling a tad unfulfilled in general. But… in the overall scheme of things I wasn’t throwing myself onto my bed in fits of depression or moaning TOOOOO much on social media.
I had an assignment due for university that was well in hand. I had accepted a paying editing gig (editing a novel). And I was finally back at my exercise class after multiple injuries.
I often talk here about my navel-gazing. My pondering. My prevaricating. So obviously I ‘think’ a lot. I’m certainly an overthinker which I think can be a good and bad thing.
But as I live alone (and have done so for 30+yrs) I only notice how much I do it when I’m around others for extended periods of time. Which is the case at the moment.
It has to be said there’s a lot to like about Find You First by Linwood Barclay. I enjoyed the element of suspense but found the character development to be particularly interesting, becoming far more attached to some than is sensible in a thriller.
I read a media release, or perhaps a comment by Stephen King, noting this book opens with a bang and it certainly does. And the pace pretty much keeps going until it’s done. I’ve read most if not all of Barclay’s books and this is probably fairly close to being a favourite.
I have very low expectations of others. That is to say, my cynical pessimistic distrusting personality means I set the bar very low. Or so I thought.
A few weeks ago I bookmarked an article on Tiny Buddha about how we often find ourselves disappointed in others because of our expectations of them.
It very much resonated. Which was weird as—like I said—I tend to think I expect little.
Crackenback by Lee Christine is the second book in the series featuring Sydney Homicide Squad Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t read its predecessor, Charlotte Pass that introduces Ryder and his partner Detective Flowers, along with Ryder’s love interest Vanessa.
This book is centred around ski lodge manager Eva and her delightful three year old daughter Poppy. I must confess I couldn’t remember if we’d met them in Charlotte Pass, and though reference is made to the events of that book and Vanessa, we learn that Eva is her sister.
I read Pip Drysdale’s The Sunday Girl when it was released in 2018 and her subsequent novel of suspense The Strangers We Know the following year. Both feature flawed but engaging narrators and relationships-gone-bad, with themes around trust and disappointment.
The Paris Affair initially had me comparing it to Netflix’s Emily in Paris, given there’s a slightly similar feel to the early pages with a confident and ambitious Harper heading off to Paris to work for an English-language French publication. When we meet her she’s keen to wow the world but struggling to find her feet professionally.
Here however, we’ve got the added bonus of a murder. So, Emily in Paris meets The Girl on the Train. Perhaps.
I’ve talked in the past about the difference between envy and jealousy and I tend to think the former feels less negative or nasty than the latter.
Recently however I’ve been pondering something in between. Not quite envy, but a wistfulness about something someone else does or has that we wish we did.
I get that ‘I’ll have what she has’ feeling about a few people.
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