Well, mid March already. Or perhaps later. I can’t recall what the date is, so… the month might actually almost be over.
The year’s been a bit of a weird one for me. Although in all honesty the time since finishing up my last job (in September) and travelling to Italy (in September – October) has been kinda challenging.
I really enjoyed this standalone by Harlan Coben. I hadn’t read much of his work until a half a dozen years ago but he’s become a favourite and with about 30 books published (as well as some television series under his belt) he’s proved he’s consistent and a reliable choice when it comes to entertaining reading fodder.
My reading of Lisa Gardner’s DD Warren series has been shockingly inconsistent. In fact I was surprised it’d been three years since I read Find Her, in which we first meet Flora, former kidnap victim turned vigilante… who’s since become DD’s confidential informant.
Flora’s back in this outing with someone else from DD’s past.
Fans of Big Little Lies will adore this book. I actually didn’t really ‘love’ Big Little Lies but I still really liked this book. It’s got the whole mother vs mother thing going on, but this time it pits friend against friend, or rather long-term friendships vs motherhood. Kinda.
I enjoyed CJ Tudor’s debut novel, The Chalk Man last year. Interestingly Tudor offers a similar lead character this time around. Another teacher with less-than-healthy habits. And one haunted by his past.
I’ve not been doing as much reading of late. I felt like a break at Christmas. (Well, a break from reviewing, not reading!) But that has pretty much extended and I took only a couple of books to Brisbane with me on my recentish foray (aka 3wks of cat-sitting).
I have however, rediscovered my television addiction over the last six months; although I’ve not watched much live TV cos here in Australia we’ve had mostly sport and reality TV shows foisted upon us, so I’ve delved into Netflix and online viewing (SBS-on-demand) instead.
It has to be said, DCI Jack Hawksworth has some seriously bad luck on the romance front. In the first novel in this series Bye Bye Baby he was unlucky in love and this time around he’s dating a young woman (who’s actually kinda engaged to someone else) and, well…. let’s just say, she’s not around long.
Canberra-based author Jack Heath released Hangman last year – his first adult novel. I enjoyed it and commented at the time on lead character Timothy Blake’s status as an anti-hero… as we learn there about his less-than-palatable predilections. (Which I still won’t mention here as they come as quite a shock in the first novel and there may be newcomers reading this….)
But he describes himself thus…
A bad guy who does bad things for bad reasons. I’m not religious, but the word damned seems to cover it. p 26
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