HarperCollins UK Archives

Book review: Everything She Didn’t Say by Jane Casey

July 23, 20262 min read

Everything She Didn’t Say by Jane Casey opens with a woman’s death. Well, her murder to be more specific. Of course Casey keeps us guessing as to the who and why and throwing several twists into the whodunnit and whydunnit mix. On the case are mismatched (Irish) Gardas, Ben Butler and Liam Farrell initially trying to work out what happened to a young woman found covered in blood, and more importantly the source of the blood, which would indicate murder.

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Book review: The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter

July 4, 20262 min read

The Secrets We Hide by Karin Slaughter is the second book in her North Falls series. I LOVED the first, We Are All Guilty Here, and was excited it was labelled #1, knowing more would come. I commented at the time how much I loved the characters and they would be wasted if we didn’t meet them again. And…. they’re back. Well… not all of them. 🙄 #ahem

We have two narrators here, Acting Chief Emmy Clifton (in the role following the events of book one) and her sister, Jude a former FBI profiler, who returned home in book one after over 40 years in the family wilderness. The case here involves a murdered cop and her barely-clinging-to-life daughter and, as the mother bore the brunt of her husband’s violent tendencies, it seems obvious he’s finally gone too far. Things change however, as a number of other factors and potential motives appear.

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Book review: The Last Death of the Year by Sophie Hannah

October 5, 20252 min read

The Last Death of the Year by Sophie Hannah is the latest release in the reimagined world of Hercule Poirot – made famous of course by Agatha Christie… who killed him off in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case. As a result these are set earlier in his career and here he’s partnering with Inspector Edward Catchpool. Incidentally I did wonder if Hannah has to scour Christie’s novels to make sure Dame Agatha hadn’t already had Poirot on a case on NYE 1932/22 or in another location that would preclude him being on a Greek Island as 1933 dawned.

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Book review: Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz

April 25, 20253 min read

Before I started Marble Hall Murders by Anthony Horowitz I re-read my reviews of Magpie Murders and Moonflower Murders and realised this review was going to be similar. Firstly it’s very long. And though I LOVED the book within a book theme again, I feel like Horowitz spends too long in the fictitious inner novel before getting back to real life. Here—we get so embedded in the fictional Pünd plot I thought maybe there wasn’t going to be a real-life mystery— but was again being jolted out of the book within a book and and reminded there was another layer to come. I realise that sounds as a criticism but it’s really more that I was quite contented, completely lost in the Pünd account so would have happily stayed there.

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Book review: The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley

June 7, 20243 min read

The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley is the third book I’ve read by the British author and I’ve enjoyed them all. She seemingly draws on long-kept secrets and develops intriguing and complex plots around relationships – testing family ties and friendship boundaries. Here the launch of a new luxurious wellness retreat brings together a disparate group of story tellers (in the present) and a diary-writer (in the past), the two converging in fresh tragedy as past secrets are revealed.

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Book review: A Stranger in the Family by Jane Casey

March 14, 20242 min read

A Stranger in the Family (by Jane Casey) is the eleventh book in the Maeve Kerrigan / Josh Derwent series. I requested it as there’s not been much about lately and am extremely relieved I did as I loved it. It was a huge surprise. According to Goodreads I’ve read the first four books in the series and missed out on reading any since.

Kerrigan and Derwent have come a long way since then and I was surprised to see there’d been a flirtation and perhaps some feelings on one or both sides. And though the will they / won’t they was part of the novel and an element I certainly enjoyed, it doesn’t overshadow the investigation at hand.

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Book review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

February 14, 20223 min read

Lucy Foley’s 2021 novel The Guest List was popular with readers and critics alike so it bodes well that I actually enjoyed her latest novel The Paris Apartment even more. It’s choc-o-block full of twists and surprises – bumping this up to a rare 4.5 star rating from me.

However… I have to confess the unlikeability of basically ALL of the characters meant I was tempted to be less generous. Though, of course I realise (in some ways) Foley’s issuing a challenge to we readers to dislike yet engage with [our lead protagonist in particular] at the same time.

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Book review: Freckles by Cecilia Ahern

September 6, 20213 min read

I hated my freckles as a kid. I used to joke about joining them together, like a dot-to-dot drawing. Unfortunately I didn’t have a cute smattering across my nose, rather they were clumped together in splotches. Of course in retrospect I realise I was far more conscious of them than anyone else around me.

The lead character of Cecilia Ahern’s latest novel is given the nickname Freckles for obvious reasons. Allegra doesn’t mind though. She loves her freckles and as a teenager drew links from one to another, mapping constellations.

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