The Rush by Michelle Prak was a bit of a sleeper. I enjoyed it and it’s paced well so I remained intrigued, wondering how the disparate parts of the story we hear (all told over a day or two and out of sequence) intersect. But then Prak throws in a twist when least expected and one I certainly hadn’t seen coming. Thankfully it wasn’t left-field enough to not be feasible. Just shocking. Which is a good thing.
Cold Cold Bones is the 21st in the series by Kathy Reichs featuring Temperance (Tempe) Brennan. I was once a devotee of this series but have seemingly missed a few recently. Her latest for example, features Tempe’s daughter Katy who’s recently left the army and I’m trying to remember if I even knew she was in the army. I kinda remember her being at university but then again I have a memory like a sieve, so….
It has to be said… ‘Oh my god, how many secrets can one family have?’ Although, having said (exclaimed?) that some of the secrets Adler family members are keeping are blown (by the keeper) way out of proportion. Of course, others are doozies, so….
The Perfect Family by Robyn Harding is centred around a family that seems to be just that. And we’re told parents Thomas and Viv work hard to make it appear so. But cracks are appearing. All at once, and it’s a reminder that – from the outside – you never know what’s happening on the inside.
The Bone Code by Kathy Reichs is the 20th in the series featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. I’ve been reading the series since just after its commencement. My small paperback copy of her first novel, Deja Dead, complete with yellowed pages has my name and the year 1999 scrawled inside the cover.
Weirdly I didn’t ever really take to the TV series based on the books, Bones, but know it probably helped bring new readers into the fold a decade or so later.
I was part-way through My Best Friend’s Murder by Polly Phillips when it occurred to me it might be set in Australia. What I very much liked about that thought was not that it might be set in my home country, but rather it translated into any number of locations. An excellent idea for a debut author which would make the book relevant and relatable across a number of english-speaking markets. Of course there might (also) have been references to places or landmarks I missed or didn’t recognise!
And I very much enjoyed this book, reading it in a sitting on Christmas night when I was supposed to be bingeing on a new Netflix release.
I really love this series featuring Detective Robert Hunter, by Chris Carter. I’ve missed a couple but think it is one I will ultimately go back to and read in order. Sometime in the future. On the whole however, these books can easily be read as standalone novels.
And this, the eleventh in the series, is most definitely one of my favourites so far.
I keep vowing to stop reading books about parenting. I realise actual parents probably enjoy them and can definitely relate; but the mummy (mommy) wars and good vs bad parenting dilemma aren’t really high on my relevance agenda. Having said that, I do read a lot of books about sociopaths damaged by bad parenting, so…. I guess there’s that.
As it happens, I decided to read Little Disasters by Sarah Vaughan however because I’d read and enjoyed a previous novel, Anatomy of a Scandal, by the former political reporter.
I received an early copy of Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs. The Temperance Brennan series was one I once didn’t miss, though haven’t read many in recent years. My mother loved the TV series (Bones) and has read some of the books so I offered it to her first as I wanted to read it closer to its release date.
When she returned it she was a bit ‘meh’. I wondered if Reichs was starting to ‘phone it in’… I’ve talked about other long-running series and authors perhaps becoming too complacent or running out of ideas. However, instead I reminded how different my mother’s taste is to mine. Because I really loved it.