HQ Fiction Archives

Book review: The Gardens by Emma Babbington

July 6, 20263 min read

The Gardens by Emma Babbington is a suspenseful read. There’s no sinister undertone so it’s not a thriller as such but a mystery to be picked apart which Babbington does artfully though a cold case police investigation and Jess, a middle aged woman trying to find out what happened to her 18 year old half-sister Nina who went missing over 30 years earlier. The discovery of bones in the garden of the pair’s childhood home at Willow Gardens makes Jess think they’ve finally learned Nina’s fate, or if they’re not Nina’s, that they’re somehow linked to her disappearance.

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Book review: For All The Dead Girls by Sherryl Clark

June 26, 20263 min read

I hadn’t realised For All The Dead Girls by Sherryl Clark was the second in a series, following Louisa (Lou) Alcott’s first outing in Woman, Missing. She’s a PI here but was (at one point) a police officer and this opens as her estranged father – also the Assistant Commissioner of Police – offers her a job back on the force. I gather Lou wasn’t one to toe the rather-prescriptive blue line and she’s seemingly happy working at Paul Marshall Investigations. Paul is obviously her mentor who seemingly cares and respects Lou, and she likes ‘Gang’ PMI’s tech-genius who plays a big role here as we dip into the murky online incel-like world of women-haters. Trigger-warning that this centres around women and children exposed to domestic violence and those who try to support them are targeted viciously via online ‘pile-on’.

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Book review: When I Kill You by BA Paris

March 10, 20262 min read

When I Kill You by BA Paris is a twisty thriller featuring a woman who believes her past has come back to haunt her. For Nell has not always been Nell, and over a dozen years earlier 19-year old Elle witnessed a young woman being snatched off the street. She became obsessed with the person she believed to be guilty of the girl’s murder… and things ended badly. For everyone involved.

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Book review: What the Bones Know by Kirstyn McDermott

February 25, 20263 min read

I must admit to almost putting What the Bones Know by Kirstyn McDermott aside. There’s a haunting / mystical element to it and I hate books that dip into the supernatural as logic tends to go out the window which was slightly the case here. However there was enough of the ‘tangible’ elements of mystery/suspense to keep me contented, allowing me to skim the more fantastic elements. It was also interesting to be jolted back to the days of COVID-19 with its masks and lockdowns which – though incredibly disruptive at the time – feel like a lifetime ago, and another world entirely.

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